Microsoft Extends Windows 10 Security Updates to 2027
By Jeremy ·
Windows 10 was supposed to stop getting security patches after one bonus year. Microsoft's ESU program page now lists the cutoff as October 12, 2027, a full year past where it originally stood. If you already enrolled, nothing changes on your end. Coverage just keeps going.
Enrollment still works the same three ways it always has. Sync your PC settings and it's free. Don't want to do that, redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points instead. Don't have the points, it's a flat $30. One license, once you have it, covers up to ten devices tied to the same Microsoft account, which is the one detail here worth remembering if you're the person keeping three or four aging office machines alive on a budget.
Free isn't really free, of course. It's free if you hand Microsoft your settings sync, which is a data relationship most people didn't sign up for when they bought a Windows 10 PC a decade ago.
The prerequisites are the boring kind: version 22H2, fully patched, a Microsoft account with admin rights, no Active Directory or Entra join, no MDM enrollment, no kiosk mode. Business fleets need the commercial version of this program, not the consumer one.
What's actually interesting is that this needed doing at all. The whole point of ESU was a one-year bridge to get stragglers onto Windows 11 before the safety net disappeared. Extending it a second year is Microsoft admitting, quietly and without a keynote, that the bridge wasn't long enough. A meaningful chunk of Windows 10 hardware still can't clear the TPM 2.0 bar Windows 11 requires, and replacing a working PC because a security chip is a generation too old was never going to be an easy sell.
So this isn't Microsoft being generous. It's Microsoft buying itself more runway on a migration that's going slower than planned, and pricing that runway at $30 a head for anyone who doesn't want to be a settings-sync data point.
If you're still on Windows 10 and haven't enrolled, do it before the version 22H2 requirement or the eligibility window becomes a problem, not after. Check Settings, then Windows Update, for the enrollment prompt. Waiting until close to the deadline just means a gap in coverage while you sort it out.
One note: I'm not a lawyer, and none of this is legal advice. This is a read on Microsoft's published enrollment terms, not a substitute for checking the terms yourself, particularly if you're making this call for a business rather than one PC in a spare room.