Windows 10 Support Has Ended: What Australians Need to Do Before October 2026

What “end of support” actually means for your computer right now

This is the first thing to get straight, because there's a lot of panic going around that isn't warranted.

Your Windows 10 computer didn't stop working on 14 October 2025. It still boots. It still opens Word. It still gets on the internet. Microsoft hasn't sent a kill code, and they're not going to.

What ended was the regular security update stream from Microsoft. Every month, Microsoft used to push out patches that fixed newly discovered security holes in Windows itself. That stream has stopped for Windows 10 users who haven't enrolled in ESU.

A few things kept updating, which catches people out. Windows Defender still gets new virus definitions. Edge and Chrome still update themselves. .NET Framework still gets patched. So when an update notification pops up in November or January, it's not a glitch and it's not malware. It's one of those other components doing its thing, not the Windows OS itself.

The honest practical answer to "is my PC unsafe right now" is somewhere between "it's fine for now" and "it gets riskier every month". A modern browser plus Defender plus common sense gets you a long way. But every month that goes by without OS-level patches, the gap between what's known to be vulnerable and what's been fixed gets a bit wider.

The 13 October 2026 deadline is the one that actually matters now. That's when Microsoft's Extended Security Updates program ends. After that, even people who paid for the extension stop getting patches.

Five months from now, the door closes. That's why we're writing this in June rather than October, because the people who wait until the last week to sort it out are the ones who end up paying more, panicking, or making bad decisions.

The three options every Australian Windows 10 user has

There are really only three paths from here. Some marketing material will try to make it more complicated than that, but in practice this is what it boils down to.

Upgrade to Windows 11 (free, if your PC is compatible)

The cleanest option if your PC qualifies. Microsoft will give you Windows 11 for free, you keep your files and your installed programs, and you're back on a supported operating system that'll get security updates for years to come.

The catch is the compatibility check. Windows 11 has hardware requirements that knock out a lot of PCs that are otherwise perfectly fine. Microsoft estimates that around 240 million PCs worldwide can't officially upgrade, and the Australian share of that is roughly 3 to 4 million machines. There's a decent chance yours is one of them.

We'll get into how to actually check this in the next section.

Enrol in ESU and buy yourself one more year

The Extended Security Updates program is Microsoft's halfway-house offer. You stay on Windows 10, you keep getting security patches, but only until 13 October 2026. After that, the door closes for good and you can't pay to extend it further.

For residential users in Australia, there are three ways to enrol. One is free if you sign in with a Microsoft account and turn on Windows Backup syncing settings to OneDrive. One uses 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points if you've been hoarding them. The third is a one-off payment of around $44.95 AUD.

For small businesses, the maths is different and a lot uglier. Commercial ESU is roughly $93 AUD per device for Year 1, doubling to $186 in Year 2, then $372 in Year 3. For a small office with 10 machines that's around $6,500 over three years just to keep getting patches, which often makes refreshing the hardware look cheaper.

ESU is the right call when you genuinely need a year of breathing space to plan a hardware refresh, or when you've got specific software that doesn't play nicely with Windows 11 yet. It's the wrong call if you're using it to put off a decision you're going to have to make anyway.

Replace the computer

The path nobody loves but plenty of people end up taking, especially when the alternative is sinking ESU fees into hardware that's already 7 or 8 years old.

A few things have shifted the maths on this through 2026. PC prices have been creeping up because of the global RAM shortage that started biting in late 2025. Refurbished business laptops have become much better value as offices flush their fleets and decent ex-lease ThinkPads and Latitudes appear on the market with proper warranty.

For a residential user, a refurbished mini-PC or laptop under $500 is now a more sensible replacement than it was 12 months ago. For a small business, a refurbished business-grade laptop in the $700 to $1,100 range with warranty is usually a better buy than paying three years of commercial ESU on aging hardware.

The wrong move here is panic-buying a cheap consumer laptop from a chain store. We see this every quarter. Customer pays $700 for an Acer or HP consumer model with 8GB of RAM, complains it's slow inside a year, and ends up replacing it again two years later. Spend a little more or buy refurbished business-grade.

This is genuinely one of the bits we get the most calls about right now. Picking the right device when you've got an old Windows 10 PC to replace isn't as simple as walking into JB Hi-Fi and grabbing whatever's on special, and the wrong choice locks you into another four or five years of an underpowered laptop. We sort this out for customers across Australia every week, new or refurbished, residential or business, with warranty either way. There's more on what's actually worth buying in our business laptop guide, but the short version is most people are better off with proper field-tech advice than going it alone in a retail store.

