Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026 – but with strings attached
Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026 – but with strings attached
The end-of-support date of October 14th isn’t changing, but free options are now available - just for consumers though; businesses will still have to pay.
Published on 27th June 2025
Last autumn, 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. Now, less than four months before that October 14, 2025 cut-off, 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.
Microsoft’s blog post says that Windows 10 users will be offered access to the ESU program proactively via notifications and the Settings app. Given how aggressively Microsoft has used these and other means to push Windows 11 upgrades and new Copilot+ PCs, it’s at least nice that the company isn’t making Windows 10 users go digging to keep getting updates. Microsoft will test these notifications in the Windows Insider Preview channel for Windows 10 starting today. They’ll begin appearing for regular Windows 10 users in July and should be rolled out to all Windows 10 PCs “by mid-August.”
Once enrolled, the ESU program will support consumer Windows 10 PCs until October 13, 2026. Businesses, schools, and other organisations can still get up to three years of ESU updates, but they’ll have to pay for the privilege; the year of free-ish updates only applies to consumer PCs. Microsoft said recently that it plans to support the Microsoft 365 and standalone versions of the Microsoft Office apps on Windows 10 until 2028.
Free* updates
It’s worth noting that the Windows Backup and Microsoft Rewards methods for getting these updates require the use of a Microsoft Account, something Microsoft has been pushing with slowly increasing intensity in Windows 11. Windows 10 pushed Microsoft Account usage in various ways, too, but it was generally easier to create and sign in with a local account; for those people, the “free” update offer seems like another effort from Microsoft to bring them into the fold.
The Windows Backup option seems intended to ease the migration to a new Windows 11 PC when the time comes. The company may be offering a short reprieve for Windows 10 users, but the goal is still to shift them to Windows 11 eventually.
“To help make your move to a Windows 11 PC, as simple and secure as possible, we recommend using Windows Backup—built right into Windows 10,” writes Microsoft Consumer Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Medhi in Microsoft’s blog post. “It’s an easy way to help you safely and securely transfer your data, personal files, and most settings and applications, so everything’s ready for you the moment you sign in.”
People with existing Microsoft Accounts who don’t want to use Windows Backup may already have the 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points you would need to enrol in the ESU program; my Microsoft account has 3,411 points attached to it for some reason despite an 18-month expiration window and even though I’ve never taken any intentional steps toward earning any. Users creating a new account for the first time can accumulate that many points fairly trivially over the course of a few days, including by downloading the Bing app and doing various Bing searches.
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that Microsoft Account sign-in will be required to enrol a PC into the ESU program. If you reset or reinstall a fresh copy of Windows on a new Windows 10 PC, you’ll need to sign back in with a Microsoft account to enrol the PC in the ESU program.
But “once a Windows 10 PC is enrolled in ESU, it remains enrolled in the program,” the Microsoft spokesperson said. Once enrolled, if you sign out of your Microsoft Account, or if you stop using the Windows Backup app, your PC will continue to receive the security updates afterward.
