Windows 10 support will be extended at no cost until October 2026
Posted by keyborg@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 56 comments
"Ironically, after years of trying, the week Microsoft chose to drop this bombshell was also the week its Windows 11 upgrade campaign finally started hitting home, with the newer version of the OS catching Windows 10’s market share for the first time."Windows 10 support will be extended at no cost until October 2026
AntiGrieferGames@reddit
No fucking thanks.
This is asshole design, they wanting datas.
Ssakaa@reddit
Why would they dump the resources into supporting the old OS forever? Do you buy a car and expect the dealer to keep fixing it, for free, for the next 30 years? And why, when they've had an EOL date on the books for a very long time, shuold they offer free extensions on that? Even more importantly, assuming the device itself supports it, they do offer a free path to staying in support. It's called Windows 11.
The account avenue is scummy, sure, but that's just marketing doing their job.
pdp10@reddit
To maintain sagging marketshare in an environment where users are very reluctant to buy new hardware to meet arbitrary system requirements.
It's entirely Microsoft's choice. Otherwise, those Apple Silicon Macs with their all-day batteries are attractive, or for existing hardware, installing Linux.
BrorBlixen@reddit
Car manufacturers are required to correct safety defects for 15 years after purchase. Microsoft was offering Windows 10 for sale via their website all the way up to January 31, 2023. According to the car analogy they should be providing security updates until 2038.
Ssakaa@reddit
They offered a new car. Free of charge. Sure, your driveway has to support it, but they still provided an avenue of support for the piece they sell. And, PCsa ren't life safety critical (while a great deal of vehicle functionality is) in normal use. Yeah. There's a difference in timeframe.
BrorBlixen@reddit
Goodness just admit it was a bad analogy instead of descending farther down the bad analogy hole.
stupidFlanders417@reddit
"assuming the device itself supports it"
That right there though is a big assumption. The fact that a quarter BILLION PCs are just going to end up in a landfill because of arbitrary installation requirements is absurd.
You can bypass the "requirements" and have things running fine, this is not a "sorry, square peg doesn't fit in round hole" type problem. This is a GREED problem.
Tech doesn't advance as quickly as it used to, and a PC that was bought 10 years ago it still perfectly up to the task for the mondaine things most people use them for. So, how do you get them to go out and part with their cash??? By force.
This isn't the dealership "fixing your car for free" for 30 years. This is the dealership saying "Nice car ya got there. Would be a shame if something were to happen to it"
Ssakaa@reddit
So. What stops working as it does today when the EoL date comes?
Does the OS insta-bluescreen and stop functioning, rendering the device useless? Or do they just stop providing patches?
stupidFlanders417@reddit
Of course it's just "stop providing patches". Then it's open season on any zero days that people have been sitting on waiting to exploit.
My problem isn't with sunsetting an old OS, it's putting requirements on it's upgrade that they know damn well a large chunk of the population don't meet (thereby forcing them into a vulnerable state if they don't cough up some cash)
The jump from Windows 7 --> 10 (we don't talk about 8) didn't have this high bar of entry. It was (if it will run 7, 90% sure 10 will run fine too).
Fallingdamage@reddit
because
https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/7/8568473/windows-10-last-version-of-windows
Ssakaa@reddit
I was hoping someone would call me out on that. You win this round!
AntiGrieferGames@reddit
Microsoft is a multi billion dollar company. Even Supporting Windows 10 forever will not affect them.
PanicAdmin@reddit
aaaand... Fedora 42 with KDE.
I've made one of the best setups in years, it's like having made a quantic jump.
Plus, 80% of my steam library still works perfectly.
My old os is now an image in my nas, ready to be used if i'll ever need it.
BB microsoft.
TheDangerSnek@reddit
Bad that I cant use Magix Vegas or Affinity on linux....
pdp10@reddit
Sony Vegas was never as popular as Davinci Resolve, which has a native Linux version from Blackmagic.
whyareyouemailingme@reddit
Resolve might be an option to look into as a Vegas replacement. There are some caveats hardware, codec, and plugin wise though.
PanicAdmin@reddit
I don't know them, but seems that kdenlive could be a decent substitute.
Take it with a grain of salt, i've never used any of the software mentioned.
wahlenderten@reddit
Sorry for asking, did you have prior experience or jumped in blind? Google fu’d or followed guides?
Asking for a friend… ^cough
PanicAdmin@reddit
My first linux installation was in the late 90s.
In my experience, microsoft is perfect for excel and gaming.
The majority of times you can use gsheets or things like that in lieu of excel, for the few times you really need it you can use it online.
Installing fedora (or any other major distros today) is literally a matter of following blindly the guides, they are really easy and well-written, plus, you can even only try the system without deleting anything, just give it a try.
For the backup of your winzozz system, you can use clonezilla
cowbutt6@reddit
I wonder if this means anything for W11 23H2's nominal EOL date of 11 Nov 2025.
