Small businesses with old Windows 10 PCs face a firm deadline: each machine kept past 13 October 2026 needs paid ESU or goes unpatched, creating real compliance risk. SA SMEs should weigh per-machine ESU fees against fleet replacement costs before the deadline hits.
Running a small business on a handful of ageing Windows 10 PCs stopped being a someday problem and became a dated one. Mainstream support ended in October 2025, and the paid Extended Security Updates window that has kept those machines patched runs out on 13 October 2026. After that, an unpatched fleet is a live compliance and security exposure, so the smart move is to plan the transition now rather than scramble in October.
Each Windows 10 machine you keep past 13 October 2026 needs paid Extended Security Updates or it stops receiving security patches entirely. Business ESU starts around 61 US dollars per device for year one and doubles each year after, so for most ageing fleets, replacing the oldest machines with Windows 11 hardware is cheaper over two to three years than paying escalating ESU fees.
Windows 10 reached end of mainstream support on 14 October 2025. The Extended Security Updates programme bridges the gap, but it ends on 13 October 2026 for the consumer track, and the paid commercial ESU programme is structured to get more expensive every year. After a device falls off support with no ESU, it receives no further security fixes, which means any newly discovered vulnerability stays open on that machine indefinitely.
For a business, that is not just a technical risk. Unpatched endpoints can breach the terms of cyber insurance, fall foul of client security requirements, and sit awkwardly against your obligations to protect customer data under POPIA. The cost of a single incident dwarfs the cost of the upgrade.
Commercial ESU is priced per device and is cumulative. Year one runs around 61 US dollars per machine, year two roughly doubles to about 122, and year three doubles again to roughly 244. You cannot buy partial periods, and if you join late you must pay for the earlier years too. For one or two machines you genuinely cannot replace yet, that can be defensible. For a fleet of several, the per-device fees stack up fast and you are paying to keep hardware that is already past its useful life.
Businesses that miss the year-one window face a retroactive catch-up payment. A device enrolling in year two must pay both year-one and year-two costs, arriving at the programme already owing around 183 US dollars per seat. The later you leave it, the more expensive the bridge becomes.
If a machine cannot run Windows 11 because it lacks the required processor generation or TPM, ESU is only ever a stopgap, not a fix. Spending escalating annual fees on a PC that is already slow and out of warranty rarely makes sense once you total two or three years of ESU against the price of a capable new machine. The newer hardware also brings faster storage, better security baked in, and lower running costs.
Start with an inventory: list every Windows 10 machine, its age, and whether it meets Windows 11 requirements. Split the fleet into three buckets. Machines that already qualify for Windows 11 get upgraded in place at no hardware cost. Machines that fail the requirements but are otherwise needed go on the replacement list. Anything barely used can simply be retired.
Then phase the replacements by role. Replace the machines that handle sensitive data, accounting, or customer records first, since those carry the highest risk if left unpatched. Compact, low-power desktops are a strong fit for office and counter roles where space and electricity bills matter, and the mini PC range covers that brief without the footprint of a full tower. For staff who need more grunt, the PC best sellers are a quick way to gauge what current business-capable machines are going for. Buy in small waves rather than all at once so the cash outlay is spread and your team is never all down at the same time.
A hardware upgrade is straightforward; the disruption to staff workflows is the part that catches businesses off guard. Plan for it.
Before decommissioning each Windows 10 machine, confirm where its data lives. Files stored locally need to be moved to a shared drive, cloud storage or the new machine before the old one is repurposed. For businesses running accounting or point-of-sale software, confirm with the vendor that the current version is fully supported on Windows 11 before the migration day, not during it.
Most mainstream business software, including Microsoft 365, accounting packages and browser-based tools, runs without issue on Windows 11. Legacy software tied to very old databases or 32-bit-only applications occasionally needs attention, so flag those early and check with the vendor.
A new operating system brings a slightly different interface, and some team members will need a short orientation on where settings and features have moved. Keep it simple: Windows 11 is recognisably Windows, and most staff need only five minutes on the updated Start menu and Settings panel to get back to speed. Nominate one person per team to field early questions so you are not fielding them yourself all day.
The machines will still switch on and run, but without ESU they receive no further security updates. For a business that handles customer or financial data, running unpatched indefinitely is a serious risk and may conflict with insurance or compliance requirements.
If a PC meets the Windows 11 hardware requirements, the upgrade itself carries no licence cost. The catch for older fleets is that many machines fail the processor or TPM requirements, in which case the only real path is new hardware.
For one or two machines you cannot replace immediately, short-term ESU can bridge the gap. For several ageing PCs, the doubling annual fees usually make replacement the cheaper and safer choice across two to three years, especially for machines that cannot run Windows 11 at all.
The main requirements are a supported processor generation, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Microsoft's PC Health Check tool reports compatibility, or your IT support can audit the fleet in one pass and flag exactly which machines qualify and which need replacing.
Running unpatched Windows 10 beyond the ESU window exposes customer and employee data to vulnerabilities that will never be fixed. POPIA requires reasonable security measures over personal information, and knowingly running unsupported software is difficult to defend if a breach occurs.
Beat the October 2026 deadline without a last-minute scramble. Browse the space-saving mini PC range at Evetech to start phasing in Windows 11 machines across your office at a pace your budget can handle.
The machines will still switch on and run, but without ESU they receive no further security updates. For a business that handles customer or financial data, running unpatched indefinitely is a serious risk and may conflict with insurance or compliance requirements.
If a PC meets the Windows 11 hardware requirements, the upgrade itself carries no licence cost. The catch for older fleets is that many machines fail the processor or TPM requirements, in which case the only real path is new hardware.
For one or two machines you cannot replace immediately, short-term ESU can bridge the gap. For several ageing PCs, the doubling annual fees usually make replacement the cheaper and safer choice across two to three years, especially for machines that cannot run Windows 11 at all.
The main requirements are a supported processor generation, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Microsoft's PC Health Check tool reports compatibility, or your IT support can audit the fleet in one pass and flag exactly which machines qualify and which need replacing.
Running unpatched Windows 10 beyond the ESU window exposes customer and employee data to vulnerabilities that will never be fixed. POPIA requires reasonable security measures over personal information, and knowingly running unsupported software is difficult to defend if a breach occurs.
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