Last year, Microsoft said it would charge consumers for a year of Extended Security Update (ESU) for Windows 10. With only four months to go to the official end of support date, the company has announced additional options for people who can’t or don’t want to pay the $30 per PC fee.
Consumers are being given three options to get ESU on their personal Windows 10 PCs. The free option requires allowing Windows Backup to sync your settings and folders to the Cloud, which uses OneDrive. If you have a small batch of files, it will be possible to stay below the 5GB of free storage; otherwise, you will need to purchase additional space for Windows Backup to work fully.
The other two options are to pay the $30 fee or opt into ESU updates by spending 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, which are given for making purchases with your Microsoft account.
ESU will help users who don’t want to move to Windows 11 immediately or can’t because their PC doesn’t meet the requirements. What ESU does is offer an additional year of free updates for the OS that’s still installed. Given the importance of Windows 11 upgrades and new Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft would like its users to upgrade.
Microsoft said recently that it plans to support the Microsoft 365 and standalone versions of the Microsoft Office apps on Windows 10 until 2028.