In Europe, Windows 10 will receive free updates for a year longer :-P

As you know, support for Windows 10 ends on 14 October 2025, and Microsoft planned to issue extended security updates (ESUs) only to those users who enable Windows Backup (and therefore subscribe to OneDrive). But pressure from Euroconsumers has changed the game: in the European Economic Area, the updates will now be free for everyone.

Terms:

For users in the EEA, there are no additional fees or Microsoft Rewards points, and no mandatory backups to OneDrive. The only condition is that the user must sign in to their Microsoft account at least once every 60 days. If the user does not sign in to their online account during this time, free Windows 10 updates will be stopped. This is to prevent European stores from buying old PCs from all over the world to activate free updates and resell them in other countries.

Outside of Europe, everything remains as it was: for updates after 14 October, you have to pay $30 per year (or 1000 Microsoft Rewards points).

The updates will only last until 13 October 2026. Business customers will be able to buy up to three more years of updates.
Euroconsumers is already asking Microsoft to go further and extend protection for ordinary users for more than a year, so as not to leave millions of PCs at risk. Windows 10 has become one of the most popular versions of Windows in its time, and there are still millions of PCs running on this system around the world. A large number of these computers cannot be upgraded to Windows 11, but continue to work properly.

It should be noted that the Windows 10 update only applies to security patches, new features are no longer shipped for this version of the OS anyway.