Ryokurin@reddit
Why would it? They always did three years for enterprise and two for everyone else.
cowbutt6@reddit
Well, it means that 10 now has an EOL date a year after 23H2's, but 24H2 is still a bit of a mess: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-24h2
Maybe, though, they'll finish off stabilising 24H2 by November...
Kumorigoe@reddit
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absoluteczech@reddit
Anyone have an official Microsoft link stating this?
havocspartan@reddit
Not enough people talking about this. It’s $61 the first year, then $122 the second and the third is $244. So, for $427 you can keep 1 computer from needing to be refreshed. That’s like half the price of a decent PC already, just upgrade.
Zedilt@reddit
Yep, this changes nothing for most of the people in this sub.
MFKDGAF@reddit
I don't understand why people hate Windows 11 so much. Yes, there are some thing's that I hate (right click menu) but overall I think Windows 11 is pretty solid especially with the newer features like the built in fancy zones.
I remember all the hate when Windows 7 came out in 2009 but then people loved it. Same with Windows 10.
Now Windows 8 and 8.1 was straight up trash.
MekanicalPirate@reddit
Regarding the right-click menu, here you go friend :)
marek1712@reddit
Why is it needed in the first place?
bingblangblong@reddit
Yeah I really hate this. "Oh you can just install this or use this registry edit to get that back".
Yes but it didn't need to change in the first place.
tdreampo@reddit
Name three things about win 11 that are objectively better than 10.
AncientWilliamTell@reddit
UEFI Secure Boot, TPM, and VBS?
ConsoleChari@reddit
Native screen recorder in snipping tool, explorer tabs, better hdr support
XCOMGrumble27@reddit
Tabs are hardly a worthwhile tradeoff for the decrease in performance and rewiring of the innards of explorer so that I can't use it to navigate with the same muscle memory as before. I don't want Microsoft fixing things that weren't broken.
trullaDE@reddit
Taskbar.
XCOMGrumble27@reddit
Can no longer right-click on it to get to Task Manager, so at the very least it lacks feature parity.
illarionds@reddit
Because it's a strict downgrade on Windows 10.
Sure, it's not as awful as Vista was - but it's probably 8.1 level.
mrlinkwii@reddit
didnt people say that about win10 , i vaguly remember people decrying windows 10
XCOMGrumble27@reddit
And they would be correct. Windows peaked at 7.
keyborg@reddit (OP)
"Somewhere around 400 million users with PCs eligible to upgrade and around 240 million that can’t."
That makes the Windows 10 + 11 install base roughly 1,28 billion PCs. Excluding versions prior to 10, cracked and un-activated Win10 installs.
You can run Win10 indefinitely without activating it. Only caveat is you can't customise the desktop, etc.. Fact. I've been running it in KVM since 2022 just for QuickBooks.
tdreampo@reddit
You also don’t get all the windows updates.…
CARLEtheCamry@reddit
It's fine, it's not like OP is running accounting software on that could have screw him over if compromised.
tdreampo@reddit
good point.
Existential_Racoon@reddit
Oh you can customi,e just about anything, including the desktop.
Regular users don't know what local policy is though.
idspispopd888@reddit
Hahahahaha! As an accountant this totally made my day. I hate QB. :)
3Cogs@reddit
I'm looking forward to cheap, used laptops coming onto the market. Just right for a Linux hobbyist like me.
Makeyourselfnerd@reddit
That Register article telling people to use LTSC is somewhat irresponsible. Admins will do what they have been trained to do and research what they are getting into and whether that is the right thing for them or not, but just some average user stumbling onto that on the internet (or having it stumbled into them via "AI") will not and will have no idea what they've just signed up for, and why they now may be seeing a very different thing than what the rest of the world sees with Windows.
notta_3d@reddit
How do you get points? I just checked and I have 250 points :(. I've had a Microsoft account for as long as I can remember. So it seems the only other way is this sync option. So right off the bat that sounds strange to me. Also, do either of these methods require you to be logged in with a Microsoft account? What if you have multiple systems?
keksieee@reddit
Using Bing grants points
PrintedCircut@reddit
Sorry Microsoft after being a faithful user for a number of years this stuff with the force to Windows 11 is the straw that finally broke the camels back for me. Cut over to Linux on my primary machine a month or so ago and I'm not coming back. That box has never run so quiet, cool and perfomant.
sarosan@reddit
Ah shit, I guess disabling Microsoft Rewards through GPO was a bad idea. (/s)
GNUr000t@reddit
I mean, we all knew they'd lose that game of chicken.
tejanaqkilica@reddit
Lose the game of chicken? They're using a clever trick to have more people sign up for a Microsoft Account, while not wasting anymore resources themselves.
Great strategy
OkMulberry5012@reddit
I would call it an underhanded tactic motivated by their overall greed to deceive people into signing up for their grossly inadequate email platform. Nothing clever about greed.
norbie@reddit
That’s a poor headline and not quite true.
Personal users can either pay for ESUs, or use “reward points” to pay for them.
Commercial / Pro OS users still have to pay for ESUs. Nothing new there.
Better source: https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/25/microsoft_free_esu_tier/
keyborg@reddit (OP)
Thanks for pointing that out.