There's a fourth path some people will mention, which is switching to Mac or Linux. We'll touch on those briefly later in the article, but they're niche answers for specific situations rather than mainstream options for most Aussies.

How to check if your PC can run Windows 11

The hardest part of this whole situation isn't whether to upgrade. It's working out whether you can.

Windows 11 has hardware requirements that knock out a lot of PCs that are otherwise running beautifully. There's no warning sticker on your computer telling you whether you're affected. You have to actually check.

The fastest way: PC Health Check

Microsoft has a free tool called PC Health Check that does the work for you. Search "PC Health Check" in your Start menu. If it's not installed, download it from Microsoft's site.

Click the "Check now" button under "Introducing Windows 11" and it'll tell you straight up whether your PC qualifies. If it does, you can start the upgrade from the same screen.

If it says you don't qualify, it'll list which specific requirements you've failed. That's the useful bit, because some of those failures are fixable.

What you actually need (in plain English)

There are four big requirements that catch most people out.

TPM 2.0 is a security chip. The good news is your motherboard almost certainly already has it built in, just sitting there switched off. On Intel boards it's called Intel PTT. On AMD boards it's called fTPM. Both are enabled in your BIOS settings, not by buying anything. We turn these on for customers all the time as part of the upgrade visit.

Secure Boot is a setting that stops dodgy software loading before Windows does. It's also a BIOS setting, also free to turn on, also often switched off by default on older PCs.

Processor on the supported list is the big one. Microsoft drew a hard line around 2018-era processors. Anything older than 8th-generation Intel (the i3-8100, i5-8400, i7-8700 and similar) or AMD Ryzen 2000 series doesn't make the cut. This is what catches out most of the "but my PC runs fine" cases. It's also the requirement Microsoft is least likely to budge on.

4GB of RAM minimum and 64GB of storage. Most PCs that meet the other requirements clear these easily.

The bit nobody tells you

If TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are your only failures, you're not stuck. Both are usually one trip into your BIOS settings away from being fixed, no parts replacement, no extra spend. We do this for customers regularly and it takes about 15 minutes.

If your processor's the failure, that's a harder one. Officially, Microsoft says no. Unofficially, there are community workarounds that install Windows 11 anyway on unsupported processors. We'll cover the honest pros and cons of that further down.

Either way, knowing what's actually failing is the difference between "I have to buy a new PC" and "actually, this can be sorted in an afternoon". Worth the five minutes to check before doing anything else.

The ESU option, explained properly

For PCs that can't make the Windows 11 jump (or for people who just want a bit more time to plan), Microsoft's Extended Security Updates program is the official safety net.

It's also the part of this whole situation that's got the most misunderstanding around it. Let's go through what's actually true.

The three consumer enrolment routes

For residential users in Australia, there are three ways to enrol in ESU.

Free, via Windows Backup to OneDrive. Sign in with a Microsoft account and turn on Windows Backup, which syncs your settings (not your files) to OneDrive. You'll get the ESU enrolment offer in Windows Update once that's set up. This is the route most home users will take.

Free, via 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points. If you've been collecting Microsoft Rewards points from Bing searches or Xbox purchases over the years, you can redeem 1,000 of them to enrol. Niche, but worth knowing if you've got the points sitting there.

Paid, around $44.95 AUD one-off. A direct purchase, no Microsoft account dance, no OneDrive sync needed. Works for people who just want to pay the money and be done with it.

Whichever route you take, the ESU coverage runs until 13 October 2026. One year. After that, the door closes for good. Microsoft has been clear that consumer ESU is not renewable, no matter how much you'd like to pay.

What ESU actually gives you

This is where people get stung if they don't read the fine print.

ESU gives you security patches only. The critical and important security updates that Microsoft's Security Response Center rates as essential. That's it.

You don't get feature updates. You don't get bug fixes outside the security stream. You don't get technical support if something goes wrong. You don't get fixes for compatibility problems with new hardware or software released after October 2025.

For most home users, that's enough. The security patches are the bit that matters most. Just don't expect Windows 10 to keep evolving while you're on ESU. It won't.

The commercial ESU pricing wake-up call

For small businesses, the maths gets ugly fast.

