Want to Continue Using Windows 10 Securely? Here’s How Much It Will Cost You

After introducing Windows 11 in 2021, Microsoft announced that support forWindows 10 will hitend-of-lifeon October 14, 2025. It means that Windows 10 won’t get security updates, feature updates, or assistance from Microsoft. Now, Microsoft hasannouncedthat commercial and educational organizations can pay a subscription fee to keep using Windows 10 beyond 2025. Currently, Microsoft has not announced the pricing structure for consumers which will be shared later on.

Commercial and education organizations can enroll their PCs into the Windows 10 Extended Security Update (ESU) program. Business customers will have topay $61 per devicein the first year, $122 in the second year, and in the third year, $244. It costs a total of $427 for three years of support on Windows 10. Microsoft says there will be special pricing for nonprofits.

Apart from that, education customers will have topay $1 per devicefor the first year, $2 for the second year, and $4 for the third year. A total of $7 has to be paid to get three years of Windows 10 support for educational devices.

And business customers that use Microsoft’s cloud-based update management solutions such as Microsoft Intune or Windows Autopatch, will receive a discount of 25%. It reduces the subscription fee to$45 per devicefor the first year.

Customers can sign up for the Windows 10 ESU program starting in October 2024. While the Windows 10 ESU licensing fee is low for education customers, business customers will have to pay a hefty amount to get support beyond 2025. In such a scenario, commercial organizations will have tomove to Windows 11. However, the newhardware requirements for Windows 11make many Windows 10-running PCs incompatible.

Many suggest that Microsoft has kept the subscription fee high as it wants businesses and consumers to move to Windows 11. According toStatcounter, Windows 10 is still running on 69% of desktop PCs, whereas Windows 11 stands at a measly 26%.

So are you using Windows 10 and what is stopping you from moving to Windows 11? Let us know in the comment section below.

Arjun Sha

Passionate about Windows, ChromeOS, Android, security and privacy issues. Have a penchant to solve everyday computing problems.

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