Windows 10 extended updates end in October 2026 - moving your notes and todos

Windows 10 reached end of support on 14 October 2025. Microsoft offered a one-year Extended Security Updates programme for home users, and that year is nearly over: consumer ESU ends on 13 October 2026. After that date a Windows 10 PC keeps working, but it stops receiving security fixes.

Microsoft’s own Windows 10 end of support page lays out the options. Most people will move to Windows 11, either on the same machine or a new one. The operating system is the easy part. The part people lose is the small stuff: the sticky notes on the desktop, the text file of ideas, the reminders set in some app they installed in 2019.

This is a checklist for that small stuff.

First, find where your thoughts actually live

Before migrating anything, make a list. Most people are surprised by how many places they keep notes and tasks:

• Sticky Notes. Synced to your Microsoft account if you signed in; local only if you did not.
• OneNote, including the Quick Notes section that Win + Alt + N writes to.
• Microsoft To Do, which lives in your Microsoft account and moves with it.
• Text files on the desktop or in Documents.
• Browser bookmarks and reading lists.
• Email drafts and notes-to-self.
• Third-party apps, each with its own storage.

Write that list down. The point of a migration is not to copy everything - it is to end up with fewer places, not the same number on a new machine.

Anything synced to your Microsoft account

To Do, OneNote notebooks stored in OneDrive, and Sticky Notes you signed in to will reappear when you sign in to the new PC with the same account. Check before you wipe the old machine: open each app on Windows 11 and confirm the content is there. “It syncs” is a belief; seeing your last ten items is a fact.

Anything local

This is where things get lost.

Text and Markdown files - copy the folder. Boring, reliable.

Unsynced Sticky Notes - sign in to Sticky Notes on the old PC so they sync, then sign in on the new one. If you cannot sign in, open each note and copy the text somewhere you control.

Local-first apps - most keep a database file in %APPDATA% or in the app package’s own storage. Look for an export option first. A Markdown or CSV export is better than copying a database, because you can read it without the app.

Jot, if you use it, keeps everything in one SQLite file and can export every current note and todo as Markdown into a folder you choose. Either copy the export, or reinstall and bring the data folder across. Note that the Microsoft Store build keeps its data inside the package’s own storage, which uninstalling removes, so export before you uninstall anything.

Use the move to consolidate

A migration is the one moment when changing tools costs nothing extra, because you are moving everything anyway. If you had six capture places on Windows 10, pick one destination for tasks and one for reference notes on Windows 11, and move everything into those two.

The rule I use: anything with a date goes where dates come back to find you (a task app with reminders). Anything without one goes where you can search it (notes). Everything else is clutter you were going to ignore anyway.

Re-learn your shortcuts

Windows 11 changed a few defaults. The Copilot key appears on new keyboards, Win + C behaves differently from Windows 10, and many apps that registered global hotkeys need to be reinstalled before those hotkeys exist again. If your capture habit depends on one key, test it on day one, not when a thought arrives. See choosing a global hotkey for why some combinations are better than others.

If you are staying on Windows 10 for now

Some PCs cannot run Windows 11. If you keep using Windows 10 after ESU ends, reduce the exposure: keep your browser and apps updated (many still support Windows 10 for a while), avoid running unknown software, and keep sensitive documents somewhere other than that machine. And make sure your notes and tasks are backed up somewhere that is not the old PC.

A short checklist

1. List every place you keep notes and tasks.
2. Confirm synced apps on the new PC before wiping the old one.
3. Export local apps to a readable format.
4. Copy loose files.
5. Consolidate to one task destination and one notes destination.
6. Test your capture shortcut on day one.
7. Keep the old drive or a backup for a month.

The quick capture on Windows survey covers the options for that one task destination, if you are choosing fresh. Jot is on the Microsoft Store if you want the hotkey-and-a-box version.

Jot is a quick-capture app for Windows: one hotkey, one line, back to what you were doing. What it is, or what is still unproven.