Buying Office Laptops This Fall? Windows 10 and the New AI PCs, Sorted.
Microsoft just launched $2,599 AI laptops, and paid Windows 10 support for businesses is getting more expensive this month. Here is what a small office should actually buy, and when.
By John Martines · October 11, 2026 · 6 min
The first paid year of Windows 10 security updates for businesses runs out this month, and Microsoft's new AI laptops start at $2,599. Here is how a small office should plan its next laptop order.
The bookkeeper's laptop takes four minutes to start. The front desk PC still runs Windows 10, and so do two machines in the back. Your IT partner sent a note last spring about "extended security updates," and you paid for them. Now the October bill is about to double, and Microsoft spent last Wednesday telling everyone the future of the PC is AI that runs on the laptop itself.
So: replace them all now, wait for the AI machines to get cheaper, or pay for another year? For most small offices the answer is simpler than the headlines make it sound.
Two separate things landed in the same month.
Windows 10 support costs more. Windows 10 stopped getting free security updates on October 14, 2025. Businesses that kept Windows 10 machines could pay Microsoft for Extended Security Updates, called ESU: $61 per computer for the first year. The price doubles every year, for at most three years, and the first paid year runs out with this month's October 13 updates. Year two is $122 per computer, and if you skipped year one, you pay for it too.
There's a catch that confuses a lot of owners. In June, Microsoft extended the free home version of this program to October 12, 2027. That extension is for personal PCs. Microsoft says the consumer program can't be used for business, and it doesn't cover company-managed machines.
AI laptops arrived, at the top of the range. At its October 7 event, Microsoft and Nvidia launched the first laptops built on Nvidia's new RTX Spark chip. They can run large AI models on the machine without the internet. The Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599; models from Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and MSI run from $2,599 to $3,799 and up. Most ship October 16; HP's follow on November 4.
Microsoft also said Copilot on Copilot+ PCs (laptops with a built-in AI chip, sold since 2024) will, with your permission, be able to read the files on the machine and take actions in Windows, rolling out over the coming months.
How it got here:
- May 20, 2024: Microsoft introduced Copilot+ PCs, laptops with a dedicated AI chip and at least 16 GB of memory.
- October 14, 2025: free Windows 10 security updates ended. Paid ESU began for businesses at $61 per computer.
- June 25, 2026: Microsoft extended the free consumer ESU to October 12, 2027. Business pricing didn't change.
- September 30, 2026: Microsoft redesigned the Copilot app around Home, Code and Autopilot, with some work billed by use on top of subscriptions.
- October 7, 2026: RTX Spark laptops launched from $2,599, and Microsoft announced Copilot access to local files and actions on Copilot+ PCs, plus a way for IT to fence in what AI agents on a PC can touch.
An unsupported computer is an open door. A Windows 10 machine with no security updates is exactly what automated attacks look for first. If one of your machines handles email, banking or client files, it needs either ESU or a replacement. "It still works" isn't the test.
Most offices don't need the $2,599 laptop. The RTX Spark machines are built for people who run AI models, edit video or do 3D work all day. Email, QuickBooks, Microsoft 365 and ChatGPT in a browser run fine on an ordinary business laptop. The AI your team uses most still runs in the cloud.
The AI feature that matters is a permission, not a chip. Copilot reading files and acting on the PC is useful, and it's also a new way for the wrong file to go somewhere. Someone should decide who turns it on before it shows up, the same way you'd decide who gets keys.
1. Count your Windows 10 machines. Ask your IT partner, or walk the office. For each one, note who uses it, how old it is, and whether it can run Windows 11 (many older machines can't, and Windows Update or your IT partner will tell you). This list takes an hour and it decides everything else.
A free account opens the rest of this article and the whole library.