EPC Group Outlines Plan for October 2026 Microsoft Deadlines

Houston-based Microsoft consulting firm EPC Group has released a three-week triage plan to help organizations prepare for a critical deadline on October 13, 2026. On this date, three major Microsoft support end dates converge: Office LTSC 2021 reaches end of support, the first year of Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) expires, and the final year of ESU for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 concludes.

The firm’s plan aims to sort every affected device into one of four paths before any license or ESU purchase is made. The priority is to address the overlap set, Windows 10 devices running Office LTSC 2021, that will be unsupported at every link starting October 14, 2026. Errin O’Connor, Founder and Chief AI Architect of EPC Group, emphasizes the risk: “The exposure sits where the spreadsheets overlap: a Windows 10 PC running Office LTSC 2021 against a Windows Server 2012 file server, unsupported at every link on October 14.”

The triage plan spans three weeks. Week one focuses on counting devices, exporting inventories, and identifying dependencies. Week two assigns each device to one of four paths: migrating to Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 11, upgrading to Office LTSC 2024, purchasing Windows 10 ESU Year 2 as a bridge, or retiring/replacing outdated systems. Week three involves executing these plans in deadline order.

EPC Group, with over 216 merger-and-acquisition tenant migrations and 11,000 enterprise engagements since its founding in 1997, offers services to help organizations navigate this transition. The firm’s Microsoft 365 License Optimization Assessment and consulting practice support the deployment of the recommended paths.