Microsoft Extends Free Windows 10 Security Updates Into 2026, With Strings Attached (windows.com) 58
Microsoft will offer free Windows 10 security updates through October 2026 to consumers who enable Windows Backup or spend 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, the company said today. The move provides alternatives to the previously announced $30-per-PC Extended Security Update program for individuals wanting to continue using Windows 10 past its October 14, 2025 end-of-support date.
The company will notify Windows 10 users about the ESU program through the Settings app and notifications starting in July, with full rollout by mid-August. Both free options require a Microsoft Account, which the company has increasingly pushed in Windows 11. Business and organizational customers can still purchase up to three years of ESU updates but must pay for the service.
Windows 10 remains installed on 53% of Windows PCs worldwide, according to Statcounter data.
The company will notify Windows 10 users about the ESU program through the Settings app and notifications starting in July, with full rollout by mid-August. Both free options require a Microsoft Account, which the company has increasingly pushed in Windows 11. Business and organizational customers can still purchase up to three years of ESU updates but must pay for the service.
Windows 10 remains installed on 53% of Windows PCs worldwide, according to Statcounter data.
Backup Craziness (Score:2, Offtopic)
The trouble with Windows' insistence on backing up is this: it has no way to tell which files in Documents, Music, Videos, etc, need to be backed up, and which don't. For example FL Studio puts a ton of files in Documents\Image-Line. Around three gigs. Most of those are provided in the installer, so it's crazy to use cloud space for those. Of all that, only Documents\Image-Line\FL Studio\Projects needs backing up, and possibly a few user-created presets lurking somewhere. And it is a similar story for much
Re: (Score:2)
Shouldn't those go in %APPDATA% ?
n.b. I last adminned Windows when NT4 was dominant.
Re:Backup Craziness (Score:4, Interesting)
Shouldn't those go in %APPDATA% ?
More likely %PROGRAMDATA%, but yeah. The GP is making a poorly designed application Microsoft's problem.
Re: (Score:2)
If it does not allow you to select which files/directories to back up then it is Microsoft's problem. Even without a poorly designed application, it may be that some of the files there are ones that I have elsewhere or are not important enough for me to back up, especially if the backup space is limited.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Good FP perspective and it reminds me of an old academic article about the potentially infinite lifespan of "Internet" data. The premise of the paper was that the marginal cost of storage is low but the immediate cost of evaluating data for deletion is high. The kernel of the problem is that the future remains unknowable, so it is quite difficult (and therefore expensive) to decide that a certain piece of data will not become valuable in the future, even if it looks to be completely worthless now. (Have I r
Re: (Score:2)
Most of those are provided in the installer, so it's crazy to use cloud space for those.
Maybe consider reaching out to the company whose dumb fucking developers thinks your Documents folders is an appropriate place for that. That isn't Microsoft's fault. It stands to reason that the entire Documents folders should be backed up while folders like AppData (which is where user specific installations are supposed to go) isn't.
But Microsoft in their infinite wisdom think it's sensible to just try and back up all that to the cloud
Yes that is good wisdom. It's a safe assumption that most users are not attempting to side step a backup process. By putting users in charge of their own manually curated bac
Re: Backup Craziness (Score:2)
This happens when you're asleep? So a power event can destroy both your storage and the backup?
Re: (Score:2)
The trouble with Windows' insistence on backing up is this: it has no way to tell which files in Documents, Music, Videos, etc, need to be backed up, and which don't.
Then manually exclude that folder and complain to the people who made whatever FL Studio is for storing things in your home directory that have no business being there.
Plenty of people have Office 365 or MS-Drive (Score:2)
Heck, some people even use MS-Backup by their own volition...
This is good news. Not only because more people will have patched Win10 until 2026, but also, because now the ESU gets to common folk, more SW companies (specially SW companies that deal with consumer SW) will be incentivized to support their software on ESU.
Remember that until Win7, ESU was restricted only to enterprised, and therefore, only enterprise software companies were incentivized to match the ESU support timelines. More mainstream consum
Re: Plenty of people have Office 365 or MS-Drive (Score:1)
Meaningless
Interesting game of chicken (Score:1)
Millions of Windows 10 users will not upgrade and will not pay the yearly security patch fee, and will start to get infected.
Will MS say "you're on your own, too bad" and let mass chaos happen, hurting MS's reputation (fair or not), or will they back down and give security updates free?
FTFY (Score:4, Insightful)
Millions of Windows 10 users cannot upgrade...
Re: (Score:2)
I think you mean:
Millions of Windows 10 users are arbitrarily blocked from upgrading by Microsoft.
Re: FTFY (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
The requirements are arbitrary. Windows 11 doesn't require memory protection unless it's on an intel processor, and it doesn't matter if the implementation is broken. Windows 11 also requires these security features to be available but doesn't require signed drivers to be compatible with them so it's highly likely that even if your system meets all the enhanced security requirements, they'll need to be disabled due to bad hardware or incompatible drivers.
None of this rules out malicious or fraudulent inte
Re: FTFY (Score:2)
It's not arbitrary, it's designed to sell more PCs for their partners, who will include more Windows licenses, producing more revenue for both parties.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
My old @#&!% PCs still work fine, thanks.
