Windows 10: Four Months to Go (Again)

Welcome to another video from explaining

computers.com.

On the 13th of October 2026, Windows 10

consumer extended security updates or

ESUS come to an end. And this means that

all of us still running Windows 10 Home

or Windows 10 Pro who enrolled for ESUs

will no longer get security patches.

Users of the enterprise or education

versions of Windows 10 can still pay for

ESUs until October 2028.

And in February 2026,

Microsoft announced further ESU

availability for Windows 10 Enterprise

2016 LTSB.

However, with nearly 72% of end users

now running Windows 11 and 26% Windows

10, we should not expect consumer ESUs

to be extended. In four months time, all

of us still running Windows 10 with

consumer ESUs therefore need to make a

more radical decision than we did in

2025.

When consumer ESUs end, Microsoft's

advice is to upgrade to Windows 11 if

your computer supports it or to buy a

new device. This second option is hardly

ideal for people with perfectly decent

hardware that they want to keep on

using, especially with current RAM and

storage prices. And some people don't

want to run Windows 11 even if their

computer supports it.

So, what are the alternatives for

Windows 10 Home or Pro users? Well, a

year ago, I suggested these 10, but in

October, the consumer ESU option will

disappear. And so, with 12 months of

computing history under our belts, let's

see how viable the others remain.

Starting with doing nothing, over the

past year, AI has become extremely good

at discovering security vulnerabilities.

So, it's likely that after consumer ESUs

end, many critical security flaws will

be found in Windows 10 and exploited on

unpatched machines. Given that Microsoft

will still be supplying enterprise and

education ESUs, it could decide to

provide patches for these to Windows 10

Home and Pro. But relying on Microsoft

to provide security updates that will

officially have ended is hardly wise.

Like it or not, running any operating

system without security patches is

becoming increasingly risky and is not

advised.

Secondly, you could choose to run

Windows 10 offline. This option remains

secure but is likely to be impractical

unless you have another computer for

internet access.

Thirdly, paid third-party security

patches are a credible option. For

example, for €24.95

plus taxes a year, you can buy a service

called Zero Patch from Across Security.

This claims to provide Windows 10 with

security patches and will be available

for at least four more years. But if you

choose this option, you're placing your

trust in Windows security patches that

don't come from Microsoft.

A final option for retaining a secure

version of Windows 10 is to migrate to a

Windows 10 Enterprise Edition from the

long-term servicing channel or LTSC.

For example, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC

2019 is supported until January the 9th,

2029.

However, migrating to it requires a

reinstall and there may be issues with

newer hardware and software support.

More fundamentally, whilst purchasing an

activation key is pretty easy, the ISO

file to install any version of Windows

10 Enterprise LTSC is only available via

a Microsoft volume licensing account. To

be clear, there is no legitimate public

download source. So unless you happen to

have access to a Microsoft volume

licensing account, migrating to

enterprise LTSC Windows 10 is risky.

Whilst a lot of computers don't

officially support Windows 11, it

remains possible to do a clean Windows

11 install on almost any PC or laptop

with a 64-bit processor and at least 4

GB of RAM. Most straightforwardly, the

method using Rufus to create a bootable

Windows 11 installation media does not

require TPM 2.0, secure boot, or even a

Microsoft account. And Rufus can now

even strip out things like Copilot.

As I checked in late May 2026, the Rufus

method continues to work perfectly.

Well, not quite perfectly as you do end

up with Windows 11 on your computer.

But seriously, if you want to continue

running Windows on hardware that does

not officially support Windows 11, then

this is a pretty good option.

Do however be aware that whilst

unsupported Windows 11 installations

receive security updates, they do not

get feature updates or updates to the

next version. So to get security updates

long-term, you'll have to perform a

periodic hack or a clean Roffus install.

For example, the current version of

Windows 11 25H2

will only receive security updates until

October the 12th, 2027, after which

action will be required to maintain

security updates on unsupported

hardware.

Rather than maintaining a secure version

of Windows, another option is to migrate

to a Linux-based operating system. This

could be a desktop Linux distribution

such as Zubuntu, Linux Mint or Zorin OS.

