Windows updates will soon be chargeable: Microsoft is charging high prices for security patches

• Default support for Windows 10 will end in October 2025.
• Afterwards, you will only receive security updates with a paid ESU license.
• At a whopping 65 euros per year, a key isn’t exactly cheap.

An era will come to an end for technology fans on October 14th, as official support for Windows 10 ends on this day. This means that by default you will no longer receive any updates for the operating system, including any security-related patches. Nevertheless, Microsoft offers you the option of continuing to receive security patches for your Windows 10 system for a certain period of time even after support ends – for a fee.

Microsoft announced some time ago that this will be possible as part of the Extended Security Update program (ESU) even after the official end of support. Now the company is revealing for the first time how expensive support extensions (ESU licenses) will be for Windows 10 users. You have the choice between three options.

Windows 10: Support extension options

Probably the easiest solution for private users is to buy a special key for 5×5 activation. This is a 25-digit Windows key. A key like this costs 61 US dollars or the equivalent of around 56 euros annually; the principle is the same as back then with the support extension for Windows 7.

You can activate the key via scripting or Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT). Microsoft provides further information about the procedure in a blog post.

This probably won’t apply to most home users, but if you have a Windows 365 subscription, you can also get the Windows 10 support extension for free. However, the prerequisite is that you use Windows in the cloud or access cloud PCs with Windows 11 via your Windows 10 device. This is likely to be primarily the case in companies.

If your Windows PC is managed via Intune or Windows Autopatch, the costs for ongoing Windows 10 security updates are reduced. Instead of the 56 euros for individual licenses, you only pay around 41 euros per year (45 US dollars). However, Intune and Windows Autopatch are also primarily used in companies, which is why 5×5 activation may be the only possible way for many private users.

Windows 10 is not a permanent solution

With the official end of support for Windows 10 and the paid support extension, Microsoft wants to encourage more people to switch to Windows 11. But if you don’t want to use Windows 11 at all, you still have the option of sticking with the old operating system, at least for a certain period of time.

However, you shouldn’t expect too much from the security patches that you get with the ESU license. As the name suggests, they are limited to security-related updates only. There will no longer be any new functions, design changes or convenience improvements for Windows 10 after October 14, 2025. Microsoft also only recommends the ESU licenses as “help when switching” to Windows 11.

Microsoft makes updating to Windows 11 easier

After all, Microsoft wants to make the switch to Windows 11 as easy as possible for you. The company has also fixed a problem that prevented an update to Windows 11 for two years.

This is a known bug that is related to a specific Intel driver. Apart from this, your device must of course still meet certain hardware requirements for the update.

Windows 11 users face advertising

Nevertheless, Microsoft is currently exploring in some areas how far it can push users. Even if you have already switched to Windows 11, not everything is rosy.

In the USA, Microsoft is testing a function that puts advertising in the start bar of Windows 11. Even before the feature comes to Germany, it is known how to get around the change. We’ll tell you in the linked article.

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