Some advice required antivirus on Windows 10 after EOL 2024

(Those of you who have helped me in the past - and whom I have helped in the past - might remember that I used to own a small Photo Lab business with several computers. That business now belongs to my daughter, and I have retired, but I still help her out regularly)

The business has five near identical computers, all HP8200 Elite series desktops and two Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5s (being used as Kiosks) all running the same OS - Win 10 Pro 64 bit (22H2). The Desktops have proprietary software as well as off the shelf software such as Photoshop and ACDsee Ultimate. (there is also an older HP Desktop that runs Win XP SP3. We have that to use some legacy hardware for which there are no Win 10 drivers available. This machine is air-gapped so is not an issue for the purposes of this post.

The problem is that the HP 8200s are too old to run Windows 11, and Windows 10 End of Life is looming... October next year. The Lenovo Ideapads are all Windows 11 compatible, so no problems there, but replacing all five desktop computers with new, Win 11 compatible is not really financially viable (~NZ$18,000). After October 2024, Windows Defender will no longer receive virus updates, leaving all of those computers vulnerable.

Obviously, in order to keep these machines protected we are going to have to buy a third-party antivirus suite with sufficient licenses to cover all five computers, and to that end I have been looking at two products, Fortinet FortiGuard and BitDefender. These two seem to be comparable - similar pricing and similar capabilities, and the product reviews I have been able to find don't separate them by much. I even found this review/comparison

What I would like is some advice and thoughts from members here, if there are any, who might have used either of these two antivirus suites. Also, if anyone thinks there is something else we should be looking at, I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

Do you know that Microsoft Defender updates won't be available? I have looked, and can find no such statement from MS. Defender updates (AV signatures etc) are not the same as security updates (W10 OS file changes). I agree with Denis re the cost of replacements - and you won't need new monitors, for a start. Additionally, do all the machines have to be connected to the internet? If air gapped, and keeping customers away from the USB slots, you should be OK.

dalchina said:

Hi, note:
Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 support will end on October 14, 2025. This means that the operating system will no longer receive security updates or other support from Microsoft after that date. If you are using Windows 10, it is important to start planning now for how you will transition to a new operating system.

Try3 said:

dalchina is correct, you have two years to make up your minds.
Windows 10 Home, Pro EoS - MSLearn
Windows 11 Home, Pro EoS - MSLearn

Many people have updated old below-spec computers to Windows 11 but you don't mention that option.
See, for example, latest spapakons ditty #32 - ElevenForum and the main discussion thread he links to.


Denis

Thanks for the corrected date.

I looked at the possibility of Win 11 on our existing systems, but there didn't seem any point, since we'd be no better off due to the fact that Win 11 installations on unsupported hardware won't be getting driver or security updates anyway.

Windows 11 Waiver Warns of Damages to Unsupported Hardware | Digital Trends

Try3 said:

Just a few thoughts.
So that's roughly NZ$3,600 [£1,800] each. Is that taken from their original costs or a survey of current prices?

- The last time I spent anything like that much on a computer was more than ten years ago and its much more powerful modern equivalents cost an awful lot less [2005 £1200, replaced in 2016 with £900, replaced in 2023 with £550].
- I do understand that my tasks [non-graphics] have never been as demanding as your graphics work.

I appreciate that graphics work needs powerful computers but are you sure you need so many powerful computers?
- Aren't any just being used to manage the purchase of tea bags for the office kitchen?
- Are all five doing the same demanding graphics job in parallel?
- Even if you need so much power for each graphics task, might improved networking & job procedure design reduce the number of powerful computers required?

And, by October 2025, might some of those old computers have broken down anyway? You'd be forced into either spending money on replacements or re-designing business procedures / networking.


Best of luck,
Denis

What we looked at was the HP Z1 Tower G9 Desktop PC
Intel Core i7
NVIDIA RTX 3070
32GB
SSD 1TB
Windows 11 Pro
$3676 incl Tax

Since these come without CD/DVD drives, we will we have to buy external CD/DVD drives, or at least one and network share it.

At least three of the five will need at least the equivalent graphics capabilities that we have now. Getting slightly less capable workstations for the other two doesn't offer much of a saving.

mngerhold said:

Do you know that Microsoft Defender updates won't be available? I have looked, and can find no such statement from MS. Defender updates (AV signatures etc) are not the same as security updates (W10 OS file changes). I agree with Denis re the cost of replacements - and you won't need new monitors, for a start. Additionally, do all the machines have to be connected to the internet? If air gapped, and keeping customers away from the USB slots, you should be OK.

Firstly, its not really possible to keep customers away from USB slots because they used on the Kiosks (and the Kiosks are Win11 capable anyway). Also, they operate as a "turn-key" system - customers do not have access to Windows. It do so, the Kiosk has to be removed from its stand and the keyboard flipped over. A specific CTRL+key combination is pressed which brings up an input box into which a password must be entered.

Secondly, all the Win 10 computers need to be connected to the internet because we are sent jobs via our website, and directly via Google Drive, Dropbox and Fileinbox from customers' phones and other devices.

Thirdly, since the prime culprit for getting infected with viruses and ransomware is via email, I had considered air-gapping a single computer and having it the only one with email capability. In any case, the staff are well trained and do not click on links unless receipt was prearranged. We use Thunderbird for email, and the staff know how to spot a spoofed link by hovering the mouse points over any links and check that the status bar shows the exact same link.

Well, it looks like we'll be unwillingly dragged kicking and screaming into Windows 11.

I have actually used it on a another computer, and there are several aspects I find particular annoying, such as the centered taskbar, and the complete inability to have the taskbar anywhere but at the bottom. I'm sure there might be some registry hacks to get around this, but I regard the ability to move the task bar as a core functionality (its been a part of Windows since Win 98) and you should not have to engage in registry hacks and workarounds to get basic functions to work. Also, I found the Settings program takes an absolute age to open, sometimes as long as two minutes... and that is on a new installations on a high specced system. Also, many core right click functions are buried deeper in the menu, so extra click are required. Also, you cannot install Win 11 without a Microsoft Account. I do not have a Microsoft account, and I don't ever intend to have one if I can avoid it (oh, I'm sure there is a workaround for this too, but the point is, there should not need to be. Having a Microsoft Account should be entirely optional.

It almost seems like they have taken all the good things about Windows 10 and thrown them all away, while keeping all the bad things.

Anyway, I didn't intend to make this a Windows 11 rant. So, thanks to the responders for the help and suggestions.

Try3 said:

"Since these come without CD/DVD drives"
I've also got an external CD/DVD drive knocking around somewhere.
But the last time I had to use it was years ago. Even my old software that was issued on CD has been copied to my external hard drives so the external CD/DVD is only used if I buy a movie.


All the best,
Denis

We use customer CDs and DVDs about 10 to 15 times a week.

Also, all our digital manipulation archives going back to when we opened for business in 1998 are on DVD.

I still say there is no evidence that Microsoft Defender updates will stop.