Re: (Score:1)
Addendum: note I'm not endorsing MS's "fix", only saying users have an option, albeit, not a good one.
Re: (Score:2)
Millions of Windows 10 users will not upgrade and will not pay the yearly security patch fee, and will start to get infected.
Will MS say "you're on your own, too bad" and let mass chaos happen, hurting MS's reputation (fair or not), or will they back down and give security updates free?
We heard this in the dire warnings about the Apocalypse, when Computers running Windows XP were going to be Pwned, and take down the internet. Remember when we had to go a year without internet before they got those XP powered zombies removed? Me either.
And 11 needs constant security updates. So let's face it, Windows is inherently insecure. As for Windows reputation - how can it get any worse? Yet the faithful will do anything that Microsoft tells them they will do. They might grouse a little but it's a
Re: (Score:2)
Well, at my workplace we're opting out of the game entirely. Other than a few machines that require Windows for accessibility or specialized apps, we're moving over to Linux. I test-ran a few different distros, and settled on Debian 12. With a few images and Clonezilla and a bootable USB stick, I've started eliminating Windows 10 from most machines. There's some training that needs to occur, but so far nothing has exploded.
We have perfectly good machines that even if we wanted to upgrade (which we don't), w
Stop sucking up to the bully (Score:3, Informative)
Microsoft has been the bully for too many decades now. They are the #1 cause of malware, because they write horrible code designed to be backward compatible all the way with WFW. That's 30 years of obsolescence.
If you're done being the bully's bitch, get a better OS:
https://linuxmint.com/ [linuxmint.com]
E
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft has been the bully for too many decades now. They are the #1 cause of malware, because they write horrible code designed to be backward compatible all the way with WFW. That's 30 years of obsolescence.
If you're done being the bully's bitch, get a better OS:
https://linuxmint.com/ [linuxmint.com]
E
Mint is a real dream if you ask me. The usual install I do for people. Occasionally I'll install Mate.
Re: (Score:2)
Just published today, "Microsoft’s big lie: Your computer is fine (and you don’t need to buy a new one)": https://technical.ly/civic-new... [technical.ly]
A detailed look, arguing that upgrading from Windows 10 -> Linux Mint is easier than Windows 10 -> Windows 11.
Re: (Score:2)
they write horrible code designed to be backward compatible all the way with WFW. That's 30 years of obsolescence.
Because some random dev declaring that some shitty new dependency (again) that allows them to rip out 4 lines of already written and debugged code is "the future", is soooo much better. Why, it's soooo great that everyone should have to shell out hundreds, if not thousands, of their hard earned cash for completely new kit once every 6 months to an unrelated hardware manufacturer. Just so that poor random dev doesn't have to look at the fuglyness of their own scrawl again!
I don't think you understand who
Re: (Score:2)
You are correct. Win 10 is gasping its last breaths and will soon leave us. If you have to change to something new, don't change to Microsoft's latest surveillance OS. Feel the freedom and switch to Linux. Block the snoops and prevent them from making money on your viewing habits and victimizing you with targeted advertising.
Why does Microsoft want your data so bad? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's really really suspicious that they're trying to get you to send all your files to the microsoft cloud. What purpose does that serve?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Because its an easy money stream like Google and Apple have from phone/photo backups. They have the corporate accounts in Azure now, may as well try to leverage the investment in hardware with the commercial users. Amazon will off and on encourage you to use their cloud backups as an addon to Prime, as well.
This seems to be every tech company. I bought an ASUS computer and made the mistake of registering for the warranty. I get twice weekly emails from them reminding me to enable ASUS cloud backup for a small monthly fee. Not sure why every company seems to think my data is that valuable. If it were worth anything at all, I'd have started making money off of it years ago.
Re: (Score:2)
What's mysterious about Microsoft (and everyone else on the planet) wanting as much data as they can get to train their hallucinating, lying A"I" crap to lie and hallucinate?
Where have you been the last two years? Under a rock with no internet access?
Re:Why does Microsoft want your data so bad? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's really really suspicious that they're trying to get you to send all your files to the microsoft cloud. What purpose does that serve?
Mostly, it's likely tied up in Microsoft's obsession with believing all data on your computer belongs to them. And while people will point to articles where they state it's not possible that Microsoft is using your data to train their AIs, rest assured, if they find a way to do it, they *WILL* use your data to train their AIs.
Secondarily, a possible source of income if you have enough data that it triggers a monthly charge.
But based on their behavior, I'd say it's mostly just about owning your data. If you created it, they want it. If its on the computer you paid for, that runs a Microsoft OS, they believe they have a right to it, and they *WILL* take it by any means necessary. This "Extension" on time is essentially, "Give us all your data, and we'll let you keep running Windows 10. For now."
Re:Why does Microsoft want your data so bad? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's really really suspicious that they're trying to get you to send all your files to the microsoft cloud. What purpose does that serve?
Mostly, it's likely tied up in Microsoft's obsession with believing all data on your computer belongs to them. And while people will point to articles where they state it's not possible that Microsoft is using your data to train their AIs, rest assured, if they find a way to do it, they *WILL* use your data to train their AIs.
