Blogs on IT Support and Cybersecurity for Small Business

October 14, 2025 came and went. Nothing exploded. Your computers turned on the next morning and the whole thing felt like another Y2K. That quiet is exactly why Windows 11 upgrade help for Fraser Valley businesses is now an urgent conversation instead of a technical one.

Nine months later, the machines still running Windows 10 in Langley, Surrey, and Abbotsford offices are not just older. They are a liability you now have to declare in writing, to insurers and to clients, and they are increasingly attractive to people who hunt for exactly this kind of gap.

Here is the part nobody tells you at the time of a support deadline: end of support is not an event. It is a slow leak.

The Deadline Passed and Nothing Happened. That Is the Problem.

Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. The operating system did not stop working. It stopped being defended. No more security patches through the normal Windows Update channel, no more bug fixes, no more technical assistance from Microsoft.

Every vulnerability discovered in Windows 10 since that date is permanent. It does not get fixed. It just sits there, documented publicly, waiting.

And a surprising number of businesses are still exposed. StatCounter's February 2026 data puts Windows 10 at 26.45% of the worldwide desktop Windows base, with Windows 11 at 72.57%. That is more than one in four machines. It is not a rounding error. It is a substantial share of the business world running an operating system with an open, permanent, publicly catalogued list of weaknesses.

Why Attackers Care More About Your Windows 10 Machines Now

Verizon's 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report analyzed more than 31,000 security incidents and over 22,000 confirmed breaches across 145 countries. Its headline finding rewrote nineteen years of conventional wisdom: exploitation of vulnerabilities has overtaken stolen credentials as the most common way attackers get in, accounting for 31% of initial access, up from 20% the year before.

Read that again. The number one way businesses get breached is now unpatched software. Not clever phishing. Not a weak password. Software that nobody updated.

The same report found that organizations are losing the patching race badly:

• Only 26% of the critical vulnerabilities in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog were fully remediated in 2025, down from 38% the year before.
• Median remediation time worsened to 43 days, up from 32 days.
• Credential abuse, the previous long-running champion, fell to 13% of initial access.
• Ransomware now appears in 48% of all breaches, up from 44%, though 69% of victims refused to pay.
• Third-party involvement in breaches climbed 60% year over year and now factors into 48% of breaches.

That last point matters more than it looks. Your unsupported machine is not only your risk. It is your clients' risk, and they are increasingly aware of it.

The Compliance Problem Nobody Warned You About

This is where Windows 11 upgrade help for Fraser Valley businesses stops being about performance and starts being about paperwork, liability, and whether anyone will cover you when something goes wrong.

Your Cyber Insurance Application Already Asks

Coverage terms vary by carrier, and that variation is exactly the problem. Some cyber policies contain an unsupported software exclusion or condition. Others do not. Some application and renewal questionnaires ask whether you operate end-of-life operating systems. Others fold it into a broader question about patching and security controls.

What does not vary is the underwriter's logic. A known vulnerability that a vendor has publicly declared it will never fix is not bad luck. It is a decision you made, in writing, on a form you signed.

So the question is not whether Windows 10 voids your policy. It is whether you can answer three things with a document rather than a shrug:

• Does your policy contain an unsupported software exclusion or condition? Read it, or ask your broker to point to the clause.
• How did you answer the end-of-life question on your last application or renewal? If nobody checked before answering, you answered from memory.
• Could you produce a list of every unsupported machine on your network today? Not next week. Today.

If the third answer is no, the first two are guesses.

PIPEDA, Client Contracts, and the Duty to Safeguard

Under PIPEDA, Canadian organizations must protect personal information with safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity. A regulator, a plaintiff's lawyer, or a client's procurement team evaluating your breach will ask one obvious question: was the affected system supported by its manufacturer at the time?

Legal firms, accounting practices, construction companies bidding on larger contracts, and unions handling member data are all seeing the same shift. Vendor security questionnaires now include operating system lifecycle attestations. A single Windows 10 holdout can quietly disqualify you from work you were otherwise winning.

ESU Is a Bridge, Not a Destination

Some businesses bought themselves time through Microsoft's Extended Security Updates program, and that was a reasonable move. It is not a strategy. Here is what ESU actually gives you, and what it does not:

• It delivers only critical and important security updates as classified by Microsoft's Security Response Center.
• It provides no feature improvements, no reliability fixes, and no general technical support.
• It is a paid program for organizations, renewed annually, with a maximum runway of three years from the October 2025 cutoff.
• It requires devices to be running Windows 10 version 22H2 specifically.
• The consumer version of ESU runs until October 12, 2027, but it cannot be used in commercial scenarios and is not offered for devices joined to a domain, joined to Entra, or enrolled in an MDM solution.

