Think Microsoft Will Extend Windows 10 Support? Think Again

February 7, 2025

Later this year, Windows 10 will no longer be supported—October 15, if you want to be exact. Are you taking steps to ensure you’re upgrading away from Windows 10? If not, you might want to get on that… and consider upgrading away from Office, while you’re at it, since Microsoft is pulling support for that around the same time, too.

Again, it’s imperative that you take action now to prevent security breaches and operational issues moving forward. We want to discuss why it’s so important today.

Windows 10 is Still Incredibly Popular

In December 2024, Windows 10 was used by most individuals who utilize Microsoft products: 62.7 percent, to be specific, compared to 34.12 perent for Windows 11.

But why are these numbers so dramatically different? For one, the specs required to run Windows 11 are much more demanding than Windows 10. Hardware is expensive to implement, and it is only going to get worse in the near future, leaving most to consider the upgrade not worth it for the time being.

Of course, that’s failing to take into account the immense costs that could be associated with a security breach or disaster.

There’s No Ifs About Upgrading

On October 14, 2025, Microsoft 365 and Office applications (including Word, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, and others) will no longer be supported on Windows 10.

Whether you’re ready or not, if you’re a part of the majority still using the aforementioned services and solutions, you’ll be left with less secure, more buggy, and less reliable tools as time goes on. User security is the primary reason Microsoft is taking such a hard stance on this issue, but Microsoft is, of course, committed to CoPilot AI as a Windows 11 feature.

Your business needs to take action now, well ahead of the Windows 10 end-of-support date, or else you’ll get left behind.

First Column IT can help your business take appropriate action, whether it’s upgrading or implementing new solutions entirely. Learn more by calling us today at (571) 470-5594.

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How to Keep BYOD from Tanking Your Business Security

Imagine for a moment a world where you don’t have to distribute devices to your employees and can instead rely on your team to provide them. With Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, businesses can leverage employee-owned devices to their advantage for work-related purposes. There is a catch, though: you have to make sure they’re used safely.

April 7, 2025

3 of the Most Common Malware You’ll Encounter (And What to Do About Them)

Malware can be scary to talk about, but it’s a topic that you should be intimately familiar with, or at least aware of, if you want to keep your business running. These days, you can’t do much of anything online without potentially exposing yourself and your organization to a security risk. Today, we want to explore the different types of malware you might encounter and why it’s so important to take action today to limit their influence on your business.

April 4, 2025

Connecting Google Search to Gemini is Simple (But May Not be Advisable)

Google has implemented Gemini, its latest AI model, into its free software strategy. Previously, it was only available to those on the Advanced plan, a $20/month service. The model can reference a user’s Search queries and other applications to personalize the user’s results, but is this a good thing, or even something you want in the first place?

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