No. Microsoft’s free Windows 10 extension through October 2027 applies only to personal devices. Any PC joined to a company domain, joined to Microsoft Entra, or managed through a mobile device management tool is excluded. Business PCs are covered by a separate paid program, and the first year of that program ends October 13, 2026. After that, keeping a Windows 10 PC patched costs $122 per device for year two, and only if year one was already purchased.

Here is how the two programs differ, what else ends in October, and how to decide what to do with the machines you have.

Why doesn’t the free Windows 10 extension cover business PCs?

Microsoft runs two separate programs and extended only one of them.

The consumer program is for personal devices. In June 2026, Microsoft extended it a second year, so home users who enroll can receive security updates through October 12, 2027, at no cost or for a one-time $30 fee. That was the headline in June.

The Windows 10 Extended Security Updates program for organizations is different. It is purchased by year, per device, through volume licensing or a Microsoft cloud partner. Microsoft did not extend it or change its price. Year one ran from October 2025 through October 13, 2026. Year two runs through October 2027. Year three runs through October 2028.

The consumer program’s own rules exclude business machines. A device joined to an Active Directory domain, joined to Microsoft Entra, or enrolled in mobile device management cannot use it. If your PCs sign in with a company account and your IT provider can push settings to them, that is you, and the free extension is off the table.

Extended Security Updates, or ESU, is a paid Microsoft program that delivers security patches for an operating system after its normal support has ended. It does not add features, fix non-security bugs, or come with technical support. It buys time. It does not make the machine any newer.

What does business Windows 10 ESU cost?

Microsoft prices business ESU at $61 per device for year one, $122 for year two, and $244 for year three. Those are Microsoft’s published figures, and the doubling is deliberate.

The part that surprises people is that ESU is cumulative. A company that did not buy year one cannot start with year two. It has to buy year one retroactively as well, so the real cost of joining in October 2026 is $183 per device before the first year-two patch arrives. Microsoft also does not sell partial years.

Compare that against the machine itself. A Windows 10 PC that cannot run Windows 11 was, in almost every case, built before 2018. It is at least eight years old. Spending $183 to patch it for one more year, or $427 across all three ESU years, is a poor trade against a new business-class PC that comes with a warranty and several years of support ahead of it.

For a normal office PC in Central Illinois, the math lands in the same place every time: replace it.

Is there ever a good reason to buy year-two ESU?

Three, and “we would rather not spend the money” is not one of them.

Software or equipment that only runs on Windows 10. A PC attached to a CNC machine, a dental imaging station, a lab instrument, or an older line-of-business application the vendor has not certified on Windows 11. Replacing the PC does not help if the software will not run on the new one. ESU buys time to work with the vendor or to plan an equipment replacement. We see this most with manufacturers, where the PC is often older than the person operating it.

Validated systems. In regulated environments, changing the operating system on certain systems triggers a formal revalidation. ESU lets that be scheduled as a project instead of rushed to meet a patch deadline.

A large fleet on a phased budget. A company with 150 PCs that could not replace all of them last fall might cover the last 20 for one year while the replacement cycle finishes. That is a planning tool with an end date, not a strategy.

In each case, the right way to use ESU is with a written plan for when it ends. If nobody can say what happens to that machine in October 2027, you bought a delay, not a bridge.

What else ends in October 2026?

Office 2021. Microsoft’s lifecycle calendar lists October 13, 2026 as the end of support date for Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021. After that date, Word, Excel, Outlook, and the rest of that suite stop receiving security updates.

Office 2021 is the one-time-purchase version of Microsoft Office, as opposed to Microsoft 365, which is a subscription that stays current. Plenty of small businesses bought Office 2021 with new PCs in 2021 or 2022 and have not thought about it since. Those installs now need a decision too: move to Microsoft 365 Apps, or purchase the newer perpetual version.

The two deadlines are worth handling together. If a PC is being replaced because of Windows 10, the Office question gets answered at the same time. If a PC is staying, it is worth confirming which Office version is on it before October.

What happens if we do nothing?

