Your Windows 10 PC Can Still Get Security Updates — Through October 2027

Windows 10 officially stopped being supported on October 14, 2025. Since then we've had a steady stream of people reach out convinced their computer is now unsafe to use, or that they're being forced to buy a new one.

Neither is quite true. There's a program called Extended Security Updates that keeps security patches coming to Windows 10, it's open to regular people and not just businesses, you can enroll any time until October 12, 2027, and depending on how you use your PC it may cost you nothing.

Here's the plain-English version.

What ESU actually is

ESU keeps the critical and important security updates flowing to a Windows 10 machine after the normal support window closed. That's the part that matters most, because the real risk of running an unsupported operating system isn't that it stops working — it's that newly discovered holes never get patched, and attackers specifically go looking for machines that will never be fixed.

What ESU deliberately does not include:

• No new features. Windows 10 is done getting new things, and that's fine.
• No bug fixes or improvements — security patches only. If something's broken in Windows 10 today, it stays broken.
• No technical support from Microsoft. You're on your own for problems, which is where people like us come in.

So it's a safety net, not a revival. It buys you time to move on your own schedule instead of Microsoft's, which for most households is exactly what's needed.

How to enroll — and how to get it free

There are three routes, and most people qualify for the free one without realizing it:

• Free — if you're signed into a Microsoft account that's already backing up your PC settings, you qualify for ESU automatically.
• Free — redeem Microsoft Rewards points, if you've accumulated them.
• $30 — a straightforward one-time payment.

Enrollment shows up in Settings → Update & Security → Windows Update as an "Enroll now" link. If you don't see it, the machine usually needs to be fully patched to the last Windows 10 update first, and it needs to be signed in with a Microsoft account rather than a local-only account.

Thirty dollars, worst case, to keep a working computer safely in service for another year. Compared to the cost of a new PC in this year's parts market, that's not a close call.

Should you upgrade to Windows 11 instead?

If your PC meets the requirements, upgrading is free and it's the cleaner long-term answer. But be realistic about two things.

First, a lot of perfectly good machines don't qualify. Windows 11 wants a TPM 2.0 chip and a fairly recent processor, and plenty of PCs from 2017 or 2018 that run beautifully are shut out on a technicality. That's frustrating and it isn't your fault.

Second, Windows 11 has had a genuinely rough run of updates. The August 2026 patch alone crashed games, faked virus warnings, and killed USB ports on some AMD machines. Upgrading isn't a guaranteed path to a quieter life.

Our honest guidance, based on what we see on the bench:

Upgrade to Windows 11 if

Your PC qualifies, it's reasonably recent, and you'd rather do this once and stop thinking about it. Back up your files first — always, no exceptions.

Enroll in ESU if

Your PC doesn't qualify for Windows 11, or it does but it's working well and you don't want to disturb it. This is the right call for a lot of people, and it's the one most likely to be overlooked.

Replace the machine if

It's already slow, already failing, or already frustrating you daily. Don't spend $30 to extend the life of a computer you don't like using. ESU is for machines worth keeping.

What to do regardless of which path you pick

A few things are worth doing this month either way:

• Back up your files. Before any upgrade, before any big change, and honestly just in general. An external drive or a cloud backup — either is fine, doing nothing is not.
• Check that your antivirus is still supported. Some security software has dropped Windows 10 support separately from Microsoft.
• Update your browser. Most of what reaches you reaches you through the browser, and browser updates continue independently of Windows.
• Be extra skeptical of "your Windows is out of date" popups. Scammers have been all over this news since last October. Microsoft doesn't warn you with a phone number.

If you'd rather not sort this out alone

This is a common one for us right now — figuring out whether a machine qualifies for Windows 11, getting ESU enrollment to actually appear, making sure files are backed up before anything changes, and doing the upgrade cleanly if that's the right move.

We're in Dawsonville and serve all of North Georgia, and a good portion of this can be done remotely without anyone unplugging a thing. Call or text (706) 203-2563. The diagnostic is $24.99, credited toward the work, and if we can't fix it you don't pay.