So you are paying an annual fee to keep a dying operating system on life support while receiving less protection than a supported machine gets for free. Meanwhile, your insurer may still classify the device as unsupported. ESU keeps patches flowing. It does not necessarily keep coverage flowing, and it does nothing at all for the compliance questionnaire.

Every month on ESU is rent paid on a house you are eventually leaving anyway.

Why the Upgrade Is Harder Than Clicking Update

If this were as easy as a Windows Update prompt, everyone would be done. It is not, and this is where most businesses quietly stall out. Two obstacles account for nearly every stalled migration, and they are the reason Windows 11 upgrade help for Fraser Valley businesses tends to arrive as a project rather than a patch.

The Hardware Wall

Windows 11 has requirements Windows 10 never had. Microsoft mandates TPM 2.0, UEFI firmware with Secure Boot capability, a 64-bit processor on an approved compatibility list, and a modern graphics stack. Microsoft has publicly called TPM 2.0 a non-negotiable standard for the future of Windows, which is corporate language for do not wait for us to change our minds.

The result is that a perfectly functional five-year-old workstation running your accounting software may simply be ineligible. Not slow. Not risky. Ineligible.

The Application Problem

Many Fraser Valley businesses run at least one piece of software that has quietly become load bearing. A legal practice management tool. A structural engineering package. An estimating application tied to an aging licence dongle. Nobody upgrades because nobody is sure what happens when they do, and that uncertainty is the real reason machines stay on Windows 10.

What a Proper Migration Actually Looks Like

Getting this right is methodical, not dramatic. A well run project looks like this:- Inventory everything. Every device, its operating system version, its TPM status, its CPU generation, and its Windows 11 eligibility. You cannot plan around machines you cannot see.

• Sort into three piles. Upgrade in place, replace the hardware, or migrate the workload to a cloud desktop.
• Test the applications that scare you. Validate your line-of-business software on Windows 11 before the rollout, not during it.
• Sequence by risk. Machines touching client data, financial systems, or remote access go first. The reception kiosk goes last.
• Document the whole thing. Your insurer, your auditor, and your largest client will all eventually ask for evidence. Have it ready before they do.
• Decommission properly. A retired Windows 10 machine sitting in a closet still on the network is still an entry point.

Notice that none of this requires heroics. It requires somebody to own it and finish it.

The Real Cost of Waiting

Canadian data tells a consistent story. Statistics Canada's Canadian Survey of Cyber Security and Cybercrime found that 16% of Canadian businesses were impacted by cyber security incidents in 2023, with ransomware reported by over one in eight of those affected. The Business Development Bank of Canada has found that 73% of small businesses have experienced a cyber security incident.

For a small business, the ransom is rarely the worst part. The worst part is the week you cannot invoice, the clients you cannot serve, and the awkward disclosure conversation afterward where the words "unsupported operating system" appear in writing.

The good news is that this problem has a defined end. Unlike phishing or insider risk, an operating system migration finishes. You do it once, correctly, and it stops being a liability.

Where to Start With Windows 11 Upgrade Help for Fraser Valley Businesses

The first step is not buying anything. It is knowing your number.

Run a compatibility check across your fleet and count how many machines are still on Windows 10, how many are eligible for an in-place upgrade, and how many need replacement. Microsoft's own readiness tooling answers the eligibility question per device, and your IT provider should be able to produce that inventory on request. If they cannot, that itself is useful information.

From there the sequence is straightforward: test your critical applications on Windows 11 in a controlled environment, migrate the highest-risk machines first, and keep written records of what moved and when. Businesses that treat this as a documented project finish it. Businesses that treat it as a someday item are still counting Windows 10 machines a year from now.

If you are not certain how many unsupported machines are on your network right now, that uncertainty is the finding, and it is worth resolving while the answer is still an upgrade rather than an incident report.

