Is Microsoft really axing Windows 10? Here’s what you need to know

“Stay on the right side of risk.” That’s what a new advertisement from Microsoft says, urging businesses and consumers to upgrade their Windows 10 PCs in the coming months. After all, Windows 10 will stop getting security updates in October. That’s now only four months away.

Microsoft has spent a lot of time talking about how wonderfully fast Windows 11 PCs are — especially its Copilot+ PCs, which are the focus of a major marketing campaign. However, as the clock ticks down to October, Microsoft is starting to shift from talking about the carrot (those performance improvements) to the stick (the security threats Windows 10 PCs will face).

But Microsoft has a weird history here — the company even patched major Windows XP threats years after officially ending support for that platform, repeatedly breaking its own update policy. So let’s look at what to expect, whether you’re managing a fleet of business PCs or you have a Windows 10 PC at home.

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What’s happening with Windows 10 today

First, a quick refresher: Microsoft will officially end support for Windows 10 on Oct. 14, 2025. After that date, Microsoft will stop issuing security updates for Windows 10 (at least, based on its current statements and guidance in that area).

Existing Windows 10 PCs will keep working, but they won’t get security updates. For a business, this is obviously a problem — just as it’s a big problem for home PC users.

Microsoft does have a solution for people who don’t want to upgrade immediately. It’s called Windows 10’s Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. You can pay a fee for up to three years of extra security updates. Individuals can only purchase one year’s worth of updates, however. Businesses will have to pay $61 per device for the first year, $122 device for the second year, and $244 device for the third year. Consumers can only get one year, and it’ll cost $30.

It’s worth noting that this applies only to typical editions of Windows 10. Microsoft also offers a Long-Term Service Channel (LTSC) of Windows to enterprises, which has a different software lifecycle. (In other words, the LTSC version of Windows 10 won’t stop getting security updates in October 2025.)

Windows 10 PCs are ramping up the messages about Windows 11 — and security warnings around sticking with Windows 10.
Chris Hoffman, Foundry

Will Microsoft change its mind?

While Microsoft has mostly plowed forward with its plans to ax Windows 10, the situation is a mess. We’ve never seen any version of Windows that was this popular right before it was exiting support. Microsoft doesn’t release information about Windows version usage, but third-party estimates put Windows 10 use at 53% of Windows PCs worldwide and 43% of Windows PCs in the US, specifically.

Microsoft initially said that it would immediately stop issuing security updates for Microsoft 365 subscription apps such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Windows 10 after October 14, 2025. However, the company recently backpedaled: it now says Microsoft 365 apps will be supported with security updates through Oct. 10, 2028.

Additionally, Microsoft’s offer to sell an extra year of security updates to home PC users for $30 is new. It has never done this before. Previously, ESUs have only been for businesses. Microsoft can now shrug and say that people who want to keep using Windows 10 in a secure way have a way to pay for that security — at least for the first year.

I doubt we’ll see Microsoft cancel the big October deadline, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Microsoft offer a second year of ESUs as an option to home users if Windows 10 use remains high come October 2026.

This also helps Microsoft cover itself. Let’s say there’s a huge Windows 10 security problem and Microsoft executives are dragged in front of Congress to answer for it. They can say that they do offer security updates to consumers, but consumers have to pay for it like any other service. That’s a better answer than, “We sell extended updates to businesses but not to consumers.”

The Windows XP lesson

If there is a huge security problem for Windows 10 PCs down the line, I would expect Microsoft to patch Windows 10, anyway. The company did this for Windows XP several times.

While Windows XP support ended in 2014, Microsoft released patches for Windows XP in 2017 (to patch WannaCry) and even in 2019 to prevent worms from exploiting a vulnerability. That was five years after Windows XP’s official end-of-life marker.

That doesn’t mean Windows XP machines were secure, exactly — but that Microsoft at least had an eye on blocking the worst threats that could take root on Windows XP systems and cause problems for the rest of the internet.

Don’t want to pay? You have options

Microsoft would prefer to nudge you into buying a new PC. That’s what that fee is all about: Microsoft wants people to see the $30 fee and decide it’s time to buy a new Windows 11 laptop after all. Microsoft’s marketing is performing a pincer move here: talking not just about the security risks of sticking with Windows 10 but the upgraded performance, battery life, and AI features of getting a new Windows 11 laptop. Microsoft wants businesses to see the steeply increasing fee and make plans to buy new hardware.

But you certainly don’t have to go down that road. If you have a Windows 10 PC you want to keep using, but with truly secure software at its core, you could keep it, ditch Windows and install a Linux distribution on it. You could also install Google’s ChromeOS Flex, a version of ChromeOS Google offers for existing PCs. Both are free.

There are also ways to upgrade some existing Windows 10 PCs to Windows 11, even if Microsoft says the upgrade isn’t “officially supported.” For a home PC, this is one way to keep getting security updates for an old Windows 10 PC — by bumping it up to Windows 11. Some PCs that are just below the hardware cutoff for Windows 11 will work great, while older PCs might not perform as well.

Additionally, you could instead consider 0Patch. That’s a company that creates security software designed to run in the background and use “micropatches” that block known security vulnerabilities from running. The service wouldn’t be free for Windows 10, but it is less expensive than most other options. And, for home users, it looks like it’ll be a way to keep getting a sort of security protection for Windows 10 after that first year.

I’ve spoken to the company, and they seemed eager to keep supporting Windows 10 for as long as it’s a good investment — they’re not eager to move on from Windows 10.

The Windows 10 PCs getting left behind

Let’s consider things from Microsoft’s perspective: Windows 10 was released on July 29, 2015, which means the operating system has had just over a decade of support. That same year, Google released the Nexus 6P with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Google stopped supporting both the Nexus 6P and that version of Android back in 2018.

Windows 11 was released in October 2021, but most PCs released in 2019 to 2020 could upgrade to it — even many of those released in 2018 to 2019 might be able to do so, too.

The most realistic worst-case scenario here is that if you bought an older Windows 10 PC in 2019 and it can’t upgrade to Windows 11, you still got roughly six years of use from it. Also, if it’s that close to the cutoff, you likely can upgrade it to Windows 11, just through an “unofficial” upgrade method that Microsoft leaves open with a wink and a nudge.

Still, your Windows 10 PC’s long life is no consolation if you’re happy with your hardware and you feel like you’re having your arm twisted into upgrading when you’d rather not.

PCs are becoming so good that, assuming they boot and run well, it’s easy to treat them as an appliance. If you don’t feel like upgrading, why should you? After all, aren’t we supposed to be avoiding unnecessary e-waste? By avoiding the upgrade, you’re arguably helping Microsoft achieve its sustainability goals. Microsoft should thank you!

If your PC is so old that it can’t realistically be upgraded, though, Microsoft is right: Newer PCs are a lot faster, and even a budget-tier Windows 11 PC will deliver a much nicer experience. And between the “unofficial” way to upgrade to Windows 11, switching to desktop Linux, and Google’s ChromeOS Flex software, there are lots of paths forward for Windows 10 hardware that still has useful life left in it.

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