The PC keeps working, which is exactly why this gets postponed.

What changes is that every new vulnerability found in Windows 10 after October 13 stays open on that machine. Attackers do not need to find something new; they wait for Microsoft to patch Windows 11 and then use the same flaw against the unpatched version. Microsoft has also begun rolling out replacement Secure Boot certificates, and machines that stop receiving updates will miss those as well.

The consequence business owners feel first is usually the insurance form. Cyber insurance applications now ask whether every device in the environment runs a supported operating system. An unsupported PC on the network is an honest “no” on that form, and it is the kind of answer that affects premiums and, at claim time, coverage. Facet wrote about what carriers are asking in our post on cyber liability insurance requirements, and this question has only gotten more pointed since.

HIPAA, PCI DSS, and CMMC all expect supported, patched systems. An unsupported operating system is a finding, not a gray area.

How should a Central Illinois business handle this?

Start with an inventory. Most companies find something they forgot about: the PC in the shipping office, a spare in the conference room, the machine that runs the label printer. The question for each one is simple. Can it run Windows 11, and if not, what is it for?

From there, three paths cover almost everything:

Upgrade in place. PCs that meet the Windows 11 hardware requirements get upgraded, with data migration, application testing, and a short walkthrough for the user.

Replace. PCs that cannot run Windows 11 get replaced with new business-class machines, set up and joined to the network before they land on a desk.

Hardware-as-a-Service. Instead of a large purchase, PCs are provided on a flat monthly fee that includes the warranty and a scheduled replacement every four years. This is the option that prevents the next version of this problem, because the refresh cycle is already on the calendar.

Only in the three edge cases above does year-two ESU enter the conversation, and it comes with a date attached.

How Facet Technologies handles Windows 10 for clients

Facet Technologies has handled operating system transitions for Central Illinois businesses since 1989. This one is no different from any other planned change: it goes on the calendar before it turns into an emergency.

For managed services clients, the inventory already exists. Our monitoring shows which PCs are on Windows 10, which can be upgraded, and which are due for replacement. That list comes up in the quarterly review, where hardware replacements get budgeted for the coming year instead of appearing as a surprise. Most of our clients handled Windows 10 last fall for exactly that reason.

For businesses that are not yet clients, we start with an assessment of the environment and a written recommendation for each device. Upgrades, replacements, and Hardware-as-a-Service are all available, and our repair bench in Peoria handles the hardware work in-house rather than shipping it out. Details on the options are on our Windows 10 end of life and Windows 11 page.

We will tell you when a machine should be replaced rather than patched. With a Windows 10 PC in 2026, that is nearly always the answer, and a business that would rather spend $183 patching an eight-year-old computer is usually not a fit for how we work. Better to say that up front.

Frequently asked questions

Can my business use the free Windows 10 ESU with a Microsoft account?

No. Microsoft limits the consumer ESU program to personal devices. Any PC joined to an Active Directory domain, joined to Microsoft Entra, or managed through MDM is excluded. Business PCs must use the paid commercial ESU program, which is purchased per device through volume licensing or a Microsoft cloud partner.

Can I buy Windows 10 ESU year two if I skipped year one?

Only by paying for year one as well. Microsoft’s ESU program is cumulative, so a business that enrolls in October 2026 pays $61 for year one plus $122 for year two, or $183 per device, before receiving year-two updates. Microsoft does not sell partial years or allow skipping a year.

Does Windows 10 end of support affect Microsoft 365 apps?

Microsoft 365 Apps continued to receive security updates on Windows 10 through October 2028, but new features stopped arriving in August 2026. Office 2021, the one-time-purchase version, is separate and reaches end of support on October 13, 2026 regardless of which Windows version it runs on.

Let’s talk before October

If you do not know how many Windows 10 PCs or Office 2021 installs are still in the building, that is the first thing to find out. It takes an afternoon. Facet Technologies can help with the inventory, the recommendation, and the work itself.

Call (309) 689-3900 or reach us at facettech.com/contact-us to schedule a conversation.