It is usually the computer at the front desk. It takes ten minutes to start, everything hangs while you wait on it, and sooner or later somebody says it out loud: should we just buy a new one?
Sometimes that is the right call. Often it is not. The answer comes down to one check and one number, and here is how I work through both.
First, the check: can it run Windows 11?
This is the question to answer before anybody spends a dollar on an office computer, because it decides how long any fix will last.
Windows 10 stopped getting free security updates on October 14, 2025. Businesses can pay Microsoft to keep them coming: $61 per computer for the first year, which ends October 13, 2026, and the price doubles every year after that. The years are bought in order, so a business that skipped year one and wants to be covered past October pays for both, $183 per computer.
So check each machine. Microsoft's free PC Health Check app tells you whether a computer meets the Windows 11 requirements. The catch on older machines is the hardware: Windows 11 needs a processor Microsoft supports, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, plus at least 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage.
- If it passes: the upgrade from Windows 10 Home or Pro to the same edition of Windows 11 is free, and fixing the machine is worth looking at.
- If it fails: every dollar you put into it goes into a computer that is running out of security updates. Usually that means replace it. The exception is a machine that runs one program that will not work on Windows 11. Paying for the extension on purpose can be the cheaper path there, for a while.
A failed check is not always the end, though. I do not waste parts, and my own PC is still an i7-8700K from 2019. It fails the check today for one reason: Windows does not see a TPM, the security chip Windows 11 wants. The processor is on Microsoft's list and Secure Boot is already on. This generation of Intel chip has a TPM built in that turns on with a setting in the BIOS. That is a setting, not a new computer. So when a machine fails, find out why before you replace it.
The full cost of staying on Windows 10, per computer and per office, is on my Windows 10 page.
If it passes, find out why it is slow
Slow is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Here is what I check, in order:
- The drive's health, first. A drive on its way out can make a computer slow before it fails outright. If that is what I find, the job stops being about speed and becomes getting your files off it while it still reads.
- What starts up with it. Years of programs that launch with the computer and keep running in the background.
- Malware. Sometimes slow is an infection.
- Heat. Dust packed into the fans and vents makes a computer run hot, and a computer that runs hot slows itself down to protect itself.
- The hardware itself. A computer still running a spinning hard drive gets the biggest speed change you can buy from a solid-state drive, with your files and programs moved across so it starts up looking exactly like it did, just fast. A machine with 4GB of memory running a browser, email and your business program at once wants 8GB or more, and adding memory is a small job when there are slots for it.
Here is what the drive part looked like on my own PC in August. A second drive slowed to 3.6 megabytes a second. Before anything else, I made sure nothing important lived in only one place: family photos that existed as one copy got two more. Then I mapped the whole drive. 1,139 GB read back clean at full speed, 147 to 185 megabytes a second, and the damage sat in one spot, in a folder I did not need. I do not throw out a part that still works. That drive stays, and it only holds things that can be replaced.
When I do the work, I time the startup before and after, so you see the difference instead of taking my word for it.
One thing you hear up front, not after: some budget computers have their memory and storage soldered to the board. Nothing on those can be upgraded, by anyone, so if yours is one, I tell you before you spend anything.
The one number that decides it
Once you know what is wrong, it is the same rule I use on laptops with cracked screens: if the fix costs less than about half of what the machine is worth working, fix it. If it costs more than the machine is worth, replace it.
On an office computer, count the real cost of replacing it, not just the sticker. A new machine still has to be set up: accounts, printers, the programs you use, and your files moved over. With me that setup is $99 a machine, and a refurbished business PC is billed at my cost plus 20 percent, with the receipt. Then add the hours that desk is down while it happens.
Put those side by side and most machines sort themselves out:
| What I find | The call |
|---|---|
| Passes the check, still on a spinning hard drive | Fix it. A solid-state drive is the best money you can put into an older machine. |
| Passes the check, short on memory with open slots | Fix it. Add memory. |
| Passes the check, slow from years of startup clutter | Clean it up, and you are done. |
| Fails the check only because a setting is off | Turn it on, then upgrade free. |
| Fails the check for a hardware reason | Replace it, unless one program ties it to Windows 10. |
| Memory and storage soldered, and slow | Replace it. There is nothing to upgrade. |
| Drive failing | Your files first, then decide. |
One office can land on all of those at once, a different answer for every desk. That is normal. The point is knowing which machine gets which before you spend anything.
When I tell you to replace it
If a machine is not worth fixing, I say so before any work starts, and then I help you find a good replacement instead of selling you one.
And the old one does not go in a dumpster with your customers' information still on it. With any job, I haul old computers off for free, wipe the drives, and hand you a paper saying they were wiped.
Get a straight answer
For one computer, text (405) 458-0864 with what it is doing and a photo of the sticker on the machine. If I can answer it in a text, that answer is free. If it needs hands on it, you get the price before I come out.
For the whole office, start with the shop assessment. I walk your office with a one-page sheet and check every machine: which Windows it runs, whether it can take Windows 11, how the drive is holding up, and how old it is. You get a keep, upgrade or replace call on each one, with a price, before any work starts. The assessment is $85, credited toward whatever work it finds, and you keep the sheet either way. After that, work on site is $85 an hour with a one-hour minimum.
I come to shops in Del City, Midwest City, east Oklahoma City and Moore, after 5 and on weekends.
One person, start to finish. When you text, you get me. Not a rotating tech, not a call center.