Sources:

1. Microsoft Support, "Windows 10 support has ended on October 14, 2025"
2. Microsoft Learn, "Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10" (commercial terms)
3. Microsoft, "Windows 10 Consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU)"
4. Microsoft Learn, "Windows 11 requirements" (TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, processor compatibility)
5. Microsoft Windows IT Pro Blog, "TPM 2.0: a necessity for a secure and future-proof Windows 11" (Steven Hosking, December 2024)
6. Verizon Business, 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report
7. StatCounter Global Stats, Desktop Windows Version Market Share Worldwide, February 2026
8. Statistics Canada, "Impact of cybercrime on Canadian businesses, 2023," The Daily, October 21, 2024
9. Business Development Bank of Canada, "Survey of cybersecurity and Canadian SMEs" (BDC ViewPoints poll, September 2024)
10. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, PIPEDA Fair Information Principle 7: Safeguards

Windows 10

In Windows 10, Microsoft has built a complete and secure operating system. Users can do about anything they’d like inside of Windows 10. The platform was initially built to support three levels of devices, from smartphones to other mobile productivity machines, to your traditional productivity machines, your PCs. After Microsoft pulled the plug on their smartphone division, the subsequent changes they’ve made to the OS have been with the PC user in mind. 

By many, we mean about a quarter of them.

With the deadline just a week and a half away, we wanted to reiterate what a solution reaching end of support means, how it would impact you, and what your options are.

The first thing to address is what “end of support” actually means. It doesn’t mean you won’t have the ability to use whatever software it is (in this case, the Windows 7 operating system) after the end of support date. What it means is that Microsoft is no longer doing anything to it - including improving its security and patching issues. As a result, the software will lose its functionality over time. Worse, the computer running the software becomes vulnerable, which makes the entire network vulnerable - not a good thing.

To be fair, there are some ways that you can protect your network while still using these devices. For instance, if you rely on a particular line-of-business application that requires Windows 7, you could theoretically isolate a Windows 7 device to allow you to do so. However, to be completely fair, there isn’t any guarantee that you will be protected from vulnerabilities, short of completely taking problematic systems entirely offline.

Therefore, it only makes sense to explore your other options.

Your Other Options

With the deadline as close as it is, you will need to hustle to put any of these alternatives into action:

Upgrade to Windows 10

Objectively speaking, Windows 10 is better than Windows 7, if only for its improved security. Furthermore, it isn’t one of those solutions that requires insanely higher specifications to run. In fact, the minimum numbers you need to operate Windows 10 are as follows:

• Processor - 1 GHZ or faster
• RAM - 1 GB for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
• Hard disk space - 16 GB for 32-bit or 20 GB for 64-bit
• Graphics card - DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
• Display - 800 x 600 resolution

Mind you, this is all it takes to run Windows 10, not to run Windows 10 well. To improve your performance, we suggest that you make a few alterations - upgrading to a 2 GHz dual-core processor, increasing your RAM to between 4-and-8 GB, and Increasing your hard drive space to 160 GZB, at least.

Purchase New Hardware

While it will cost you a pretty penny, obtaining new hardware (that comes with Windows 10 installed) may be the easiest option, especially when you take your looming deadline into account. Windows 10 and regular updates to it are all included, but it may take some time to configure everything properly.

Virtualize with a Thin Client

In a similar vein as leveraging Chromebooks instead of Windows, you could use your old hardware as a thin client to virtualize your needed solutions. However, despite the reputation that virtualization has as a solid option for businesses, it may not be a practicable option with the deadline pressing so close.

Alternatively, you could simplify this process using one of Microsoft’s services. Microsoft 365 offers a combination of Windows 10, Office 365, One Drive with an included terabyte of storage, and fully featured security. Available at a predictable monthly flat-rate per user, it gives you a solid alternative for at least your productivity-software-using employees.

Regardless, you need to take action now. Reach out to Coleman Technologies today for help. We’ll figure out which approach is best for you and help you with your upgrade process. Call us at (604) 513-9428 to learn more.

What is Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 is a bundle containing Office 365, the Enterprise version of Windows 10, along with Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility + Security. Microsoft 365 is comprised of all of these solutions, meaning your business will benefit from all of the features that come with these solutions, with just one package. So, what does this package include exactly?

