If you still have a few Windows 10 PCs in the office, there’s a fair chance someone paid for Extended Security Updates on them last year to buy some time. That was a sensible call for a machine running one awkward piece of software, or a PC that was due for replacement anyway.
That first paid year is nearly up. Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates FAQ lists the end of Year 1 for Windows 10 as 13 October 2026. Microsoft’s dates are US Pacific time, so in Brisbane that’s Wednesday 14 October. Year 2 runs to 12 October 2027, and Year 3, the last one, to 10 October 2028.
So the question this month is a simple one. Pay for another year, or replace the machine?
What the updates cost
Microsoft’s Windows 10 Extended Security Updates page sets out the structure for businesses:
- US$61 per device for Year One, bought through volume licensing.
- The price doubles every year after that, for a maximum of three years.
- It’s sold a year at a time. You can’t buy six months.
- It’s cumulative. If you join in Year Two, you pay for Year One as well.
Doubling from US$61 gives US$122 for Year Two and US$244 for Year Three. For one PC kept on Windows 10 to the very end, that’s US$427 across the three years. A PC that missed Year One and gets enrolled now starts with a bill for both years, US$183.
Those are Microsoft’s list prices in US dollars. What you pay in Australia depends on how you buy, so get a quote rather than converting at today’s exchange rate.
What you get for the money
Security updates rated critical and important, and that’s all. No new features and no general technical support. Microsoft’s own FAQ calls the scheme “a last resort paid option” and “a temporary bridge” while you move to something supported.
The PC also has to be on Windows 10 version 22H2 to be eligible.
Microsoft 365 Apps are handled separately. Microsoft’s Microsoft 365 Apps page says Word, Excel, Outlook and the other apps keep getting security updates on Windows 10 until 10 October 2028, though new features stop at Version 2608. That protects the apps. It does nothing for Windows itself.
When renewing makes sense
Paying for Year Two is reasonable when:
- The PC runs software that doesn’t support Windows 11 yet, and the vendor has given you a date.
- The machine is already on a replacement schedule, and the budget lands in the next few months.
- It runs equipment, such as a lab analyser, a production line label printer or a machine controller, where swapping the PC means testing the whole setup again.
In each case the updates are paying for a plan with a date on it. That’s what they’re for.
When replacing makes sense
Replacement usually wins when:
- The PC can’t run Windows 11 at all. Paying to patch hardware with no upgrade path only delays a purchase you’re going to make anyway.
- Nothing on it needs Windows 10. If it’s used for email, a browser and Microsoft 365, a Windows 11 PC does the same job.
- You’re looking at Year Two for several machines. At US$122 a device this year and US$244 the next, the running total heads towards the price of new hardware, and new hardware comes with a warranty.
There’s no replacement price in this post on purpose. A basic reception PC and a laptop for someone running heavy design software are very different purchases, and a quote for your actual machines is the only fair comparison.
What we saw in our own tickets
Over the 12 months to 18 August 2026, our service desk logged 11 Windows 11 upgrade tickets from 9 clients. Nine of them came between late September and early November 2025, in the weeks either side of Windows 10’s end of support.
One business had an eligibility check done on a PC in late October 2025, then had its reception PC and its workshop PC upgraded the following week. That pattern is common. The main office machines get sorted first, and the spare PC at the front desk or out in the workshop gets done last. Those are the machines most likely to be sitting on Windows 10 with a paid year about to run out.
Our tickets don’t record which version of Windows every PC runs, so that count isn’t a count of Windows 10 machines. Your device list is the place to find those.
Check eligibility before you decide
For each Windows 10 PC, find out whether it can run Windows 11. Microsoft’s PC Health Check app will tell you, and so will whoever manages your devices. A PC that fails the check goes straight into the replace column.
Then note what each machine is used for. A PC that only runs email and a browser is an easy decision. A PC that runs one old piece of software for one piece of equipment needs a conversation with that software’s vendor first.
One job for this week
Count the Windows 10 PCs still in use, including the ones nobody sits at every day. Beside each one, write down whether it can run Windows 11 and what it’s used for. That list turns “renew or replace” into a decision you can make machine by machine before 14 October.
If you’d like help building the list or getting quotes, get in touch. Our services page explains how we look after devices day to day.