Governments begin warning all users on Windows 10 end of support and how to deal with it

A black-and-white stock Windows 10 walppaper with a shutting down script on it

Last month, Microsoft issued a reminder about Windows 10's upcoming end of support date. The various hardware vendor partners of Microsoft like Asus have also published their guidance for the same, such that users can prepare for the "mandatory upgrade to Windows 11."

While the upgrade is certainly not mandatory, as users can continue sticking to Windows 10 if they want, at least for a while, the governments are now beginning to issue advisories on the upcoming massive change. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) under the Government of India (GoI) has published guidance on the matter.

Like Microsoft, Asus, and others, the GoI has also recommended upgrading to Windows 11 to keep their systems secure. In the new advisory, it writes:

Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Windows 10 is approaching the end of their support lifecycle on 14 October 2025. After this date, Windows 10 will no longer receive security updates, bug fixes, or technical support from Microsoft. Systems running on Windows 10 will become increasingly susceptible to zero-day attacks, malicious software, ransomware, and phishing attacks.

Users of Windows 10 are recommended upgrading to Windows 11 to continue receiving critical security updates.

For enterprises as well as individual users who need more time to plan the upgrade, the CERT-In has reminded them about the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. It writes:

Individual consumers and organizations who need more time to transition to Windows 11 have the option of enrolling in the paid Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for critical patches. The ESU program does not extend the official product lifecycle or offer full technical support for the product beyond its lifecycle.

If you recall, Microsoft also extended the support for Microsoft 365 apps like Teams, Word, Excel, Outlook, OneDrive, and more, for another three years. You can find the advisory here under CIAD-2025-0023 on CERT-In's official website.

Meanwhile, the United States' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is probably going to publish its own official guidance sometime soon, similar to how it did for Windows 7 and others. Others like the EU are going to follow suit as well.

If you do not like Microsoft's latest OS offering, you can also switch over to Linux. Recently, LibreOffice urged users to do so, citing the "real costs" of Windows 11.