Microsoft Adds Another Year To Windows 10 Extended Update Program
6 122Microsoft has quietly extended free Windows 10 security updates for consumers by another year, pushing the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program's end date from October 12, 2026, to October 12, 2027. "The ESU support page was updated with that date, and Microsoft's blog post on the program has a new editor's note confirming the change," reports Ars Technica. From the report: The prevalence of Windows across so many devices and form factors has given Microsoft a massive customer base for decades, but it has also stymied the company's efforts to roll out new operating systems. Microsoft famously extended the support window for Windows XP numerous times throughout the 2010s as it became apparent that millions of PCs would never be updated. Windows 10 isn't quite as entrenched as XP was, but it has still been a slog getting people to upgrade to Windows 11 even nearly five years after release.
Unlike many past Windows updates, Windows 11 required some users to buy new PCs with specific CPU technologies and a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Microsoft was widely criticized for excluding perfectly serviceable PCs, and that's turning into a problem in 2026. The AI-driven shortage of storage and memory has made system upgrades vastly more expensive, potentially slowing upgrades. Some have also avoided Windows 11 due to Microsoft's intense focus on AI features.
The result is that Windows 10 remains stubbornly popular. According to StatCounter data, Windows 10 is still running on about 26 percent of PCs, while Windows 11 sits at 72 percent. That means there are still hundreds of millions of active Windows 10 installs, but those machines will be up to date for at least an additional year.
6 comments
No good options here (Score: 5, Insightful)
by xack ( 5304745 ) on Friday June 26, 2026 @04:29PM (#66212362)
The unemployment crisis plus ram prices means that people are stuck on old computers for longer than they would like, and yes we would all like the penguin to come to the rescue but modern Linux distros are getting bloated too with Wayland and Flatpaks. So we are kind of stuck with Windows 10 until computers become cheaper again. It's basically an unfortunate situation. Apple will have a similar problem coming up with their Intel Mac users.
Time for Microsoft to do a Coca Cola (Score: 5, Funny)
by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Friday June 26, 2026 @05:03PM (#66212380)
And admit their mistake by releasing "Windows 10 Classic'"
Thank you Microsoft (Score: 5, Insightful)
by fleeped ( 1945926 ) on Friday June 26, 2026 @06:41PM (#66212474)
for screwing your OS so badly and making me move to Linux, I'm far happier and I miss nothing, thanks to all the awesome software that is either native (Kate) or cross-platform (JetBrains) or is used as a bridge to windows software (Wine et al). The only thing you're extending is your pointless hopes for recovery from this unparalled idiotic move to force people to 11.
Re:I just wish they'd quit calling it an OS upgrad (Score: 5, Insightful)
by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Friday June 26, 2026 @05:09PM (#66212386)
I'm not going to run it but people have said the kernel handles realtime needs much better than 10.
That's the thing, there are a bunch of legitimate improvements to Windows 11. They're just all very obscure, hard to explain things hidden away in the kernel that most users will either never encounter or never even notice.
The things they will notice are the far worse task bar, the randomly missing features that were removed for no apparent reason, the higher hardware requirements, the constant nagging to use new Windows features, the existing features that have been randomly changed for no readily apparent reason, and the new features that are too buggy to use, like HDR support or dynamic refresh rates.
Even so... (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Friday June 26, 2026 @04:55PM (#66212372)
Microsoft should be sued into oblivion for the amount of e-waste it created from perfectly good machines that were not compatible with its latest OS, after it ended official support for its prior OS.
Re:Even so... (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Murdoch5 ( 1563847 ) on Friday June 26, 2026 @05:03PM (#66212378)
They really should, there is no reason to require TPM and advanced processor features. If they exist on the machine, and you want to leverage them, excellent, but requiring them is just bad design. My in laws have two computers, that are very acceptable for what they do, neither can run Windows 11. They're not going to replace them, that would be stupid, so really what are their choices? Either stick with Windows 10 and hope it keeps getting extended, or, switch operating systems.