Windows 10 · the October 2026 decision
ESU Year 2 doubles to $122 a device. Renew, upgrade, or replace?
Year 1 cover ends on 13 October 2026. Whatever you choose has to be in motion before then, because there is no protection in the gap — and if you skipped Year 1, you cannot simply start at Year 2. Here is the decision, costed, with the eligibility check that actually determines which options you have.
Microsoft list price, per device
It doubles every year, and it is cumulative.
Year 1
$61
15 Oct 2025 – 13 Oct 2026
Ending now. If you are on it, this is the renewal decision.
Year 2
$122
14 Oct 2026 – 12 Oct 2027
Double Year 1. The decision in front of you.
Year 3
$244
13 Oct 2027 – 12 Oct 2028
Double again. The last year available.
The part that catches people out: ESU is cumulative. If you did not buy Year 1, you cannot start at Year 2 — you have to buy Year 1 retroactively as well, making the real entry cost $183 per device, not $122. Microsoft also does not sell part of a year, and the low-cost consumer programme is not open to businesses.
Microsoft list prices in USD as published at — not a Missan quote. What you actually pay depends on your agreement and volume. Confirm current terms with Microsoft or with us before budgeting.
Three options, honestly
There is no single right answer for a mixed estate.
Most businesses end up doing all three — upgrading what qualifies, replacing what is past its life, and paying ESU only on the handful of machines genuinely pinned by an application.
Renew ESU for another year
Buys twelve months of security updates and nothing else — no new features, no support for new hardware, no reduction in the work still ahead. Sensible where a machine runs something that genuinely cannot move yet: a licensed application tied to the OS, a machine attached to plant, or a device inside a certification you cannot casually re-open.
$122 per device, per year
The price doubles again next October, and you will be making this same decision then with less runway.
Upgrade the machine in place to Windows 11
Free of licence cost where the hardware qualifies, and it ends the problem permanently rather than deferring it. The work is in the preparation — checking eligibility properly, confirming your line-of-business applications behave, and staging it so nobody loses a working day.
No licence cost — the cost is the project
Eligibility is not a formality. See the triage below before assuming a fleet qualifies.
Replace the machine
For hardware that cannot take Windows 11, this is the honest answer, and it was going to happen eventually. A machine bought before roughly 2018 is at or past a reasonable service life anyway — you are choosing between replacing it deliberately now or replacing it urgently after a failure.
Capital cost, offset against ESU you stop paying
Do the arithmetic per device rather than per fleet. The answer differs across a mixed estate.
Which machines can actually take Windows 11?
This is the question that decides your options, and it is worth answering properly rather than assuming. Four things determine it.
The processor decides it. Windows 11 needs Intel 8th generation or newer, or AMD Ryzen 2000 or newer. This is the constraint that catches most estates: a 6th or 7th generation Intel machine is NOT eligible, and enabling TPM 2.0 does not change that. Plenty of otherwise healthy 2016–2017 hardware falls here.
TPM 2.0 must be present and enabled. Often it is present but switched off in firmware, so a fleet that "fails" the check sometimes passes after a BIOS setting change. Worth checking properly before writing machines off — Microsoft has confirmed the requirement itself is non-negotiable.
UEFI with Secure Boot. Machines installed in legacy BIOS mode need converting rather than replacing. It is routine work, but it is work, and it should be counted in the plan rather than discovered mid-rollout.
Your applications, not just the operating system. The blocker is rarely Windows. It is an accounting package, a machine controller, a scanner driver or a licence tied to a specific OS build. This is what decides how many machines genuinely need ESU rather than an upgrade.
On a fleet of any size this is not a machine-by-machine job done by hand. We run it across the estate, produce a list of what upgrades, what needs replacing and what genuinely needs ESU, and cost the three groups separately — usually as part of the free IT health check.
Where we come in
Missan is a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, so unlike most pages ranking for this question we can actually transact the ESU licences rather than only advise on them. More usefully, we can do the part that decides the bill: work out how few devices genuinely need ESU at all.
The migration itself — eligibility across the fleet, application testing, staged rollout, and the inevitable handful of awkward machines — is delivered under an annual maintenance contract or as a project. If you are weighing up hardware, that sits alongside procurement so the new machines arrive configured rather than in boxes.
Questions we are being asked
When exactly do we have to decide about Windows 10 ESU?
Year 1 coverage ends on 13 October 2026 and Year 2 runs from 14 October 2026 to 12 October 2027. Practically, the decision needs making in September so that whatever you choose — renewing, upgrading or replacing — is in motion before cover lapses. Machines are not protected in the gap.
How much does Windows 10 ESU cost in Year 2?
Microsoft list price is USD 122 per device for Year 2, double the USD 61 charged in Year 1, and it doubles again to USD 244 for Year 3. Across all three years that is USD 427 per device. These are Microsoft list prices, not a Missan quote — what you pay depends on your agreement and volume.
We skipped Year 1. Can we just start at Year 2?
Not without paying for Year 1 as well. ESU coverage is cumulative: an organisation joining at Year 2 must buy the prior year retroactively, so the real entry cost is USD 183 per device rather than USD 122. Microsoft also does not sell part of a year. This surprises a lot of people, and it is worth knowing before you budget.
Can we use the cheap consumer ESU option?
No. The low-cost consumer programme is not available to businesses — commercial devices go through the commercial ESU programme, priced as above and enrolled through the Microsoft 365 admin centre or a Cloud Solution Provider. Missan is a Microsoft CSP, so we can arrange it directly.
Is it cheaper to upgrade to Windows 11 than to keep paying ESU?
For eligible hardware, almost always — the Windows 11 upgrade carries no licence cost, so you are comparing a one-off project against USD 122 per device this year and USD 244 next. For ineligible hardware the comparison is against a new machine, and that depends on the device. The right answer across a mixed estate is usually a mix: upgrade what qualifies, replace what is beyond its life, and use ESU only for the handful of machines genuinely pinned by an application.
What happens if we do nothing?
The machines keep working and stop receiving security updates. In practice that becomes somebody else’s problem to notice — usually a cyber insurer at renewal, an auditor, or a client’s security questionnaire. Running unpatched endpoints is also increasingly difficult to defend if an incident does occur.
How many Windows 10 machines are you still running?
Tell us roughly how many, and what they run. We will tell you how many can upgrade, how many need replacing, and how few actually need ESU — before you commit to a year of it.
Cover ends 13 October 2026.
The free Missan IT health check includes a Windows 11 eligibility pass across your estate — what upgrades, what has to be replaced, and what genuinely needs ESU. Written, and yours to keep.