The dangers of outdated Windows 10 software

Your old Windows® 10 software makes you vulnerable to cyberthreats. Cyber criminals have embraced powerful AI tools for breaking into your computers.

You can expect to see increasing news reports of more highly sophisticated cyber attacks that are developed and fired off faster and more often than in past years, focusing on Windows 10.

Your porous security layers

Your first lines of defense are your firewall and antivirus software. They are fundamentally important yet are incomplete and, standing alone, are porous.

The computer press runs stories on multiple successful cyber attacks every week. The vast majority of businesses small and large that fall prey to these attacks have both firewalls and antivirus protection. Alone, those defenses are not enough.

Plugging the security holes in your Windows operating system, web browser and other applications is your next line of defense. You plug those holes by applying the regular updates to Windows and other software.

Dangers of outdated Windows 10 software

Beginning on October 14, 2025, free security updates for Windows 10 ended. Your Windows 10 computers won't receive any security updates unless you purchase a special, one-year subscription. Without those security patches, your Windows 10 computers vulnerable.

Cyber criminals are increasingly developing sophisticated attack methods. Exploiting new security holes, their drive-by downloads and infected links insert malware directly into your unpatched computers and smartphones.

An analysis of high (purple) and critical (orange) vulnerabilities reports on serious vulnerabilities discovered in Microsoft Windows 10. It also shows that the Linux operating system experienced a tiny fraction of the vulnerabilities in the same time period:

Microsoft's November 2025 security updates fixed 63 flaws, including one actively exploited zero-day vulnerability. For your protection, you need to patch security holes in your Windows operating system, web browser, other applications and phones. If you don't replace Windows 10, you can't do that unless you have paid for one year of extended support. And then you will have to dump Windows 10 next year anyway..

Advanced defenses for cybersecurity

Cyber criminals regularly breach the standard computer defenses, steal files and lock up data. They make crushing demands for anonymous payments in crypto currency. Fortunately, additional layers of defense have been developed to block them.

CrimeBlocker specifically counters a range of threats that are triggered by clicking on links or opening deceptive, infected webpages.

Huntress Guard Dogs are your fail-safe guardians. If a cyber attack slips through your other defenses, the electronic Huntress Guard Dogs sniff out the threats by checking all the hidden corners of your computer systems for things that shouldn't be there.

Recommendations

Your Windows 10 software, if left unprotected or outdated, exposes you to serious risks.

Recommendations: Upgrade to Windows® 11 or replace Windows® 10 with Linux. You will increase your protection against security holes that hackers are sure to exploit in Windows 10. Newer Windows 10 computers can be upgraded to Windows 11 for free. Many older computers cannot be upgraded due to the hardware requirements of Windows 11. For those computers, consider replacing them with new computers or replacing Windows 10 with Linux Mint for free. I will be publishing another blog on my positive experience installing Linux Mint on a 12-year-old, $599 Lenovo laptop.

Going a step further by adding advanced protections such as CrimeBlocker and Huntress Guard Dogs completes your layers of protection against cyber threats.

Know that protecting your precious information is an ongoing task. The development teams behind CrimeBlocker and Huntress Guard Dogs stay on top of the latest threats. Those threats keep evolving. So can your defenses, but you need to have the best ones in place.

*The prompt to generate the image was: Text: "Windows 10" with holes through the letters on a solid black background.