Microsoft Is Giving Windows 10 Users Free Security Updates for a Year, but There’s a Catch

As Microsoft will get able to sundown Home windows 10, safety assist is scheduled to finish in October. You will get a one-year prolonged safety replace for $30. However if you wish to follow Home windows 10 for an additional 12 months, you is likely to be higher off with Microsoft’s free choice — you may simply want to make use of cloud backup and join it together with your OneDrive account. The power to get free updates on Home windows 10 is a reasonably large deal as a result of it’s nonetheless probably the most broadly used Home windows OS, accounting for simply over 53% of installs as of Could 2025. That leaves thousands and thousands of individuals with out safety assist in only a few months until they improve. So the cloud backup choice provides customers a means out with out costing them any cash. The one potential problem is OneDrive. Anybody with a Microsoft account will get as much as 5GB of storage at no cost. Nevertheless, as The Verge factors out, some backups could exceed this limitation, requiring customers to buy a month-to-month or yearly plan. At $2 monthly for 100GB of cloud storage, a 12 months of OneDrive nonetheless prices lower than the $30 for a 12 months of further safety updates, however it might nonetheless trigger frustration amongst some clients. Home windows 10 was launched a decade in the past, in July 2015. Microsoft can be rolling out the ESU wizard in July 2025.  MicrosoftHow to get Home windows 10 safety updates for freePer Microsoft’s weblog submit, there are actually three choices for individuals who wish to keep on Home windows 10 and nonetheless obtain safety updates: You may be offered with these choices beginning in July, which is when Microsoft plans to roll out the sign-up wizard for the Prolonged Safety Updates program. Signing up for this feature will assure updates till Oct. 13, 2026, though companies can have the choice to buy as much as three years of further updates. So, this is not a long-term answer, however somewhat provides you extra time to improve to Home windows 11. It has been an uphill battle for Microsoft, as folks have been reluctant to improve their present {hardware}. There are myriad variations between the 2 working methods, however Microsoft’s string of unpopular selections together with Home windows 11 compatibility points have stored the prior technology OS round quite a bit longer than it usually can be.