Microsoft to offer consumers paid extended security updates for Windows 10

• Microsoft plans to make its Extended Security Updates (ESU) service available to regular consumers.
• The paid service aims to offer security updates for Windows 10 after the end of support in 2025.
• This service will only include limited updates without new features or technical support.
• The price for the ESU service is yet to be announced.
• The announcement also hints that the company won’t be extending the support of Windows 10.

Microsoft plans to offer its Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 10 users who want to keep using the operating system after the support ends in 2025. According to the latest announcement from the company, users who wish to continue using Windows 10 after October 14, 2025, can enroll in the ESU paid service to receive critical and important security updates for an additional three years.

The Extended Security Updates is a paid service that Microsoft has always reserved for organizations that need to run older versions of the operating system beyond the official support period for many reasons, including compatibility and cost. However, the company now says that it understands that some circumstances may prevent users from upgrading to a newer version before the end of the support date.

As a result, the software giant will now allow users to purchase the paid service to continue getting updates for three more years. However, the Extended Security Updates service will not offer new features, customer-requested non-security updates, or design change requests, nor will it provide technical support.

Although the support of Windows 10 is still expected for October 14, 2025, there was still a hope that Microsoft would extend the support a little longer, especially since the operating system is still more widely used than Windows 11, and recently, the company unveiled that it was reviewing the approach to Windows 10 by bringing Copilot and adding new features. However, at this point, Microsoft isn’t considering extending support or planning more feature updates.

If you’re still on Windows 10, the best approach is to upgrade to Windows 11 before the operating system reaches the end of support since there’s no cost for the upgrade, and it will not only keep your computer supported, but the device will continue to receive security update and new features as soon as they’re available.

According to the lifecycle page, Microsoft notes that an individual consumer or an organization using Windows 10 after support ends can enroll their devices in the paid Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. However, the company isn’t sharing pricing details at this time.