Last fall, Microsoft announced that individuals who wanted to keep using Windows 10 past its official end-of-support date could do so by opting into the company's Extended Security Update (ESU) program at a cost of $30 per PC. That payment would get users a single year of additional security updates. Today, less than four months before that October 14, 2025, cutoff, Microsoft is announcing additional options for people who can't or don't want to pay that fee.
Individuals who want to pay $30 for the additional year of updates will still be able to do so. But Microsoft will also extend a year of additional Windows 10 security updates to any users who opt into Windows Backup, a relatively recent Windows 10 and Windows 11 app that backs up some settings and files using a Microsoft account. Users can also opt into ESU updates by spending 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, which are handed out for everything from making purchases with your Microsoft account to doing Bing searches.
These offers don't formally extend the end-of-support date for Windows 10. But for users who don't want to move to Windows 11 or who can't do so because their PC doesn't meet the requirements, they do effectively offer an additional year of free updates for the OS that's still installed on a slim majority of the world’s Windows PCs, according to Statcounter data.
Read full article
Comments
From Tech – Ars Technica via this RSS feed