Windows 10 End of Life – Impact for Healthcare Businesses

In order to maintain HIPAA compliance all healthcare providers must maintain computer systems and software that continue to receive critical updates from their respective manufactures.

Microsoft has officially announced that October 14, 2025 is the end of life date for Windows 10.  This means that after that date no further updates or enhancements will be provided for that or any prior version of Windows, making Windows 11 and Windows Server 2016 and newer the only HIPAA compliant versions of these operating systems.

HIPAA requires that any software in use be within a vendor’s supporting versions primarily due to malicious software that constantly evolving and leverages new vulnerabilities found in existing software.  Any computer system that continues to use versions prior to Windows 11 or Windows Server 2016 will not receive any further updates to resolve these security holes and therefore will remain vulnerable to attack.  Furthermore, as a attackers know that software versions are going out of date soon, they typically will focus more efforts on attacking these increasingly vulnerable systems.

All SmartServe customers with monthly service plans qualify for an assessment and upgrade of all eligible computer systems free of charge. Even if you’re not yet a customer, we would love to provide a free consultation to clearly explain how to remediate issues at your practive. To schedule your consolation visit https://smartserve.it/windows10-eol.

For more information from Microsoft visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-of-support