Tech

Supporting Windows 10 PCs is about to get very expensive, but upgrading to Windows 11 poses significant hardware and software challenges for many organizations. What terror awaits when 1,000 applets IT never knew about crash after the upgrade?

For IT leaders, there is much to fear. How much of their current hardware is compatible with Windows 11? Far more critically, what about operational technology devices that manage industrial processes, on-prem legacy apps (including tons of homegrown code), and the unknown numbers of applets that IT doesn’t know about?

That “unknown” list includes inherited apps from the company’s last 50 acquisitions, as well as shadow apps that business units never bothered to report to corporate.

At the same time, there is a noticeable lack of enthusiasm among IT leaders for making the upgrade at all, given the perception that Windows 11 simply doesn’t offer much in terms of materially new or better functionality.

The decision is being forced, because Microsoft says that it will not add new capabilities or provide security patches for Windows 10 for corporate customers after October 14, 2025 — unless they enroll in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10.

Microsoft is doubling the ESU price every year: For the first year, it will be $61/device, which will rise to $122/device for the second year and then $244/device for the third year. After that, the company says it will cut off all Windows 10 support entirely. (Microsoft did not respond to a Computerworld request for an interview for this story.)

Enrolling 5,000 Windows 10 PCs in ESU for the full three years would cost a business more than $2.1 million. A large organization that wants to keep 30,000 PCs on extended Windows 10 support for three years would have to pay more than $12.8 million to do so.

This leaves IT leaders having to choose between a potentially painful upgrade to Windows 11 and having to pay a massive amount of money for continued Windows 10 support, depending on how many seats will remain on Windows 10.