Microsoft makes Windows 10 ESU free for some users, but there is a catch
The Windows 10 operating system reaches its end of life in a few months. Microsoft won't release any updates for the decade-old operating system anymore after October 2025, unless home and business customers join ESU.
ESU, Extended Security Updates, extend end of support by a year for consumers and by up to three years for businesses. It is the first time that consumers get an option to extend support for their systems.
When Microsoft announced ESU, it confirmed that consumers would have to pay $30 to receive the extra year of updates.
Microsoft adds free options
Microsoft Executive Vice President Yusuf Mehdi announced two additional options to join the Extended Security Updates program for Windows 10 this week.
Microsoft gives individuals more options to join ESU on their Windows 10 devices. Besides the already confirmed $30 payment, users may also join by redeeming 1,000 Microsoft Reward points, or by using Windows Backup to sync settings to the cloud.
Here is the summary:
- Pay $30 in local currency.
- Use Windows Backup to sync your settings to the cloud.
- Redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points.
Tip: you can check your Microsoft Rewards points by opening the Rewards website on Bing. You can earn rewards by searching on Bing, making purchases, or completing quests, provided that you are signed in to a Microsoft account (the same is likely required).
PCs will be enrolled automatically once an option has been selected and the on-screen steps have been followed. Microsoft guarantees updates until October 13, 2026 for enrolled devices.
Time schedule for the enrollment:
- Today: Windows Insiders may enroll to Windows 10 ESU.
- July: The option rolls out to Windows 10 customers.
- August: Broad availability of the option.
Commercial organizations may pay $61 per device to receive critical and important security updates. They may renew annually for up to three years, but costs will be increasing each year.
Cloud and virtual environments are enrolled automatically at no additional costs according to Microsoft.
Individuals or organizations who require support for a longer period may check out the service of the third-party 0Patch, which promises updates until at least 2030 for Windows 10.
Microsoft 365 Apps and Microsoft Defender
Microsoft confirmed that Microsoft 365 apps will be getting security updates until October 10, 2028. Feature updates will stop in August 2026 though.
Microsoft Defender will be updated until October 2028 as well to keep devices protected.
Closing Words
Windows 10 users have three official options now to join ESU and receive an extra year of updates. The new options require a Microsoft account though as well.
Now You: do you run Windows 10 on some of your devices? Do you plan to join ESU? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
Goodby Windows, hello Linux Mint..
Linux Mint Deb for work and banking and Win 7 for games and movies !
Mint is probably better than Win7 for gaming at this point.
It’s a shame Windows isn’t open source, so instead of DYING it could be further improved, developed, and of course patched.
Who are they kidding? With M$, there is ALWAYS a catch. What else do you expect from the convicted monopoly? (will this post be censored?)
This company is absolutely disgusting. What other schemes might they hatch to steal users data? They’d have to pay me to use Windows 11.
All this crying over so many windows systems. Use a real system not what the market has pushed you into. The high costs of “convenience” FOSS for lyfe!
We’re “crying” precisely because windows 10 works perfectly for all our intents and purposes, and we like the UI, the launcher, the file manager, etc… windows 11 still doesn’t have an as good file manager (can’t hide that space wasting toolbar, and has a castrated context menu, both make me mad… the ribbon concept was great, bring it back), and of course they’re trying to push the use of microsoft accounts in windows 11, as always… I’m fine with my local account, thank you.
Like a lot of people, I’m not looking for another OS, windows it is, because I know it’s ins and outs, because it works extremely well, it’s flexible, some of the software I use and like is dedicated to it, etc.
FOSS is great, my machine is loaded with FOSS, some of the best software out there is FOSS, I love it and support it. But I don’t take it as a religion, which some FOSS fanboys seem to do. To each his own I guess.
That doesn’t include my office suite, Microsoft office is till my office suite of choice… it’s just better than libre/open office (which i sometimes have to resort to on other machines) imho, and I like it… I know… what a heresy ! right ? … again, to each his own.
Microsoft, please bring back the collapsible ribbon concept (make the toolbar collapsible) to the file explorer, thank you…
I don’t care about my Windows10 machine being unsupported. It will only make it quieter. No more changes I don’t like. No more disruptions. Win 10 is bad enough. Windows 11 seems like an invasion rather than an OS. And, for anything serious, I still use my lovely Windows 7 computers.
I say, use whatever OS you like, ignore the fear mongering, backup often, and enjoy.
Agreed, Windows 7 runs perfectly fine. Chicken Little is dead.
How much more obvious can they make it?
We’ll take cash or your data. We promise not to use your data.
/fingerscrossedbehindback
/middlefingerstraightupbehindback, rather (hoping Microsoft looks at you walking away).
Do you run Windows 10 on some of your devices?
And users aren’t upgrading/switching to Windows 10 or Windows 11 LTSC for why?
I don’t understand!
The instructions for doing so are posted on gHacks. Only one of several worthwhile options.
This is the answer. Windows 10 LTSC has been running happily on my primary workstation at home for years. Rock solid, no ridiculous feature updates, just security and bug fixes.
