Edition Six
"Preparing for Windows 10 End of Life:
How not to get stung with avoidable charges"
Stuart Simms, Head of Modern Workspace, Ultima
"As the October 2025 end-of-life date for Windows 10 approaches, I thought I'd take a look into how many organisations missed the Windows 7 end of support date back in January of 2020 and what the impact of that was. Examples include: Microsoft M365 Copilot for productivity, Grammarly for writing assistance, Adobe Photoshop for design, help and GPT-3 for general language generation"
Did you know?
of organisations missed the Windows 7 end-of-life date in January 2020? The consequences were costly.
These organisations were forced to purchase Extended Security Updates (ESU) just to keep their devices secure and for some large enterprises this led to millions of pounds of additional cost that could have been avoided.
The main objective of my article is to prompt anyone that hasn't started planning their transition to Windows 11 to start ASAP to avoid a significant bill come October 2025. When Windows 10 reaches end of life, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, leaving systems vulnerable to cyber threats and potentially leave you non-compliant with industry regulations. Extended Security Updates (ESU) are likely to be made available, the scope of which is up to Microsoft, with a suggested price of around £49 per device in the first year which then doubles to approximately £98 for the second year and then doubles again in year three to approximately £194.
Costs will vary depending on which license agreement you are on.
The main challenges customers face in getting ready to transition to Windows 11 include compatibility issues with existing hardware and software, the need for user training on the new interface, and assessing the potential negative impact on end user experience. Delaying the transition will expose organisations to unnecessary risks and make the process more time-consuming and costly.
Prepare for a smooth transition, with these three steps
1.
Assess and benchmark your current end user experience using a digital experience monitoring tool, this information combined with a hardware readiness assessment and app compatibly assessment will give you a clear plan for any device replacement or upgrade actions you need to take prior to the upgrade.
2.
Explore upgrade options considering in-place upgrades or taking the opportunity to transition to modern management with Microsoft Intune if you haven't done so already.
3.
Develop a detailed plan with timelines, budgets, and strategies to minimize disruption to operations and ensure a seamless transition.
