How to get free Windows 10 security updates through October 2026

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  • Windows 10 PCs can receive free security updates until October 2026.
  • To qualify for free personal updates, enroll with a Microsoft account.
  • Customers in any of the 30 countries in the EEA automatically qualify.

The Windows 10 end-of-support date is nearly here. Over the summer, Microsoft seemed to have belatedly realized that owners of tens of millions of consumer PCs running Windows 10 aren't ready to replace their old computers, and those customers are also not about to fork over $30 for a one-year Extended Security Updates (ESU) subscription.

So, at the end of June, just days before the end of its fiscal year, the company waved the white flag and announced new "free enrollment options" for the ESU program, along with a description of the steps customers will need to follow to sign up. Anyone willing to try out Microsoft's cloud-based Windows Backup or spend a few minutes per day with the Bing search engine over the course of a week can avoid the $30 tariff and get that subscription for free using the enrollment wizard shown here.

The news was buried in yet another long-winded post on the Windows Blog, which praises Windows 11 and encourages customers to upgrade their old PCs, buy new ones, or migrate to cloud-based alternatives like Windows 365 -- anything but keep running Windows 10.


Also: Can't upgrade your Windows 10 PC? You have 5 options - and 3 weeks to act


And in a late development, announced just weeks before the end-of-support date, Microsoft confirmed that customers in any of the 30 countries that are part of the European Economic Area (EEA) will qualify for free ESU subscriptions without any additional requirements. That news was announced in a letter published by the Euroconsumers Group and was also confirmed in a statement by Microsoft to Windows Central. 


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