And then it finds one single nipple in your cloud-synced data, and your entire digital existence (email, cloud storage, important documents you are in the middle of collaborating on with work/school, digital purchases) get revoked, all at the same time!
lol
At least if a disk fails or my PC gets stolen, I still have my email. And my cloud storage (if I actually used that), and probably most of my data, because I’m likely to have more than one PC, or personal external disks.
Free? We already paid for the licenses! Recall when Microsoft said it would be the last OS needed.
It matters not anyway, their latest patches covertly bugger W10 and (with many) cause more problems that they’re worth. Like 7, XP, and even DOS (Japanese), some of the lab systems have been running without reboot for almost a decade. Our Windows 10 environments and 2016 servers will run nominally well past 2030.
Test if you must with WSUS and lab on a separate VLAN, but don’t deploy. Keep stateful images (Acronis, Paragon, etc.), extra hard drives, and firewall anything pointing to M$. Protect your environment at all costs!
Windows 11 is backdoor (as are later Windows 10 versions), demonstrated at grey-hat conferences (WireShark if you want to try). I was mandated to test it for a corporate rollout, but with a buggered GUI (not going to retrain the masses) and no improved functionality, it’s just another M$ cash grab (same for “Office as a service”).
FY MS!
Usually, I would simply accept that an OS reaches end of support — but they lied to me and everyone when they said Windows 10 would be a permanent OS with feature updates. Then they gave up on it for the sake of aping Apple.
I understand the criticism aimed at people who stick to 7 (I can understand them too), but 11 is pretty much an insult to the paying userbase. And I did indeed pay for my license; then they changed the terms of the deal.
They lost me at “The new options require a Microsoft account though as well”. No thanks.
Most hardware here will migrate to Win 10 LTSC IOT via the massgrave hack, and they’ll stay on Win 10 as long as the apps their users need are supported on Win 10.
Windows 11 isn’t growing on me, and I’m not a Linux fanboy, so unless Win 12 is actually not a bloated steaming pile of crapware (unlikely, given MS’s history with OSs since Win 7), maybe Mac. My first non-desktop was a Mac Powerbook Duo, so that would be like coming full circle after 30 years.
Does it make me a Linux fanboy if every time Windows has a blunder and I openly draw comparisons between Windows policies and Linux policies? Let others be the judge.
I used Windows extensively between 2005 and 2024 and I’ve tried moving to Linux over the years with undesirable results. But in 2024 I felt I’ve had enough with Windows. I initially decided that I will run Windows 10 indefinitely, even when support for it was officially dropped, but at some point, I felt like using Windows is causing me more frustrations than actually helping me. Dealing with the constant game of cat and mouse where I change something and Windows changes it back soon after or decides to break itself instead is not something I can say I enjoy. With older versions of Windows, such as XP or 7, I didn’t have such problems and I still remember how I enjoyed using them.
I was initially concerned when moving to Linux that I won’t be able to get basic things set up, games I wanted to play will not run easily or at all. But as I took the plunge and found out that it’s not so difficult to do things and learn, I came to terms that maybe 5% of the games I’m interested in playing, I won’t be able to and a year and a half later of using Linux, I see no reason to ever go back to Windows.
The first thought that came to my mind when reading this article was “Windows asks you to pay to get updates on top of the box price, but Linux doesn’t ask for money to provide you with updates and it is free to begin with”. And this makes me think that people who keep using Windows voluntarily when they don’t even need it for work and their livelihood and not switching OSes in these times when Windows 10 is sunsetting and Windows 11 can’t be installed on their PCs, then it’s absolutely illogical that they aren’t switching, provided they are tech savvy, read tech blogs and know their way around a computer than most people. They really have no reason to complain while sitting on a burning chair and still choose not to move from it.
I think Microsoft will double down on eradicating 10, will make 11 even more frustrating and bloated, harder to customize and 12 will be even worse than 11. I am even inclined to believe that if Linux gets more adoption and increases market share at the expense of Windows, Microsoft will try to find a way to sabotage Linux out of fear of competition, like they did with Linux and IBM in the 90s.
Maybe I’m looking at things from the perspective of successfully moving to Linux by saying there is no reason to use Windows anymore unless your work and livelihood requires it, but I stand behind this 100%. Using Windows in 2025 is borderline insanity.
I also know a lot of people who use Windows and don’t have a technical background of any sort, they know how to operate several pieces of software and don’t care about anything. No updates, no maintenance, nothing. Some even use Windows for pure entertainment – movies, videos, games and also don’t care. I don’t include those people in the group that should move to Linux or not complain about the happenings in Windows, since they are entirely oblivious of those problems and don’t care, they are perfectly fine with Windows and it should remain this way.
As someone who truly doesn’t like Windows 11 (and due to invasive AI it gets worse and worse) I’d advise you to take a look at 11 IoT which also seems to run on older hardware. Sadly it seems you can’t upgrade from your existing 10 installation to it and you probably need a new license and it’s going to wipe your applications and maybe even files.
The thing with limiting Defender support after 2028 sounds like a scandal. At a minimum, the pattern updates should be provided. They seem to even work on 7 at least if you manually install them.