Commercial ESU costs around $93 AUD per device for Year 1, rising to $186 in Year 2, then $372 in Year 3 (these convert from Microsoft's USD pricing of $61, $122, $244 and shift with exchange rates).

For a small office with 10 PCs on Windows 10, that's roughly $930 in the first year, $1,860 in the second, $3,720 in the third. About $6,500 over three years just to keep getting patches on hardware that's already getting tired.

For that money, you could refresh half the fleet with refurbished business laptops with proper warranty. We've sat down with small business owners and run these numbers and the conclusion is almost always the same: ESU works for buying one year of breathing space, not for putting off a refresh that's coming anyway.

When ESU is the right call (and when it isn't)

ESU is genuinely useful when:

• Your PC physically can't run Windows 11 and you need a year to budget for a replacement
• You've got specific software (often legacy accounting software like older MYOB AccountRight Classic) that needs testing before a Windows 11 migration
• You're a small business with too many machines to refresh all at once, and you want to stagger it across a year

ESU is a poor fit when:

• Your PC can run Windows 11 perfectly well and you're just dragging your feet
• You're a small business with more than 5 or 6 devices and you're paying full commercial pricing on each one
• You're hoping it'll get extended past October 2026 (it won't)

The "the enrolment button isn't appearing" problem

Plenty of Aussies have been trying to enrol and finding the "Enroll now" link just doesn't show up, or it fails with "Something went wrong" errors.

A few common reasons. Your PC has to be on Windows 10 version 22H2 (older versions are excluded). You need the August 2025 cumulative update KB5063709 installed. You can't be on a work or school account, only a personal Microsoft account. And if you're using a local account (no Microsoft sign-in at all), you'll need to switch to a Microsoft account at least temporarily to get the offer to appear.

If you've tried everything and the button still isn't showing, this is one of those bits where a tech who's seen it a hundred times saves you an afternoon of frustration. We sort this out for customers all the time, including the post-enrolment cleanup if you want to switch back to a local account afterwards.

Should you actually upgrade to Windows 11?

If your PC can run it, the next question is whether you actually want to.

Windows 11 is the future-proof choice. It's getting feature updates, it gets security updates for years to come, and the gap between it and Windows 10 will only widen. For most people, the answer is yes, upgrade, get it over with.

But there are honest reasons people are dragging their feet, and they're worth talking about.

What's better

Windows 11 has genuinely better window snapping. The improved layout options for splitting your screen into halves, thirds and quarters are useful, especially on bigger monitors. The Settings app is cleaner and easier to navigate than the half-old half-new mess in Windows 10. Security under the hood is stronger, particularly if you've got modern hardware that supports it properly.

Battery life on laptops tends to be a bit better, sometimes a lot better, depending on the model.

What's worse (or just different)

The Start menu got rearranged for the sake of it. The right-click context menu got hidden behind an extra "Show more options" click that drives people up the wall.

Performance on older hardware can feel slightly heavier than Windows 10. Not dramatically, but on a 6 or 7-year-old PC running 8GB of RAM, you'll feel the difference.

Microsoft pushes the Microsoft account login much harder than they used to. Setting up a new Windows 11 install with a local account requires some workarounds at the setup screen that most people don't know about. It's deliberately annoying.

OneDrive integration is more aggressive, with Windows trying to push your Desktop and Documents folders into OneDrive backup by default. Worth turning off after setup if you don't want that.

The honest summary

If your PC is reasonably recent (5 years old or less) and you mostly use it for web browsing, email, Microsoft Office, and the standard home or small business stuff, Windows 11 will feel almost identical to Windows 10 after a week. Most of the differences are cosmetic.

If your PC is older and slower, or you rely on niche older software, run the upgrade past a tech first before committing. Some legacy programs (we'll touch on MYOB and a few others below) have real Windows 11 quirks worth knowing about.

When buying a new computer makes more sense than upgrading

There's a tipping point where putting more time, money or effort into an old Windows 10 PC stops being worth it.

For a quick rule of thumb, if your PC is 7+ years old, fails the Windows 11 compatibility check on the processor (not just TPM or Secure Boot), or already feels slow doing the things you use it for, replacement is usually the right call. Throwing ESU fees or community workarounds at hardware that's already on its way out is a false economy.

