Around the world, there are hundreds of millions of computers running on Windows 10, even though the successor version, Windows 11, launched four years ago. But the long-announced switch-off is diluted by the Windows Extended Support Updates program. So long as you act quickly.
The deadline is almost upon us. In about two weeks’ time, on Tuesday, Oct. 14, support is switched off for Windows 10. You can add a further year of support through the ESU program if you’re happy on Windows 10 — or your PC won’t run Windows 11 — and you want to keep it going.
But to get this offer for free, you need to act quickly, by signing up to the ESU program. The price for an extra year is $30 but you can pay nothing providing you sign in with a Microsoft account and sync PC settings to the cloud. You could alternatively choose to redeem 1,000 Microsoft Reward points to avoid the $30 cost.
This is all pretty straightforward, and signing in with the Microsoft account is a neat way to avoid paying more than you need.
It will provide a year’s access to security updates. What will happen next October is anybody’s guess, but, for sure, Microsoft is trying to move everyone to Windows 11 as soon as it can.
Additionally, if you live in the European Economic Area, that is, the countries in the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, there’s an extra benefit: you don’t need to sync settings to OneDrive, which is a requirement elsewhere. This was as a response to consumer organizations in the EU who claimed that the ESU program conditions were designed to benefit Microsoft.
Users in the EEA “will still need to enroll into extended security updates, which will require the user to authenticate with a Microsoft account once every 60 days, but it will no longer require the user to sync their PC settings to the cloud or cost money,” as Windows Central explained.