And it will not be anonymous either.
I was teaching a class last week, and we got talking about "the cloud" So I held up a multi terabyte SSD that was quite tiny, and noted that the cloud is a hard sell when I have more local storage, and I control the backups, not Microsoft, or Adobe.
People can hate on MacOS all they want, but it doesn't nag me to store in iCloud.
Re: (Score:3)
People can hate on MacOS all they want, but it doesn't nag me to store in iCloud.
Of course they do; it's just more insidious. Try installing software without an iCloud Account...it's getting more and more difficult to get downloadable DMG files anymore; even open source Wireguard doesn't distribute a client for OSX independently of the Mac App Store.
Now, once one has the almost-obligatory iCloud account tied to the Mac, the nags come when the storage runs out...because while us PC folk can install 4TB internal SSDs, possibly two of them or even more, there is no way to upgrade the inter
Re: (Score:2)
People can hate on MacOS all they want, but it doesn't nag me to store in iCloud.
Of course they do; it's just more insidious. Try installing software without an iCloud Account...it's getting more and more difficult to get downloadable DMG files anymore; even open source Wireguard doesn't distribute a client for OSX independently of the Mac App Store.
I've never once had the situation you describe - do you actually use a Mac, or are you just parroting what someone told you?
I almost never use the App Store, and I download and install .dmgs all the time without issue.
There are applications that Apple hasn't approved yet. But it is trivial to enable them. If it tells you it won't open a file, you just go to privacy and security, and tell it to run it anyway. Cool story anyhow, bro.
Now, once one has the almost-obligatory iCloud account tied to the M
Re: (Score:3)
They likely are stealing personal data and selling it to marketing companies, but the absurdly overpriced cloud storage is free money too. You could buy a 10TB HDD for $100 and use it for 5 years for an annual cost of $20/yr plus about $20 power cost, or you could pay MS for 1TB of cloud storage for $100/yr or $500 for 1/10th the storage and significantly worse performance.
It's pretty likely that if you use your storage for an encrypted container you're going to get banned too, so the cost is even higher w
Re: (Score:2)
It's really really suspicious that they're trying to get you to send all your files to the microsoft cloud. What purpose does that serve?
Once they have your files it will be easier to coerce you into getting a new Windows 11, so you can keep having access to your files when the extension period expires, or they put up some other roadblock.
Reward points? (Score:2)
It looks like a behavior modification program, but I'm not sure why they bother when the OS/App ecosystem is a behavior modification system already.
Re: (Score:2)
Reward points are something they had from Xbox - where doing certain things would get you points which could be redeemed for stuff like extra Xbox Live subscriptions and such.
1000 points isn't much - it's easily obtained over about 3 weeks of things or less if you use Bing, Xbox and PC games.
Stop repeating misleading scare talking points (Score:3)
Stop using Microsoft's scare tactic that falsely implies support for all Windows 10 is ending and people have no option besides Win11 or a short time of paid ESU. Not only do they have another choice, but that choice is for a version of Windows *better* than their current one (and certainly better than any Win11 version; I've tried 11 IoT Ent. LTSC and it's barely any better at all than pro; it leaves in way too much bloat and user hostile "features"; and of course can't fix the garbage UI). That's not a trivial time period either; it's hopefully long enough to repeat the pattern of a new, more acceptable version coming out in their good/bad/good/bad pattern (10 isn't as good as 7 but much better than 8).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
he hands down best version of Windows 10, IoT Enterprise LTSC
Define "Best". I wager that most users would not define "best" to mean: The one version of windows known to actively have problems running certain software, the one that can't play HEVC out of the box without asking some nerd what 3rd party movie player to use since the Windows Store isn't present meaning you can't buy the 99c HEVC license. The one version that doesn't allow you to watch Netflix, or Disney+ since any attempts to install either attempt to direct you to said missing store. But maybe you're no
Re: (Score:2)
To your specific complaints, it only doesn't play HEVC ootb if you're using a crappy player that needs the Media Foundation codec. Even if you are on 11, the available MF codecs are extremely limited; only a handful exist. Subtitle support is worse. Every user is inevitably going to run into something
Re: (Score:2)
And how do home users get W10 IoT Enterprise LTSC? :(
MS Publisher 2021 LTSC licenses (Score:2)
OK, Microsoft... now please give us back MS Publisher 2021 LTSC licenses.
Have WAY TOO MANY clients that are small businesses and non-profits that -still- rely on Publisher. (Yes, I KNOW "UGH!" But, that's where we are.) Yanking the rug out from under them, not even allowing them to OPEN old Publisher files after October 2026, is asinine.
Yay, free training data! (Score:1)
If you don't pay, you are not a customer, you are the product. Turns out you are a product even if you do pay!
year of the linux desktop! (Score:2)
Why do I even use windows? According to MSFT its not even secure or even good.
Re: disk2vhd for system images (Score:2)
Works a treat. I've used disk2vhd for for many years so every "backup" is familiar and quick to peruse.
Commercial Extensions? (Score:2)