Microsoft expands free Windows 10 security overhauls into 2026, Windows10, Cyber Security

Microsoft expands free Windows 10 security overhauls into 2026, with strings joined.

Final drop, Microsoft declared that people who needed to keep utilizing Windows 10 past its official end-of-support date may do so by selecting into the company's Expanded Security Overhaul (ESU) program at a fetched of $30 per PC. That installment would get clients a single year of extra security upgrades. Nowadays, less than four months some time recently that October 14, 2025, cutoff, 

 

Microsoft is reporting extra alternatives for individuals who can't or do not need to pay that charge.   People who need to pay $30 for the extra year of overhauls will still be able to do so. But Microsoft will too expand a year of extra Windows 10 security overhauls to any clients who select into Windows Reinforcement, a moderately later Windows 10 and Windows 11 app that backs up a few settings and records employing a Microsoft account. 

 

Clients can too select into ESU overhauls by investing 1,000 Microsoft Rewards focuses, which are given out for everything from making buys along with your Microsoft account to doing Bing looks.   These offers do not formally amplify the end-of-support date for Windows 10. But for clients who do not need to move to Windows 11 or who can't do so since their PC doesn't meet the necessities, they do successfully offer an extra year of free overhauls for the OS that's still introduced on a thin lion's share of the world’s Windows PCs, concurring to Statcounter information.   

 

Microsoft's web journal post says that Windows 10 clients will be advertised get to to the ESU program proactively by means of notices and the Settings app. Given how forcefully Microsoft has utilized these and other implies to thrust Windows 11 updates and unused Copilot+ PCs, it's at slightest decent that the company isn't making Windows 10 clients go digging to keep getting upgrades. Microsoft will test these notices within the Windows Insider See channel for Windows 10 beginning nowadays. 

 

They'll start showing up for standard Windows 10 clients in July and ought to be rolled out to all Windows 10 PCs "by mid-August."   Once enlisted, the ESU program will bolster buyer Windows 10 PCs until October 13, 2026. Businesses, schools, and other organizations can still get up to three a long time of ESU upgrades, but they'll got to pay for the benefit; the year of free-ish upgrades as it were applies to buyer PCs. Microsoft said as of late that it plans to bolster the Microsoft 365 and standalone forms of the Microsoft Office apps on Windows 10 until 2028.

 

It's worth noticing that the Windows Reinforcement and Microsoft Rewards strategies for getting these upgrades require the utilize of a Microsoft Account, something Microsoft has been pushing with gradually expanding escalated in Windows 11. Windows 10 pushed Microsoft Account utilization in different ways, as well, but it was for the most part less demanding to make and sign in with a nearby account; for those individuals, the "free" overhaul offer appears like another exertion from Microsoft to bring them into the overlay.   The Windows Reinforcement alternative appears expecting to ease the relocation to a modern Windows 11 PC when the time comes. 

 

The company may be advertising a brief respite for Windows 10 clients, but the objective is still to move them to Windows 11 in the long run.   "To assist make your move to a Windows 11 PC, as straightforward and secure as conceivable, we suggest utilizing Windows Backup—built right into Windows 10," composes Microsoft Buyer Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Medhi in Microsoft's web journal post. "It’s a straightforward way to assist you securely and safely exchange your information, individual records, and most settings and applications, so everything’s prepared for you the minute you sign in."  

 

Individuals with existing Microsoft Accounts who do not want to utilize Windows Reinforcement may as of now have the 1,000 Microsoft Rewards focuses you'd  ought to select within the ESU program; my Microsoft account has 3,411 focuses connected to it for a few reason in spite of an 18-month expiration window and indeed in spite of the fact that I’ve never taken any deliberateness steps toward gaining any. 

 

Clients making a unused account for the primary time can gather that numerous focuses reasonably insignificantly over the course of many  days, counting by downloading the Bing app and doing different Bing looks.   

 

We have inquired Microsoft a few calculated questions almost the ESU program enrollment. On the off chance that you reset or completely reinstall Windows 10 on the same PC, is that PC automatically enlisted within the ESU program, or will clients got to enlist once more? In case you briefly empower Windows Reinforcement to get to the ESU program but at that point halt utilizing Windows Reinforcement, will your PC keep accepting the overhauls? And on the off chance that you've got numerous PCs, do you wish to empower Windows Reinforcement or spend the 1,000 Rewards focuses on each of them separately to connect the ESU program? We'll upgrade this article in the event that we get answers to any or all of these questions. 

 

 

As welcome as a year of fundamentally free-of-charge Windows 10 security overhauls is, Microsoft is still staying to its weapons in advancing Windows 11 overhauls (for PCs that can introduce it) and full PC substitutions (for everybody else). 

 

Medhi once once more emphasized that 2025 is "the year of the Windows 11 PC revive," a not especially catchy catchphrase that the company started utilizing back in January. Microsoft hasn't changed the end-of-support date for Windows 10, nor has it extricated the framework prerequisites for Windows 11 to form it more broadly consistent with existing PCs.   

 

Microsoft's endeavors do appear to be paying off (or, at slightest, a few combination of Microsoft's endeavors and Windows 10 PCs normally maturing out of the introduce base). Whereas Windows 10 is still running on the lion's share of Windows PCs around the world (approximately 53 percent, agreeing to Statcounter's May 2025 information), Windows 11's share has expanded from generally 34 percent in December 2024 to around 43 percent as of May 2025.   

 

On PCs within the US, Statcounter's information appears Windows 11 overwhelming Windows 10 in Walk 2025—it right now runs on around 53 percent of US-based Windows PCs, compared to 43 percent for Windows 10. Fair a year back, Statcounter's information appears Windows 10 PCs dwarfing Windows 11 PCs by generally two to one. 

 

The Steam Equipment Study appears a comparable arc—as of May 2025, Windows 11 runs on 61 percent of Steam Windows PCs, compared to around 39 percent for Windows 10.   These stats are all a bit loud and conflicting, but they're valuable for observing broad drift lines, and those are all indicating within the same course: 

 

Windows 11 is making genuine picks up after slowing down out for most of 2023 and 2024.   Another year of free-ish updates won't be enough to form Windows 10 totally vanish. And the truth that you simply got to select in to the ESU program rather than fair getting the additional overhauls consequently implies that a few less actually smart clients likely won't get the upgrades no matter how moo the boundaries to passage are. But the extra enrollment alternatives do at slightest donate Windows 10 clients a few more choices, whether they can't introduce Windows 11 or fair do not need to. 

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