Microsoft is officially ending mainstream support for Windows 10 in October, 2025. And the company really wants users to migrate to Windows 11 – either by updating the operating system on an existing PC or buy purchasing a new PC if their current computer doesn't meet the minimum system requirements (and a lot of fairly recent models don't).

Not ready, able, or willing to upgrade or buy a new computer? You can keep using Windows 10 for the time being. But over time it'll become riskier to do that since Microsoft will stop releasing security, bug fix, and feature updates for the operating system. You can buy yourself a little more time though… literally. Microsoft has announced that it'll let you pay to continue getting security updates for a little while.

Microsoft often offers an Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for businesses that aren't ready to upgrade. Now the company has announced details for the Windows 10 ESU program. But the company has also launched an ESU program for personal users for the first time.

Here's how much it'll cost you to continue receiving security updates for Windows 10:

  • Personal users can pay $30 to continue receiving updates for one extra year.
  • Business users can pay $61 per device for the first year (or $45 per user for up to five devices when using a cloud-based update management solution like Microsoft Intune or Windows Autopatch).

    • Personal users can only get one more year of security updates, which means that after October, 2026 they will no longer receive updates. Business customers can get up to three years of updates, but prices go up each year: after paying $61 per device in the first year, customers will have to pay $122 during the second year and $244 during the third year. At that rate, it might just be cheaper to buy new computers.

    Keep in mind that even paying customers will only get security updates. Microsoft has no plans to continue releasing bug fix or feature updates for Windows 10.

    On the one hand, there's nothing too surprising in these announcements. Microsoft had already indicated it would offer a personal ESU option for the first time as a way to give people a little more time to upgrade.

    On the other hand, with millions of people still running Windows 10 on their home and business PCs, I imagine that only a small portion are likely to take advantage of this new program… which means that even though Microsoft will be developing and releasing security updates for Windows 10, most users won't receive them. And that feels like Microsoft is just asking for trouble.

    via The Verge and the Windows Experience Blog

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