With support for Windows 10 ending on October 14, 2025, Microsoft wants people to switch to Windows 11 or pay $30 to keep using Windows 10.
You can upgrade to Windows 11 by updating your existing PC or buying new hardware. But what if you’re going to keep using Windows 10 for another year after 2025? You’ll need to pay $30, or your PC will become vulnerable to security issues. That’s because Microsoft will stop releasing security updates for Windows 10 starting October 14, 2025.
I’m going to keep this article as simple as possible for consumers and businesses so you understand how much you need to pay for Windows updates and when. As you probably know, Windows 10 was launched on July 19, 2015, and Microsoft committed to 10 years of support, which means until October 14, 2025.
After this date, Microsoft will stop all updates for Windows 10 Home and Pro. This means no feature, monthly, optional, cumulative, security and other critical updates for devices still running Windows 10. As of today, October 31, 2024, there are roughly 349 days left for Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 or pay $30.
For enterprise and education customers, Windows 10 also has a ten-year support period, which ends on October 14, 2025.
You can buy Windows 10 security updates
For enterprise customers, Microsoft has an additional Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, which was previously limited to Windows 7. It’s now also coming to Windows 10 as the OS inches closer to the end of support.
The idea behind the ESU is to help businesses smoothly move to Windows 11 slowly, but Microsoft understands that normal people like us may also want to keep using Windows 10.
In an updated support document, Microsoft confirmed that, for the first time, it is offering the ESU program to consumers. This will be available for a $30 one-year subscription, with option to buy the “extended updates†closer to the 2025 end date. You can only buy it one time.
Microsoft won’t tell us how you’ll be able to purchase the extended updates license, but Windows Latest understands it could be similar to how the company sold paid updates to Windows 7 businesses.
For Windows 10 ESU, we can expect Microsoft to make ESU updates available directly through Microsoft’s site and possibly through partners or third-party resellers. Since it’s a one-year $30 plan for consumers, Microsoft may link the license to Microsoft account and simply the purchase+activation process.
Microsoft will likely release more details on this closer to 2025
This is a developing story….
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