Windows 10: End of Support! What You Need to Do Now

Do you ever bring your car in because something isn't working right and the guy behind the counter says there's nothing he can do for you because the manufacturer doesn't make that part anymore and he might tell you some kind of anecdote like, yeah, you can expect it from the manufacturers. Of automobiles. Continue making parts for your cars for about 10 years, after that you have to look to outside manufacturers for a specific part or buy a new car, well guess who's turning 10 next year. Windows 10, that's right, I'm not going to make a video about cars, this is a licensing lab where we talk about all the weird and wonderful licensing rules and help you prepare for some of the changes happening in the software world In the case of Windows, this means that Windows 10 will no longer be

support

ed, so this is great news, but luckily we have about a year of Runway here, so we can tell you

what

this means and how to prepare for it.

Windows 10 is no longer

support

ed. Welcome to another episode of the Licensing Lab. Everyone, we really appreciate you stopping by. This week we're going to talk about the Windows 10 support exit and

what

this means for your business and give you a couple of options on how to prepare. Fortunately, we have about a year at Runway to work on this. First we're going to talk a little bit about what this means and then we're going to talk about what the options are, so without further ado, let's dive into what it really means that Windows 10 is dropping support, largely Windows. 10 going out of support means three main things: First, we won't receive new security updates for Windows 10, we won't get new tools, features or details as part of Windows 10, and we might start running into compatibility issues that probably won't be fixed, for example.

The most important thing is a security update because Windows 10 is currently supported. The manufacturer Microsoft in this case is actively looking for vulnerabilities, threats, gaps and inefficiencies within that platform. They have teams of people internally and externally. Working to find and fix them keeps most users safe from known threats, and if there is a security incident it means Microsoft has people waiting who can quickly patch the vulnerability or eliminate the bug after Windows 10 is no longer supported. It's not happening anymore or it's happening in a much more limited capacity. They're doing what automakers do and they're taking a lot of resources that are now dedicated to Windows 10 and putting them into more interesting projects like Microsoft co-. pilot of Windows 11 or Windows 12 and Microsoft reserves the right to no longer update the software, which means that, in theory, massive vulnerabilities can remain unfixed now if something catastrophic happens, it is in Microsoft's best interest to fix the problem, not They want people to have terrible experiences. with Windows 10 due to an exploit in its operating system, so big exploit issues will likely continue to be fixed, but what this means is that the general population still using Windows 10 10 is something of a guinea pig. and first line for these exploits.

You're putting yourself at risk by using Windows 10, which may not be a big deal if you're just a hobbyist or use Windows 10 fairly lightly, but more often than not, if you're a business, you just don't do it. If you want to run the software without support, it's too big a risk and simply not worth it. The second point I made about what this means is that we won't be getting any new features. This is self-explanatory, most resources. At Microsoft they are now going to be working on other things, so there is no one whose job it is to sit and think.

Hey, it would be great to add it to Windows 10. Those people are now thinking about new and interesting things they can add to Windows 11. and Windows 12, the third thing I mentioned was compatibility issues because Microsoft is changing a lot of its approach to Windows 10 to Windows 11 and therefore much of its user base, from Windows 10 to Windows 11 developers, will follow suit. They spend most of their time building and optimizing their apps for Windows 11, and if they don't innately run on Windows 10 as well, they may choose not to spend more time and money making them compatible with Windows 10 because there will simply be fewer users.

Okay, so we know that Windows 10 will end support next year in October and we have a good idea of ​​what that means in practical terms, but what are my options? What am I supposed to do about it? Well, as we see. We can narrow down the options into three categories, but obviously your situation will be unique, so be sure to ask your partner or leave us a comment if you have any questions, but the way we see it is that you can't do anything, you can pay. for extended security updates or you can upgrade to Windows 11, these may seem obvious, but let's dig a little deeper into each one, first, you can't do anything like I said earlier in the video.

Microsoft will probably continue to update on a really large and really severe scale. vulnerabilities in the operating system because they don't want to have a big hole from a security point of view in their operating system, people are going to be angry, people are going to have a bad experience with their operating system, so they are going to fix it , but you really don't want to subject yourself to being the one to find that security vulnerability, so most of the time, if you're a company, this is not a good option, in fact, most of the time, if you're a company. you can't take this option option two extended security updates this is a great way for Microsoft to make money jokes aside this is for people who aren't ready to migrate from Windows 10 to Windows 11 because, as I'll discuss in a minute, that's a Quite a big task, there are a lot of things you

need

to consider, so if you are not ready to do that for your entire business yet, you can pay extra money for extended security updates or esus from Microsoft, you can buy these esus. via CSP or EA and if you're interested, your partner should be able to help you navigate this option, but keep in mind that Microsoft hasn't provided a pricing guide publicly yet, but you can expect it to cost between an arm and an arm . leg, maybe both are fine, option three, upgrade to Windows 11, okay, of course, this one is obvious, but it's a lot easier said than done if you have an application that your business runs that is mission critical and if stops working, you can do it.

For business, you may have a lot of work to do to make them compatible or update them to the next version so they can be compatible with Windows 11, so here are some things to think about when evaluating whether to upgrade to Windows 11 first you

need

to do a compatibility check at the hardware level. Windows 11 has some system requirements that Windows 10 doesn't, like TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, so if your hardware doesn't support that, you can't do it. You have to buy new hardware and then you also have to look at compatibility on the software side. If the apps you're running aren't compatible with Windows 11, you need to look at how you're going to address that issue. update the version of that app or you need to buy some workaround or hire someone to create workaround.

You'll also need to take a look at legacy software that might not be compatible with Windows 11, how are we going to continue using it? software or how we are going to continue to fulfill that business function in this world of Windows 11. Another thing you may want to consider is implementing a gradual or rollout approach for Windows 11. Try it with a few users and see how it affects your day to day. -day, this will help bring potential issues to the forefront early on with a minimal user base so that when you fully implement it, you are prepared and eventually want to do a cost analysis.

Do we need to update the hardware to make it compatible? Windows 10, do we need to update or change our apps to be compatible with Windows 11? Do we need to hire additional staff per project to manage this implementation or can our existing IT team do it? There's a lot to consider, especially when you're rolling out a new version of an operating system, there's a lot of knock-on effects you really need to consider, so make sure you're thorough and maybe ask your partner if there's anything they can do to help roll it out. also. There you have it, Windows 10 will no longer be supported again, the date is October 14, 2025, so you have a little over a year to prepare for this and hopefully that will be enough time for you, if not enough, remember that you have those esus. which you can subscribe to, but they will be expensive, so in short, Windows 10 falling out of support means you won't get security updates, you won't get new features, and you'll be stuck with compatibility. problems if you continue running Windows 10 and your options are to do nothing, which is too risky, pay for extended security updates, which is too expensive, or upgrade to Windows 11, which is a lot of work, none of them are great . options, but I hope you have a good idea of ​​where everything is at the moment.

I hope this was helpful, obviously, as always, we appreciate any feedback you have on this video. We'd love for you to leave a comment or send us a message if you have one. If you have any questions, please let us know. We just like making these videos and we like being valuable to the people who watch them, so thank you very much. See you at the next one. Tell us how it goes. Well, take care of yourself.