However, it could also be Phoss or

Chrome OS Flex. These are based on

Chromium OS which is in turn based on

Linux and is the basis of Chrome OS on

Google Chromebooks. If all you need is

access to the web and cloud

applications, Phoss or Chrome OS Flex

are a great choice that are very easy to

install. And Phoss can even be set up

with a local account.

to run local applications, a full

desktop Linux distro is a better

alternative. And I've detailed the

process of migrating to Linux in many

videos, including switching to Linux, a

beginner's guide. And so here I'll

stress just two things. Firstly, only

some Linux distributions fully automate

the entire setup process. So if you want

everything to work straight out of the

box, including the automatic

installation of all drivers and media

codecs, you must choose a DRO that will

do this for you. Right now in this

category, I would suggest Zoron OS 18 if

you want a Windows-like interface or

Ubuntu 2604 if you are happy to embrace

something a little bit different.

One of my greatest frustrations is

reading YouTube comments from people who

tried Linux and gave up because they

couldn't get everything to work. So, let

me be really clear. If in 2026 you need

to mess about in a terminal or a driver

manager to set things up and this is

something you do not want to do, then

you have chosen the wrong DRO.

Secondly, regardless of which DRO you

choose, including Chrome OS Flex or

Phoss, never replace Windows with Linux

until you have run it from a USB drive

and tested that all your hardware is

compatible. So before you click install,

check you have a working trackpad,

Wi-Fi, audio, Bluetooth, and so on. This

is really easy to do and will save you

from replacing Windows with Linux and

then having problems. Today, most Linux

distros are highly compatible with most

computers, but there are exceptions. So,

always test first.

For some people, a major downside of

Linux is that it cannot directly run

Windows applications such as Microsoft

Office or Photoshop. And this brings us

to three hybrid options where Windows 10

is maintained in some form after ESU's

end.

Here, one option is to set up a dual

boot with Linux and an offline install

of Windows 10. This allows you to select

either Linux or Windows on boot. So

providing secure offline access to your

existing Windows applications.

Secondly, you could migrate to Linux and

set up an offline Windows virtual

machine to run your Windows software in

a secure environment. I've covered this

in several videos, including a recent

episode on how to turn an existing

Windows installation into a virtual

machine.

Finally, the other way around, you could

continue to run Windows 10, but with a

Linux virtual machine that you use for

all online activities. And whilst this

would not be entirely secure, it should

be safer than continuing to go online in

Windows 10 after ESUS end.

Before we close, I thought you may be

interested to know which option I'm

personally going to choose. So, here is

my 2018 Asus Sambulk UX 330UA laptop,

which is currently running Windows 10

with consumer ESUs.

But before October, I'll be replacing

Windows 10 with Ubuntu 2604 along with a

Windows XP virtual machine for accessing

older Windows software such as

pre-written Microsoft Office.

I've also recently realized that if I

replaced this computer, I'd probably end

up with hardware without a barrel jack

power connector. And on this laptop, if

we uh swizz it round like that and open

it up, we see that radically it has got

two control keys rather than one control

key and a co-pilot key, which would

drive me nuts every time I saw it. So, I

hope I'll be running Ubuntu 2604 on this

hardware until at least some laptop

manufacturers stop obeying Microsoft's

edict to include a C-pilot key.

Due to consumer ESUs, for many of us,

the end of support for Windows 10 in

October 2025 was pretty trivial.

Basically, we just enrolled for ESUs and

continued to use Windows 10 as we had

previously.

We still got security updates and indeed

in some respects things were better than

they'd been previously because we didn't

continue to get all of those other

updates to Windows 10 we never wanted in

the first place.

But this time around in October 2026,

things are going to be different. It

really is the end of support for Windows

10 Home and Windows 10 Pro. And so many

of us now need to accept that the clock

is now ticking towards the end of the

era of Windows 10.

But now that's it for another video. If

you've enjoyed what you've seen here,

please press that like button. If you

haven't subscribed, please subscribe.

And I hope to talk to you again very

soon.