So what does this mean for those organisations that still haven’t fully migrated to Windows 11.
Well as discussed in our previous article we talked about Extended Security Updates. This is a program from Microsoft that offers “patches” for vulnerabilities for up to 3 years. It’s a paid program and the full details can be found in our previous post Still Not Migrated to Windows 11….. With less than 7 weeks to go until Windows 10 ends you’d better get ready to pay for ESU !! – HRP Consultancy.
We wouldn’t advise any organisation to run at risk but that will likely be down to the individual organisation, mitigations in place, budgets and stage in their journey to Windows 11. On the budget front; this isn’t purely down to the ESU costs either. One of our clients needed to replace over 1500 devices simply to be able to migrate to Windows 11. The bulk of the devices were due to incompatible CPU and TPM as can be seen below.
Add to that the costs to swap out these devices within a short timescale meant they also needed to bring onboard an external supplier to build, deploy, replace and decommission the old equipment across multiple geographic locations.
If you decide against the ESU program then please be fully aware that any vulnerabilities discovered from Wednesday 15th October will make your organisation exposed. It’s worth noting that any cyber security certification and insurance could also be void as a result.
In 2025 companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Google, Air France / KLM, Workday, Hertz, Coinbase, Harrods, SonicWall have all experienced Cyber Security breaches that have cost them a significant amount of reputational damage. Not to mention cost. JLR are still trying to recover their operations some 6+ weeks on. According to the NCSC they have already handled 204 nationally significant cyber attacks in the year to September.
Microsoft’s official lifecycle notice can be found at End of support for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 | Microsoft Windows
NCSC advice can be found at Upgrade before Windows 10 end of life October 2025 – NCSC.GOV.UK
If you are struggling to get your organisation fully migrated or need help mitigating the devices you simply can’t upgrade then come and speak to the experts at HRP.
#Windows11 #CyberSecurity #Windows10 #Windows10EOS #NCSC