(Credit: René Ramos, Lily Yeh; Microsoft)
Do you have a PC running Windows 10? Come October, Microsoft will be knocking on your virtual door, asking for some cash: “Nice PC you have here—sure would be a shame if something happened to it.” When that time comes, you can choose to pay $30 for the extended security updates (ESUs) you need to safely use your PC for another year.
It feels like another cash grab from a big company, and many people will see it as Microsoft looking for some extra money to pad its profits. But Microsoft doesn’t really want you to pay for these updates; it would much prefer you just get a new Windows 11 machine. Below, I outline some of the ways Microsoft is not so subtly encouraging you to buy a new PC.
Your Windows 10 PC Is on Borrowed Time
On October 14, 2025, Microsoft will cease security updates for Windows 10 PCs, officially ending support. As such, these computers will become increasingly vulnerable to security threats—just like PCs running Windows 7, Vista, or XP.
This might sound sudden, but it’s worth remembering that Windows 10 originally came out in 2015 and has enjoyed a decade of updates. Still, it's a big deal because Windows 10 is still popular, much more so than Windows 11, according to Statcounter. I’ve surveyed the subscribers of my Windows Intelligence newsletter, too: Roughly half of them still use Windows 10 in some way. Microsoft’s strict system requirements prevent many Windows 10 users from upgrading to Microsoft's most recent OS, so this isn't very surprising.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)As mentioned, Microsoft is offering a respite. For $30 per PC, you can get extended security updates. But this isn't the panacea that you might think it is.
1. Microsoft Only Begrudgingly Offers ESUs
For Microsoft, charging for Windows security updates isn't new. It offered paid ESUs for past Windows versions, including Windows 7 and XP. The big change is that Microsoft is making these updates available to individuals. Past programs were available only to businesses, schools, and other large organizations.
This shift deflects criticism that the company is putting many still-useful PCs out to pasture, though Microsoft still says that “the Extended Security Update (ESU) program is a last resort option.” In other words, this is not an ideal long-term solution, and Microsoft is very up-front about that.
2. Microsoft Offers More Years of Support for Businesses
When Microsoft initially announced it was offering extended security updates to individuals, the company left a lot of details up in the air. In fact, only business pricing was clear. For businesses, these security updates double in price each year. Windows 10 ESUs will cost $61 per PC for the first year, $122 for the second year, and then $244 in the third year. That’s a total of $427 per PC for three years of security updates.
That’s a high bill that's meant to push businesses to leave Windows 10 behind. Still, it might be a small price to pay to get another three years of support for a mission-critical business system. What happens after the third year is a separate question entirely. Microsoft will likely be done updating the operating system completely at that point. Businesses could pay for only three years of extended security updates for Windows 7, after all.
For consumers, the question of what comes next is much more pressing. Microsoft is allowing you to pay for just one additional year of security updates. That means you can continue using your Windows 10 PC securely until October 2026.
If Microsoft was trying to aggressively monetize all consumer-level Windows 10 PC users, the company made a big mistake here! It could offer several more years of updates and double the fee each time, as it does for enterprise users. And it's already planning to offer these updates to businesses anyway, so it shouldn't be too difficult logistically to send them to consumers. Finally, I'm sure many Windows 10 users wouldn't hesitate to pay to put off the cost of upgrading.
The decision to limit updates to a single year isn't about making serious cash. It’s about pushing people to upgrade with an inconvenient fee. It’s also great optics: Microsoft can insist that it’s not immediately axing support for all those usable Windows 10 PCs and condemning them to e-waste.
3. Microsoft Isn’t Promoting the ESUs
Microsoft isn’t proudly advertising its ESU option to consumers. In fact, it seems like it would prefer most people never even hear about it. At the start of CES, Microsoft even proclaimed 2025 as “the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh.”
According to Microsoft, this is the year to buy a new computer if you’re still using a Windows 10 PC. The company talks a lot about AI—especially Copilot+ PCs with neural processing units (NPUs) for running AI tasks.
In its big announcement talking up new hardware, Microsoft didn’t mention the Windows 10 ESU program for consumers. Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi, Executive Vice President, Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, wrote, "Our focus is on helping customers stay protected by moving to modern new PCs running Windows 11,” in the related blog post.
Even when it announced consumer ESU pricing back in October of 2024, Microsoft buried the lead. In that blog post, Mehdi spends most of the time discussing the benefits of upgrading to Windows 11 and how simple Windows 11 is to use. Details about the ESU program are deep down in the blog post: “You may require additional time while moving to a new Windows 11 PC or Copilot+ PC,” Mehdi wrote before quickly mentioning the $30 fee.
More of a Shove Than a Suggestion
Microsoft would prefer you don’t even consider extended security updates for your Windows 10 PC. If that pesky $30 fee is what pushes you to buy a new Windows 11 computer, Microsoft is getting what it wants. And if Microsoft can avoid a bit of criticism by giving you a year to get used to the idea of upgrading, that's a win for it as well.
How to Keep Your Windows 10 PC Going
Although Microsoft might be nearly done with your Windows 10 PC, that doesn’t mean your hardware has reached the end of the line. There are lots of other great ways to keep your Windows 10 PC alive, such as installing a Linux distribution or ChromeOS Flex. Both are totally free, too. Alternatively, the 0Patch service promises to keep your Windows 10 PC secure for years to come—for a subscription fee, of course.