The END of Support: Preparing for Windows 10 Transition

The following article was provided by TechRISK Solutions. It is posted here with permission.

---

Microsoft has announced the end of support for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019, effective Oct. 14, 2025.

This looming deadline poses significant challenges for companies that may be unprepared for the transition.

Uninformed parties may have bigger problems even beginning the process. 

How does this impact you and your business? 

Understanding ‘End of Support’

Windows 10 computers will still function after October 2025, but Microsoft will stop providing critical updates—such as security patches, firewall enhancements, and programming fixes for essential network communication services.

Over time, lack of updates could leave your systems vulnerable to operational failures and cyber threats.

As software packages continue to update and evolve, your critical company applications may no longer run on these outdated machines. 

Options for Upgrading

If your existing hardware meets the minimum requirements, you might be able upgrade your Windows 10 computers to Windows 11 at no cost.

Microsoft has a tool available to download and check your machine’s compatibility here. However, machines that barely meet the requirements may cause performance issues, hindering productivity.

Should you replace all office computers to ensure compatibility? Not necessarily.

A thoughtful migration strategy can help minimize costs while addressing your company’s specific needs.

A thoughtful migration strategy can help minimize costs while addressing your company’s specific needs.

For example, offices often invest in new machines for power users and redistribute older devices to less demanding roles.

Such an approach requires careful inventory management and professional assistance to transfer or securely clear data from each device. 

Opening the Closet Door

The focus here so far has been on just the Windows 10 workstations, companies using older Server 2019 infrastructure face larger issues.

Server technologies have surpassed most of our basic needs and coming up with a plan to move ahead can become overwhelming and complicated.

Our best recommendation is to keep it simple, focus on your business needs, and plan your future for the next five years.

Keep it simple, focus on your business needs, and plan your future for the next five years.

This will prevent wasting extra money on name-brand technology and keep the attention to where the details matter. 

Here are our best server upgrade tips (from experience): 

1. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Don’t think you have to start from scratch and redesign everything. If you have multiple servers, try to consolidate their functionality. It’s easier to add-in new servers and migrate your files/services first, then decommission the old servers after some time. 

2. Virtual doesn’t mean “Cloud:” Buying a physical server doesn’t mean that you’re limited to one box. Companies can use physical servers in their office to host their own Virtual Systems. Your company servers will function like software on Hyper-V or VMware. This operational practice gives you the ability to run multiple server instances, take better backups, and allow you to move your infrastructure anywhere in case of disaster. 

3. Understand your growth: Do you know how much your company has grown over the last three years? How many new desks or employees? How much data storage have you used? How far back do your backups go? Is your company moving away from desktop applications and focusing more on internet hosted services? Can you recognize the trend and predict where you’ll be in a year? What about three or five years? With details like this in mind, you’ll invest your money more wisely into the infrastructure. 

4. Redundancy is key: Take a moment to focus on UPTIME.  

• What problems have you faced over the last year that cost your employees valuable time because of technology outages or issues?  

• How long does a problem generally take to fix?  

• How much would it cost you if your technology was going to be down for an hour? A day?  

• Do you have critical files or data that your company can’t operate without?  

• If backups are not done frequently, how long would it take to restore a file from a backup and then recreate all the missing data? 

---

About the author: Ryan Dwyer is a co-founder and partner at TechRISK Solutions, bringing decades of technical expertise to the business.