Here are all of these solutions you could or should be taking advantage of with Microsoft 365:

• Windows Enterprise OS
• Installed versions of Microsoft Office applications 
  • Word
  • PowerPoint
  • Excel
  • OneNote
  • Access
    • Mobile versions of these applications
    • Office for the web
  • Outlook
  • Exchange
  • Teams
  • SharePoint
  • Yammer
  • OneDrive for Business
  • Sway for Office 365
  • Stream
• Task management tools
  • To-Do
  • Planner
  • PowerApps and Flow
• Device and Application Management
  • Microsoft 365 Admin Center
  • Intune
  • Windows Autopilot and Device Health Analytics
  • System Center Configuration Manager
• Identity and Access Management
  • Azure Active Directory Premium 1 and 2
  • Windows Hello
  • Direct Access
  • Credential Guard
• Threat Protection
  • Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics
  • Windows Defender Antivirus and Device Guard
  • Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection
  • Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection
  • Azure Advanced Threat Protection
• Information Protection
  • Office 365 data loss prevention
  • Windows Information Protection and BitLocker
  • Azure Information Protection 1 and 2
  • Cloud App Security
• Security Management
  • Microsoft Secure Score
  • Microsoft Security and Compliance Center
• Advanced Compliance
  • Advanced eDiscovery
  • Customer Lockbox
  • Advanced Data Governance
  • Service Encryption with Customer Key
  • Privileged Access Management
• Advanced Analytics
  • MyAnalytics
  • Power BI Pro

Here at Coleman Technologies we understand this list is extensive. However, it is worth viewing as there could be solutions your business could benefit from. Coleman Technologies has the technicians needed to help you procure, implement, and manage the right solutions for you. Reach out to us at (604) 513-9428 to learn more.

Shake to Minimize

Sometimes when you are working in any Windows platform, you will have too many windows open and you just want everything out of your face except the thing you are currently viewing. Well in Windows 10 there is a cool little feature you can use to make that happen very quickly. Just take your mouse (or your finger if you have a touchscreen) and click-and-hold the title bar of the app you are working in and shake it back and forth. This will minimize all other open applications. To get them back, simply repeat the action.

Choose Folders on Start Menu

The start menu is extremely useful in Windows 10, but sometimes it can get cluttered. To choose which folders you want to see on your Start Menu go to Settings > Personalization > Start then click on the “Choose which folders appear on Start” link at the bottom of the screen. From there you can toggle the folders you want to see in your Start menu. 

Find the Original Control Panel

The settings options in Windows 10 are far and away easier to use, but if you are one of those people that likes working with tools they know, the old Control Panel is still available in Windows 10 as it is still the go-to option for customizing advanced options. The easiest way to access the control panel is by clicking on the Cortana icon on the taskbar and typing in “control panel”. It will give you immediate access to all user settings. 

Selectively Sync Folders with OneDrive

One of the best parts of using Windows 10 is the integration with OneDrive cloud storage. Windows 10’s OneDrive integration provides users a lot of flexibility. To sync folders with data stored in OneDrive, make sure OneDrive is running and right-click on the OneDrive icon in the notification area. Select Settings and then navigate to the Account tab. Under the Account tab you will see the option to “Choose folders”. Click on choose folders and you will see a list of the folders you have in OneDrive, select the ones that you would like access to through Windows 10 and select OK. Now you have access to this data through your File Explorer in Windows 10.

Customize Your Application Notifications

Having too many notifications is one of the most frustrating parts of modern technology. To keep from being bogged down with too many notifications, you can customize which notifications you see in Windows 10. To do so, click on Start > Settings > System > Notifications & action. Once there all you have to do is scroll down and select the notifications you want on, and which ones would be better served not notifying you.

Windows 10 has hundreds of options for any user to customize their experience. Check back next week when we provide some more advanced tips on how to best experience the OS.

As with any applications on your device, you’ll have a variety of first and third-party applications that can be set as your default apps. Here are the steps to make this happen:

• Click the Windows icon at the bottom left-hand side of the taskbar.
• Click on the gear icon to open up your Settings.
• Select Apps.
• In the left-hand column, click on Default Apps.
• In the right-hand side of the Default Apps screen, you can see the various types of files that will be opened by specific apps.

Changing your default video playback settings is also easy to do. From the Video playback option in the Apps section, you can enable streaming content at high dynamic range quality, process video for more enhanced quality, play back video in either a high or low resolution based on preference, and change how video is played based on battery life. You can pick from prioritizing video quality or battery life--whichever you prefer.

Before making any changes to your computer, we recommend speaking with the technology professionals at Coleman Technologies. This prevents you from making any changes to hardware or software settings that could cause frustrations for you and your staff. To learn more about the services we provide, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

However, as with any changes you are considering to your computer, you should lean on your IT resource to determine if it’s okay to make these adjustments. Better yet, IT may want to make them for you. One way or another, make sure you get the all-okay before switching anything on a work device.

