Contending with Windows 10’s retirement: part 1

The discontinuance of tech support and free security patches presents challenges to users of legacy Windows 10-based test-and-measurement systems.

The test-and-measurement industry has long leveraged consumer technology to take advantage of economies of scale and lower costs. Consequently, it’s not uncommon to see sophisticated test and data-acquisition systems incorporating Windows computers. This approach works well until interrupted by inevitable discontinuities in the trajectory of Windows, with each version having a lifespan measured in years, compared with test systems’ lifetimes measured in decades.

Such a discontinuity is upon us now. Effective October 14, Microsoft ended technical support and free security updates^[1] for Windows 10, which debuted July 29, 2015.^[2] Windows 10 joins Windows XP^[3], Windows Vista,^[4] Windows 7,^[5] and Windows 8,^[6] which have all reached end-of-life, as illustrated in the Figure 1 timeline. Note that there was no Windows 9.

Figure 1. Several Windows versions have appeared over the past quarter of a century.

The end of Windows 10 support and free security upgrades presents a dilemma to those using the operating system to control test and measurement systems. The obvious step is simply to upgrade to Windows 11, but that may not be optimal. According to Toby Marsden, head of go-to-market strategy and strategic alliances at Keysight Technologies, if a system is stable, migration to a new operating system risks a regression that can cause core business processes to fail, and therefore a customer may choose not to upgrade.

Steve Summers, director and security lead for aerospace and defense at Emerson Test and Measurement, added another perspective, noting that customers upgrading to Windows 11 would see few if any new features that specifically benefit test-and-measurement equipment. “Windows 10 is sufficiently stable, has the features needed, and works great for test systems,” he said. But there is a key driver favoring the upgrade. “The lack of support is the forcing function that is making test systems migrate to Windows 11,” Summers noted.

Noman Hussain, vice president of software and strategic business analysis at Pickering Interfaces, said his customers’ biggest concern with the retirement of Windows 10 is the lack of security updates, which makes systems susceptible to malware attacks. “It always comes down to the cost of change versus the cost of continuing to run the current system,” Hussain said. “I still have customers using Windows XP in air-gapped environments [that is, disconnected from external networks]. For them, the cost of change is higher than the perceived risk of keeping their existing systems running—but as you can imagine, those PCs are now a nightmare to support.”

In addition, air-gap security is far from perfect. Summers said, “If you look at the attacks on operational systems over the past 10 years, many of them have been on air-gapped systems. It’s just not a solid security defense. More effective is to move to a zero-trust defense strategy, where you have multiple defenses at every node in the system, so that if the air gap is breached, there are still defenses to protect the systems.”

Microsoft is offering a temporary reprieve with regard to security. It offers for purchase an Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10.^[7] The price begins at $61 per device for the first year, with the price doubling each successive year. The ESU is planned to last a total of three years, giving you time to plan a smooth migration to Windows 11 (as shown in the figure, Microsoft offered a similar ESU program for Windows 7).

In subsequent parts of this series, we’ll describe steps you can follow if you plan to stay with Windows 10, whether or not you plan to purchase the ESU. Then, we’ll describe steps you can take if you plan to immediately upgrade to Windows 11. And finally, we’ll discuss how to plan for the inevitable demise of Windows 11 or any other operating system you plan to use in test-and-measurement systems.

Continue to part 2.