The numbers that actually matter

A refurbished business-grade laptop with proper warranty sits in the $700 to $1,100 range for a residential user. That gets you a Lenovo ThinkPad or Dell Latitude that's 3 or 4 years old, fully refurbished, with a fresh battery, often a 12-month warranty, and 16GB of RAM. Significantly better build quality than a brand-new $700 consumer laptop from JB Hi-Fi, with a working life of another 4 to 5 years.

A new business-grade laptop sits in the $1,500 to $2,500 range. Newer hardware, full manufacturer warranty, ready to run for the next 5 to 7 years.

A refurbished mini-PC (Lenovo Tiny, Dell Micro, HP Mini) for residential use is often available delivered for around $300 to $500 if you've already got a screen, keyboard and mouse. Genuinely good value for basic home use.

The trap to avoid is the $700 chain-store consumer laptop with 8GB of RAM. Plastic build, weak hinges, weak warranty, sluggish inside a year, replaced inside three. We've covered the detail of what's actually worth buying in our business laptop guide.

What about the RAM shortage everyone's talking about

PC prices have been climbing since late 2025 because of a global RAM shortage driven by AI server demand. DDR5 module prices have roughly doubled in 12 months and that's been quietly working its way through laptop and desktop pricing.

For most people, this means buying sooner is cheaper than waiting. The deals you saw at JB Hi-Fi or Officeworks in early 2025 aren't coming back in 2026. The refurbished business laptop market has been one of the few stable bits of pricing through the shortage, which is part of why we've been steering more customers that way.

If you've been putting off a PC purchase hoping prices would come down, the honest answer is they probably won't, at least not in 2026.

What about switching to a Mac?

A small but real number of Australians are using the Windows 10 end of support moment as an excuse to leave the Microsoft world entirely and switch to a Mac.

It's a legitimate option, but it's the right call for fewer people than the loudest Apple fans would have you believe.

Macs make sense when: you already own an iPhone, iPad and AirPods and would benefit from the ecosystem integration. You do creative work (video, design, photo editing) where macOS apps are particularly strong. You've been hating Windows for years anyway and the Windows 10 deadline is just the push you needed.

Macs don't make sense when: budget is tight (entry-level M4 MacBook Air starts at around $1,699 in Australia, where you could get a refurbished business laptop with similar real-world performance for half that). You rely on specific Windows software (most accounting packages, niche business apps, some specialised tools) that don't have proper Mac versions. You're going to spend the next year frustrated relearning where everything is.

The genuine field-tech opinion is that "switch to Mac" suits maybe one in twenty of our customers asking about it. The other nineteen are better served by a Windows 11 upgrade, a refurbished Windows business laptop, or a properly-built new Windows machine. Pick the right tool for your actual situation, not the trendy one.

Your action plan for the next 5 months

If you've read this far and you're not sure where to start, here's the practical sequence.

This week

Run PC Health Check on every Windows 10 device in your home or office. Note which pass, which fail, and exactly which requirements each failure is hitting. That single piece of information shapes everything else.

If your PCs are signed into a local account, decide whether you're comfortable switching to a Microsoft account temporarily (for free ESU enrolment) or whether you'd rather pay the one-off $44.95.

This month

For PCs that pass the Windows 11 check: back up your important files (we always say this, and people keep skipping it), then run the upgrade. Allow an hour and a half. Most upgrades go smoothly; the ones that don't usually go wrong because the customer didn't back up first.

For PCs that fail only on TPM or Secure Boot: book a quick BIOS configuration job. Genuinely a 15-minute fix in most cases.

For PCs that fail on processor: enrol in consumer ESU (free path via Windows Backup, or $44.95 if you'd rather just pay). That buys you 12 months to plan your next move.

For small businesses with multiple Windows 10 PCs: don't just pay commercial ESU across the whole fleet without doing the maths. Three years of commercial ESU on a 10-device fleet runs close to $6,500 with nothing to show for it but patches. A staggered refresh to refurbished business laptops often comes out better.

Before October 2026

Plan your post-ESU position. The 13 October 2026 deadline is final. If you're still on Windows 10 with no plan by August 2026, you'll be panic-shopping in a market where everyone else is also panic-shopping, which is the worst possible time to buy hardware.

The good news is none of this is urgent today. You've got five months. The bad news is five months goes faster than people expect, especially with EOFY, school holidays and the December break in there. Get the diagnosis done now and you can pace the rest sensibly.