Cleansing of Bloatware
Whether you picked something up during your browsing or the device’s manufacturer installed it during production, your computer can easily collect programs known as bloatware or adware. These programs, while not always harmful per se, can easily eat up system resources for nothing. Ask your IT resource to seek out these programs and eliminate them for you. This alone may result in some considerable boosts to your computing speeds.

Adjust Power Settings
While it may sound like a good idea, the Power saver plan that comes baked-into Windows 10 can actually make your experience as a user more of a pain. This is because this setting cuts your device’s processes to minimum so that energy can be conserved. Furthermore, desktops are plugged in as a rule, leaving little reason to use Power saver anyways. To improve performance on your Windows 10 laptop, stick to the Balanced power option when unplugged, and switch to High when power is available.

Kill Windows Tips and Tricks
Yes, it’s ironic that we’re recommending that you disable Windows Tips and Tricks in a tip-based blog post, but there are a few compelling reasons to do so. Most pertinent to our current conversation, the fact that Windows is analyzing your usage with these capabilities enabled means that your device’s performance is going to suffer.

In order to disable these invasive bits of advice, click the Start button. Under your Settings, access System and from there, Notifications & actions. Under the Notifications section, you will find the option to Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows.” Deactivate this option, and you won’t have anything more to worry about.

Finally, the Cliché: Restart Your Device
Yes, this suggestion has become a joke in and of itself, as the IT field’s go-to question. However, there’s a really good reason for this: restarting a device can often solve its issues. This is because it clears out the use of the computer’s resources, wiping unneeded memory usage and stopping equally unneeded background processes. Restarting your workstation effectively gives it a fresh slate, allowing it to run much better than it did when it was bogged down.

Let us know if there are any other tips you want us to share in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe!

There are lots of options for changing your display settings. To access these settings, click on the Start menu and select the gear icon for Settings. The first option on the Settings screen is System, where the first option is Display, so you’ll have no problem checking it out. Here are some of the options:

Change Your Screen’s Brightness
With this option, you can change--get this--your screen’s brightness! This is critical if you want your device’s battery to stay under control. There is a slider that you can use to adjust the screen’s brightness. Underneath this, you’ll see another option to turn on the Night Light. This makes the device’s screen turn to warmer colors to make it easier on the eyes at night. You can even schedule the night light to turn on at a specific time.

Scale and Layout
Under this option, you can change the default size of text and applications, among other things. There are several dropdowns under this heading that give you dynamic control over several aspects of your display, including the display’s resolution and the screen orientation.

Multiple Displays
One of the best ways you can get the most out of your monitors is by using more of them. If you have multiple monitors connected to your device, your settings will give you options for what to do with them. You can connect to them wirelessly, detect connected devices, and so much more. Just click on the links in your settings to learn more about what you can do, or reach out to us to learn more about what the settings mean.

Before you change any settings for your devices, if you have any questions about what they mean or why, consult professionals at Coleman Technologies who know what they are doing. It’s better than making a change and not knowing how to change it back.

Overall, changing up your display can be great for both your device’s battery and your productivity. For more great tips and tricks about how you can get the most out of your monitors and displays, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

What is Breadcrumb Navigation?
As per the aforementioned fairy tale, breadcrumb navigation consists of a path leading home. In this case, home is the homepage. With breadcrumb navigation, you can more easily keep track of how you got to the current web page you’re on, as well as the path back to the home page. This path can typically be viewed at the top of the page. Each step includes a link that navigates back to a specific page.

Let’s say that you’re looking at a service page on a website. If the path you took leads back to the home page, you’ll see all of the pages in between in the breadcrumbs menu. For the sake of this example, let’s say the pages in between are the second menu item and the fifth menu item. It would look something like this:

Home > [Menu 2] > [Menu Item 5]

Since these breadcrumbs are links, you can click on any one of them to be brought back to that page. This lets you continue browsing with minimal chance of getting lost on the site trying to backtrack.

More Than Just Websites
You might notice that this navigation style is similar to the ones used in toolbars in file folders or files saved on your desktop. The reason is the same--it makes finding certain files easier at a later date. The location can also be shared with others who need to know where it is.

Breadcrumbs are typically meant for helping users with browsing and organization. Are there any other features out there you can think of that do the same thing? Let us know in the comments.