Windows 10: doomsday 14th October – or is it?
Good News! Microsoft has blinked first. There will be free ongoing support for Win10 after 14th October 2025, but you have to choose what you want do. It won’t be automatic.
| Option | Cost /year | Description | Expires |
| 1 | Free | Activate free backup to one drive <5GB | 10/2026 |
| la | £19.99 | Activate backup to one drive 1OOGB | 10/2026 |
| lb | £104.99 | Office 365 backup to one drive 1TB | 10/2026 |
| 2 | Free | Use Microsoft rewards points (1000) | 10/2026 |
| 3 | £25 | MS Updates | 10/2026 |
| 4 | £60 | MS Updates (but fee doubles each year!) | 10/2028 |
| 5 | £25.85 | Opatch fixed fee claimed to run until 2030 | 10/2030 |
To obtain any of them you must be running the latest version of Win10 which is 22H2 (How to find your Windows version). Microsoft jargon calls it Win10 Extended Security Updates (abbreviated to ESU).
- The simplest way forwards is to activate the free backup service (max 5GB of files) from Security Windows Update and selecting “Enroll now” for ESU and online backup (How to). Choose one small directory to backup to avoid having to pay (total size must be under 5GB). E.g. My Documents This should enable continued free Microsoft Win10 security updates for an extra year.
They hope that you will find 5GB too restrictive and upgrade to one of their several paid one drive services which are £19.99 for up to 1OOGB (1a) or bundled with Office365 it is £104.99 for 1TB (1b)
- The other free option is to use some of your Microsoft rewards points (which you may have acquired if you use the Bing search engine or play certain Microsoft games). To do this you must visit the Microsoft Rewards website and redeem your points for Win10 ESU security updates.
- Paying Microsoft £24.99 as an individual user will also give you another year of ESU updates. I can see no good reason to do this when you can now choose option 1 for free.
- Paying Microsoft £60 as a business user will give you another year of ESU updates and the option of extended updates for the next three years but the price doubles every year!
This may suit some businesses that have a lot invested in Win10 based bespoke software and need time to move onto Win11. It is probably not a good option for home users.
- The final option is to subscribe to a relatively unknown and obscure Slovenian company’s offer to provide ongoing security updates for Microsoft Win10 until at least 2030 for slightly more than Microsoft charges home users. This is a bit of a gamble but might suit home users who really can’t run Win11 on their old hardware and don’t want to buy a new Win11 PC.
If your PC can run Win11 then I would strongly recommend that you upgrade unless you have compelling reasons not to do so. Back up all of your precious files first!
This page (TechRadar) explains why just carrying on using Windows 10 is a bad idea and that you can continue to get security updates for the next year at least in a relatively simple way
If you want to understand more complex option then have a look at: https://therestartproject.org/right-to-repair/lets-stop-microsoft-creating-millions-of-tonnes-of-e-waste-this-october/
If you want to talk about your options come along to one of our Repair Cafes.
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