As Windows 10 enters its final year of official support, Microsoft is executing a familiar game plan for its business customers.
Last April, in separate posts on the Windows IT Pro Blog and the Microsoft Education Blog, the company revealed its price list for business and education customers who want to continue receiving security updates for Windows 10 after the end of support deadline, October 14, 2025.
The company had already confirmed plans to offer a version of this program for the general public. But she waited six more months, until October 31, 2024, to release these details. The details are buried at the end of a lengthy post that sings the praises of Windows 11 and encourages business customers to upgrade or buy new PCs.
If you plan to continue using Windows 10, here's what you can expect to pay.
How much will Windows 10 updates cost?
The pain for Windows 10 business customers
Business customers will have to pay a lot to keep Windows 10. A license for the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program is sold as a subscription. For the first year, the cost is $61. For the second year, the price doubles, and it doubles again for the third year. Microsoft's blog post doesn't do the math, probably because the total is uncomfortably high. A three-year ESU subscription will cost $61 + $122 + $244, or a total of $427 per PC.
The program looks a lot like what Microsoft proposed for Windows 7's end of support date in 2020, although Windows 10's price is 22% higher than that program's $350 full cost, which started at $50. $ for the first year.
Don't think you can game the system by signing up for the program after a year or two of inactivity. “ESUs are cumulative,” Microsoft says, and you can’t purchase the second year if you haven’t already paid for the first.
The painful for Windows 10 education customers
Education customers fare better. The rules are the same, but the price for the first year is $1. It doubles to $2 in the second year and doubles again to $4 in the third and final year, for a total of…$7 per PC.
Administrators who wish to get ahead can register for the first year of an ESU license as early as October 2024, one year before the effective end of support date.
As with Windows 7, Redmond really wants business customers to upgrade to Windows 11, which explains its high price. Microsoft's April announcements are as much about what you won't get with an ESU license as they are about the updates themselves.
“Extended Security Updates are not intended as a long-term solution, but rather as a temporary bridge. ESUs do not include new features, non-security fixes, or security change requests. design The ESU program does not extend technical support for Windows 10. Technical support is limited to activating ESU licenses, installing ESU monthly updates, and resolving issues that may have arisen. caused by an update itself.
How much will consumers and small businesses have to pay for Windows 10 updates?
On the page that announced details of the ESU program for pro customers, a Microsoft spokesperson wrote that details and pricing for the general public “will be shared at a later date” on the end of support page for the general public. Six months later, these details are finally available.
Individuals will be able to sign up for a one-year ESU subscription for $30. That's about half of what companies will pay for that first year. This offer, however, comes with two important restrictions.
First of all, it's only available for “personal use”, which is obviously intended to discourage business customers from trying to get security updates at a discount. Second, the subscription cannot be renewed after the first year. On October 25, 2026, security updates will permanently stop on these consumer PCs.
However, the fact that Microsoft offers a mainstream option is worth noting. The Windows 7 ESU program was messy. It wasn't really suitable for small businesses and there was no option at all for consumers. The difference, of course, is that these customers had a direct option to upgrade their Windows 7 PCs to the successor operating system, Windows 10.
Microsoft says consumer ESU enrollment will be available closer to the end of support date. It's unclear how many consumers will be willing to shell out $30, but the number of eligible PCs will be awfully high.
What discounts are available for Windows 10 updates?
Businesses that use one of Microsoft's official cloud-based update management services, like Microsoft Intune and Windows AutoPatch, get a discount that brings the first year's cost down to $45, but Microsoft doesn't does not specify what happens for the second and third years.
These solutions mainly apply to very large companies that pay for licenses for Windows Enterprise edition and manage them in the cloud. It's worth noting that the option only applies to devices owned by an organization; Personal devices (BYOD) are not eligible.
There is also an option for businesses signing up for Windows 365. Subscribers who access a Windows 11 Cloud PC on Windows 365 from a physical device running Windows 10 automatically get an ESU license for their Windows 10 PC Similar discounts are available for devices using Azure Virtual Desktop.
Microsoft also plans to offer discounts to non-profit organizations, but no details are available on this yet.
