Microsoft Adds Another Year To Windows 10 Extended Update Program

Microsoft has quietly extended free Windows 10 security updates for consumers by another year, pushing the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program's end date from October 12, 2026, to October 12, 2027.

"The ESU support page was updated with that date, and Microsoft's blog post on the program has a new editor's note confirming the change," reports Ars Technica.

The Windows 10 Stalwart

The prevalence of Windows across so many devices and form factors has given Microsoft a massive customer base for decades, but it has also stymied the company's efforts to roll out new operating systems. Microsoft famously extended the support window for Windows XP numerous times throughout the 2010s as it became apparent that millions of PCs would never be updated.

Windows 10 isn't quite as entrenched as XP was, but it has still been a slog getting people to upgrade to Windows 11 even nearly five years after release.

Windows 11 Adoption Hurdles

Unlike many past Windows updates, Windows 11 required some users to buy new PCs with specific CPU technologies and a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Microsoft was widely criticized for excluding perfectly serviceable PCs, and that's turning into a problem in 2026.

The AI-driven shortage of storage and memory has made system upgrades vastly more expensive, potentially slowing upgrades. Some have also avoided Windows 11 due to Microsoft's intense focus on AI features.

Current Market Share

The result is that Windows 10 remains stubbornly popular. According to StatCounter data:

• Windows 10 is still running on about 26 percent of PCs
• Windows 11 sits at 72 percent

That means there are still hundreds of millions of active Windows 10 installs, but those machines will be up to date for at least an additional year.

Community Reactions

As expected. (Score:2) I'm sure they'll be doing it for at least the next decade.

Even so... (Score:2) Microsoft should be sued into oblivion for the amount of e-waste it created from perfectly good machines that were not compatible with its latest OS, after it ended official support for its prior OS.

Re: (Score:2) The required TPM chips have a unique fingerprint. This was never about security. It's always been about tracking, and up until last year, that tracking was mostly just to sell better targeting for ads.

Re: (Score:2) A more advanced baseline has some merit ... there is no reason to require TPM and advanced processor features. I have a i7 gen 6 system. It's about 10 years old. Its had one memory upgrade, several GPU upgrades, and its HD replaced with a M2 SSD over time. It was a still a perfectly good system for both development and gaming. I am sad I could not upgrade it and continue using it. Last summer I built a i7 gen 14 system for Win11. I absolutely understand the feeling of being forced to prematurely upgrade. That said, I kind of also see why Microsoft would want a modernized baseline for reasons other than TPS.

Re: (Score:3) It may not really be needed, the more time that passes with no new features and only security updates, the more solid it will be. And they're not really an OS company anymore. They don't need to keep pushing people who don't want it at Windoze 11.

No good options here (Score:2) If you hear "if you can't afford a Macbook Neo you're too poor to be an Apple customer," don't be surprised. I definitely heard that related to iMessage a decade ago. The 666 304's had some thing about bubble colors.

Re: (Score:3, Interesting) Windows is so unstable that rebooting or updating could cause the entire OS to corrupt itself, and then you can quickly become screwed, especially if it was doing a UEFI update and failed part way. There have been other re

Re: (Score:3) That's not how linux works. Distros having extra stuff isn't bloat unless you install it all. You're stuck with windoze because you can't stop yourself from switching an installer to an advanced mode and clicking every single checkbox?! That's getting into "maybe you don't need a desktop computer" territory. Anyways, I thought Wayland was supposed to fix the problem of X11 having too many features?! Of course, my response was "I can afford a few megs of storage for X." Plus, even if you do install "everything" I just wish they'd quit calling it an OS upgrade

Re: (Score:2) I'm not going to run it but people have said the kernel handles realtime needs much better than 10. I do wonder how much of the bloatware needs to be disabled to actually realize that, though.

Re: (Score:2) That's the thing, there are a bunch of legitimate improvements to Windows 11. They're just all very obscure, hard to explain things hidden away in the kernel that most users will either never encounter or never even notice. The things they will notice are the far worse task bar, the randomly missing features that were removed for no apparent reason, the higher hardware requirements, the constant nagging to use new Windows features, the existing features that have been randomly changed for no readily apparent

Re: (Score:2) The fact that I can run the same apps on a newer version of Windows tells me that the OS hasn't really been upgraded. Probably the dumbest words ever put to text. Backwards compatibility has always been a thing with upgrades. Windows 11 is not forwards compatible from Windows 10.

Time for Microsoft to do a Coca Cola (Score:3) "Windows 7 Classic" - FTFY

This never really worked (Score:2) They allegedly offered certain customers options to extend the updates freely, but this absolutely never worked not even shortly before the first EOL last year. And in the last weeks leading up to the EOL they kept closing more and more options to freely and/or conveniently extend the EOL, to force everyone to win11. Seriously, just F M$ and finally make the switch to Linux. There are many great and rock solid distros out there, and many options to easil run legacy windos software like wine and proton. Absolu

"Up to date" (Score:2) >"That means there are still hundreds of millions of active Windows 10 installs, but those machines will be up to date for at least an additional year." And they could be up to date for many, many, many years if Linux was installed on those, instead. Then updates would be fast, easy, free, installed when and how you want, not suddenly change things you don't want changed, not slow your machine down, and not require any "subscription" service or even a login.

Re: (Score:2) I spent 6 months installing Pop!OS, Mint, and Garuda-Gaming on "obsolete" office systems and giving them away to people that needed PCs. MS e-waste fault is a fucking travesty.

XP (Score:1) Yep, still have the XP running - it's only function is for an old Epson scanner that they won't update the drivers for but that's it.

Thank you Microsoft (Score:2) for screwing your OS so badly and making me move to Linux, I'm far happier and I miss nothing, thanks to all the awesome software that is either native (Kate) or cross-platform (JetBrains) or is used as a bridge to windows software (Wine et al). The only thing you're extending is your pointless hopes for recovery from this unparalled idiotic move to force people to 11.