Home windows 10 will get an additional 12 months of free safety updates (with a catch)

For a very long time, there’s been a Sword of Damocles hanging over the PC customers who didn’t wish to quit Home windows 10, regardless of how a lot Microsoft begged them to improve to 11 and/or purchase a brand new laptop computer. Because the countdown to October saved ticking, we had been questioning if Microsoft would relent for hundreds of thousands of customers in no temper to vary. Because it seems, they’ve…with some quid professional quos.

To be clear, this isn’t precisely a reprieve for Home windows 10. The working system, which is approaching its tenth birthday in July, received’t get any vital function updates after it loses hits finish of life in October. However Microsoft is increasing the Prolonged Safety Updates program, crucially eradicating the $30 payment for its first 12 months…should you use Home windows Backup to sync your Home windows settings to OneDrive. Alternately, you should use 1000 Microsoft Rewards factors to get the identical profit.

If you happen to don’t wish to do both of these, you’ll wish to cough up $30 USD to increase full assist to October thirteenth, 2026. Companies and business organizations have another choices — should you’re a Fortune 100 firm with about ten thousand machines and also you don’t really feel like upgrading to Home windows 11 simply but, Microsoft is more likely to take heed to your considerations.

October fifteenth, 2025 continues to be going to be one thing of a deadline for many common customers, who have to train a kind of three choices above or cease receiving essential safety and stability updates. However alternatively, it may not be as dire a state of affairs as that feels like, a minimum of initially. Microsoft will proceed to replace Home windows’ free, default Defender Antivirus on Home windows 10 by way of October 2028, and that’s the primary line of protection by way of safety from issues like viruses, trojans, and adware.

After all, Microsoft would nonetheless very a lot desire you to improve to Home windows 11…or higher but, simply purchase a brand new PC. (These Copilot+ laptops aren’t going to promote themselves, in spite of everything.) The truth is, the Home windows Expertise Weblog nonetheless calls 2025 “the 12 months of the Home windows 11 PC refresh” even because it provides you two new, free choices to place off that refresh for an additional 12 months.

Perhaps all these baked-in ads and pushes to make use of questionably-necessary AI instruments (and the costly subscription they require) aren’t going over in addition to a number of the higher-ups in Redmond would have appreciated.