„It works, so why replace it” is a perfectly rational attitude to hardware. With an operating system, though, the question is not whether it works, but whether anyone is still patching holes in it.
What changes when support ends
Nothing visible. The computer starts the same, the programs run the same. One thing changes: newly discovered vulnerabilities are no longer fixed. Those vulnerabilities are described publicly, so every month the list of ready-made ways into such a machine gets longer.
Where it hurts most
- Computers with internet and e-mail access — the way into the company.
- Machines on the company network — one compromised workstation is enough to reach whatever it can reach.
- Compliance — insurers and larger partners increasingly ask about this when signing a contract.
What if replacing it is not an option
Sometimes it genuinely is not — because that computer runs software controlling a machine worth many times more. In that case, rather than pretending the problem does not exist, you cut the computer off from the network and the internet, leaving it only the one connection it truly needs. That is a solution for years, not a stopgap.
How to check where you stand
Start with a simple list: every computer, its system and the date the vendor supports it until. In a small company that takes an hour, and it answers the question that otherwise returns with every breakdown — how much equipment do we actually have that nobody is looking after any more.