Windows 10 is one of the most popular operating systems out there, and Microsoft is extending an olive branch of sorts to Windows 10 diehards who continue to resist the call to upgrade by offering Windows 10 users an additional year of security support, but it won't be free.
In a new blog post about the benefits of upgrading to Windows 11, of which there are several to be sure, Microsoft discloses that a new Extended Security Updates (ESU) program will be available for all users, not just enterprise or education users, unwilling or unable to upgrade to Windows 11 after support ends for the venerable OS on October 14, 2025.
For an additional $30, you'll be able to get security updates for Windows 10, but not any new features. Users will be able to enroll in the new ESU program later next year near the October 2025 end-of-support deadline.
The announcement of the new ESU program comes at the very end of the blog post, most of which is pretty much a hard sell on the benefits of switching to Windows 11, something that Microsoft has struggled to convince people to do.
Everyday users will have an extended security option normally reserved for enterprise users
Every user's experience with Windows 11 will be different, but for many, the added hardware requirements and bad publicity around Windows 11 updates breaking some popular features of the OS have definitely played a part in customers' resistance to upgrading from Windows 10. The creation of the ESU program for all Windows 10 users, then, is both a recognition of that fact and a welcome development as far as customer service goes.
Normally, extended security updates are reserved for organizations and enterprise customers who have a lot of interconnected systems that rely on a common OS to operate and so are very resistant to upgrading.
People are typically shocked when they find out how many businesses, government agencies, and organizations are still using operating systems like Windows XP and Windows 7, but large companies and organizations build entire workflows, trainings, and bespoke software around these operating systems, and switching to a new operating system might have unforseeable consequences that can be very costly.
As such, Microsoft, Apple, and others typically offer these big customers long-term support programs where security updates are pushed out even if new features are not for a few years after general end-of-life support stops for more mainstream users.
This is the first time though that something similar is being offered to anyone willing to pay the $30 to keep Windows 10 secure for just a little while longer. Hopefully, this can be the start of a trend going forward for popular operating systems like Windows 10, as I'm sure many Windows 10 fans will gladly pay a small fee to keep using their preferred OS without risking their PC's security.
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