Microsoft will stop issuing security patches and feature updates to Windows 10 in mid-October, which means it will soon start becoming riskier to use online. Microsoft is offering an Extended Support Updates (ESU) program that anyone can join to get an extra year of Windows 10 support updates, but you have to either pay or back up your data to Microsoft's servers—unless you live in Europe.
Specifically, the European Economic Area (EEA), which encompasses the European Union (EU) as well as the Member States of the European Union (EU) and three countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
This week, Microsoft bowed to pressure from the Euroconsumers advocacy group to make enrolling in the Windows 10 ESU program completely free for folks in Europe. This means that anyone in the afore-mentioned regions will not have to meet Microsoft's requirements to be part of the ESU program, which are:
- Pay Microsoft a one-time fee of $30 (or roughly €25)
- Pay Microsoft 1,000 Microsoft Points (easy to earn)
- Upload your data to Microsoft's servers using Windows Backup
While these aren't the most onerous requirements, they do demand you either pay Microsoft a tithe or trust the company with your personal data—and potentially be charged a service fee if you exceed your free allotment of OneDrive space.
That's perhaps why the Euroconsumers organization (which encompasses multiple consumer advocacy and protection groups across Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain and more) demanded that Microsoft make the ESU program free or else risk being out of compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Euroconsumers specifically cited Article 6(6) of the DMA, which states: "The gatekeeper shall not restrict technically or otherwise the ability of end users to switch between, and subscribe to, different software applications and services that are accessed using the core platform services of the gatekeeper, including as regards the choice of Internet access services for end users."
In a published letter dated Monday (Sept 22) and brought to our attention via Windows Central, Euroconsumers representatives thanked Microsoft for acknowledging its concerns and making the Windows 10 ESU program free to enroll in for a broad swathe of Europe.
However, they also went on to state that they still have concerns about the brief one-year support period of the ESU, the shorter-than-typical supported lifespan of Windows 10 and the cost that's required for folks on older PCs that don't support Windows 11 to upgrade in order to avoid danger.
Whether Microsoft will extend the same option to folks in the U.S. remains to be seen, but I strongly doubt it. We reached out to WW Device Trackers' research manager Jitesh Ubrani to get his thoughts, and he seems to agree.
"I don’t anticipate this will happen in the US.," wrote Ubrani. "Microsoft and its partners have already experienced an uplift from consumers purchasing new PCs and by extending the deadline, they risk losing that momentum."
Here's what it means for those affected
If you live in the European Economic Area, you should be eligible for no-cost enrollment in the Windows 10 ESU.
Most, if not all, Windows 10 users should already see an offer appearing in the Update subsection of their Settings menu (navigate to Settings > Updates & Security) that you can click to begin the enrollment process.
Those in the EEA should be able to enroll at no charge, while the rest of us poor schmucks will see the three options to enroll that I've outlined above.
However, there are some other minor requirements to participate in the Windows 10 ESU, no matter where you live. You must log into it with your Microsoft account (which means you can't use a local Windows 10 account), and you must then log back in at least once every 60 days to authenticate. If you don't, your PC will be removed from the program and you'll have to re-enroll.
That said, this is still a win for folks in the EEA who aren't interested in giving more of their money, time, or data to Microsoft to keep using Windows 10 (relatively) risk-free for another year.
But remember, even if you enroll in the Windows 10 ESU, it only runs for another year. So come October of 2026, you're going to have to choose to abandon Windows 10 or live with the risks of running unsupported software.
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