Upgrade, ESU, or New PC — Get It Sorted Properly

Power your home or business with a computer that's actually safe, supported, and ready for the next 5 years. We work out whether your PC qualifies for Windows 11, run the upgrade properly with your files and programs intact, sort the ESU enrolment if that's the right call, and source new or refurbished replacement hardware with proper warranty when it's time. Call us today on 131 546 or fill out the form on this page and we'll get back to you ASAP.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my Windows 10 PC stop working on 13 October 2026?

No. Your PC will keep booting and running just like always. What stops is the security update stream from Microsoft. Without those patches, your PC becomes progressively more exposed to newly discovered security flaws over time, but the operating system itself doesn't shut down or expire.

I'm still getting Windows updates in 2026. Has the deadline moved?

No, the deadline hasn't changed. Some Windows components keep updating even without ESU. Windows Defender still pushes new virus definitions daily. The Edge browser still updates itself. .NET Framework still gets patches. So when you see an update notification arriving in 2026, it's almost certainly one of these components doing its thing, not the Windows OS itself.

Is the free ESU year actually free, or is there a catch?

It's genuinely free, but there are conditions. You need to be on Windows 10 version 22H2, signed into a Microsoft account (not a local account), with the August 2025 cumulative update installed, and you need to turn on Windows Backup syncing settings to OneDrive. None of those individually is hard, but they're enough hoops that plenty of people give up and pay the $44.95 instead.

Do I need to buy a TPM chip for Windows 11?

Almost certainly not. Modern motherboards have firmware TPM (Intel PTT on Intel boards, fTPM on AMD boards) built right into the chipset. It's a setting in your BIOS rather than a separate piece of hardware. We turn this on for customers as part of the Windows 11 upgrade and it takes about five minutes.

My PC says it can't run Windows 11. Am I stuffed?

It depends on what's failing. If the only issues are TPM 2.0 or Secure Boot being switched off, you're fine, those are BIOS settings that get turned on in minutes. If the failure is on your processor (Intel below 8th generation or AMD below Ryzen 2000), Microsoft officially says no. There are community workarounds that install Windows 11 anyway on unsupported processors, with mixed results and no warranty support if anything goes wrong. We'll talk through the trade-offs if you bring your PC in.

Will Windows 11 run my old MYOB or accounting software?

Mostly yes, but with caveats. Older MYOB AccountRight Classic versions (v18, v19) can hit a "blocked by User Account Control" error on Windows 11 because the digital certificate has expired. There are workarounds (running as administrator from Command Prompt, or a gpedit policy change) that get the software running again. Newer MYOB AccountRight, Xero, QuickBooks Online and the major business apps all work fine. If you've got a legacy program you rely on, worth testing before committing to the upgrade.

Can I just keep using Windows 10 without ESU?

Yes, your PC will keep running. The risk is that any newly discovered security vulnerability in Windows 10 won't get fixed, and that gap grows month by month. For light home use with good browser hygiene and Microsoft Defender running, plenty of people will accept that risk for a while. For anyone storing important business data, online banking, or anything sensitive, going without ESU isn't recommended.

Is the global RAM shortage making PC prices worse?

Yes. DDR5 RAM prices have roughly doubled in the last 12 months because of AI server demand soaking up supply, and that's worked through into laptop and desktop pricing. Most analysts expect prices to stay elevated through 2026. The practical upshot is that buying sooner is usually cheaper than waiting, and the refurbished business laptop market has held up better than new retail pricing.

I keep getting calls from "Microsoft" saying my Windows 10 licence has expired. Is that real?

No, that's a scam. Microsoft never cold-calls home users about their Windows licence, and they never put a phone number in an error message. If you get a call, an email, an SMS, or a browser pop-up telling you to ring "Microsoft support" to fix your Windows 10, hang up, delete it, close the browser. These scams have spiked since the October 2025 deadline and they specifically target older users. If you've already been caught by one, the ACCC's Scamwatch site has reporting and recovery steps.

Can Jim's IT do the Windows 11 upgrade for me?

Yes, that's exactly what we do. Our techs run Windows 11 upgrades across Australia every week, including the BIOS work for TPM and Secure Boot, the ESU enrolment if that's the right call, MYOB and legacy software testing before the upgrade, and full data backup beforehand so nothing gets lost. We also source new and refurbished replacement PCs with proper warranty when it's time to retire an old machine.