Windows 10 ESU until 2027 now... good news or bad?

[Metanis]

Per a ZDNet article this morning it appears Microsoft has quietly extended the life of the Extended Support Upgrade for Windows 10.

Support extended!

 

[Blues]

I would say it is good for our clients particularly given the market for new hardware. I think in the end anything that makes our clients lives easier makes our work less stressful and is then good for us.

 

[britechguy]

I'd say that Microsoft is doing this precisely because of this bit from the article: "the number of PCs still running Windows 10 is likely much higher than execs in Redmond would like."

It's in Microsoft's best interests to do what it can to make the Windows Ecosystem (all of it) as secure as possible. We all know that once the ESU program ends that there will still be who knows how many millions who will not do the updates to their hardware to make Windows 11 compatibility possible. Once security patches stop that's when "the feeding frenzy" will begin. Another year allows for quite a bit of actually antiquated hardware to "die a natural death" and be replaced.

Ultimately, though, I'm dreading the end of the ESU because of what's sure to be unleashed after Windows 10 is out there, unpatched, and every blessed attack surface that can be found will remain available. Ugh.

 

[Sky-Knight]

It wasn't extended...

ESU is ALWAYS for 3 years.

What's new this go around is consumers getting access to the program for free.

 

[Philippe]

It gonna be fun, when a lot of my clients will call me around October, just to hear me say "they changed the date again. So, contrary to what I said to you before, you don't have to get a new PC..."

 

[BlackstoneIT]

I was aware of using the personal account to sync and the one time purchase option, but who'd have thought you could use Microsoft reward points to be eligible - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/extended-security-updates
That's a lot of Bing for the buck.
Appears that you can apply an enrolled ESU account on up to 10 devices - could prove challenging if they're all syncing!

 

[Blues]

I'd say that Microsoft is doing this precisely because of this bit from the article: "the number of PCs still running Windows 10 is likely much higher than execs in Redmond would like."

It's in Microsoft's best interests to do what it can to make the Windows Ecosystem (all of it) as secure as possible. We all know that once the ESU program ends that there will still be who knows how many millions who will not do the updates to their hardware to make Windows 11 compatibility possible. Once security patches stop that's when "the feeding frenzy" will begin. Another year allows for quite a bit of actually antiquated hardware to "die a natural death" and be replaced.

Ultimately, though, I'm dreading the end of the ESU because of what's sure to be unleashed after Windows 10 is out there, unpatched, and every blessed attack surface that can be found will remain available. Ugh.

I do think the current issue of pricing with also word of a CPU shortage added to the existing memory shortage means it is harder to strong arm the customers into Win11 adoption.

 

[britechguy]

It wasn't extended...

ESU is ALWAYS for 3 years.

It was extended for consumers, which is the focus both of the initial post and the article. I put a calendar event in several of the blind-centric groups I manage such that a 1-year, 6-month, 3-month, 1-month, and 1-week warnings of end of the ESU program were being given. All were based on the previously announced October 2026 date, as that's all that's relevant to home and micro-business users.

That changed, and an additional year was added. The original end date for the consumer program was October 2026, it's now 2027, and it was never 3 years long (and still isn't, unless they go to 2028 at some unspecified date in the future).

 

[britechguy]

current issue of pricing with also word of a CPU shortage added to the existing memory shortage

Well, that's certainly a driving factor behind the foot-dragging which was already present before those issues arose.

None of these things are mutually exclusive, but are all bound up together in a big ol' ball o' wax.

If things remain this awful for another year, I would not be at all shocked to see the consumer ESU program extended another time. But I also get why it wasn't extended by 2 years at this stage, but only 1.

 

[Blues]

Well, that's certainly a driving factor behind the foot-dragging which was already present before those issues arose.

None of these things are mutually exclusive, but are all bound up together in a big ol' ball o' wax.

If things remain this awful for another year, I would not be at all shocked to see the consumer ESU program extended another time. But I also get why it wasn't extended by 2 years at this stage, but only 1.

I think holding back to just 1 more year allows them to watch the market and device trends to determine if another is "necessary" for them. We know that the foot dragging is multi factored but this was a big hit that I think blind sided many.

 

[sapphirescales]

Eh, Windows 10 is 11 years old at this point. Most of my clients want to upgrade to Windows 11, whether that's by buying another computer from me or having me upgrade their current system. We've been getting in a LOT of rebuilds, meaning new motherboard/processor/ram and psu if needed (if it hasn't already been replaced in the past). Most of my clients already have SSDs in their old systems, and a lot of them have power supplies that have been replaced, so it's just a drop in upgrade with a new motherboard/processor/ram. A cheap AM4 board, cheap CPU, and 8GB of DDR4 is more than enough for these basic users. My cost is about $250 so for $850 or so they can basically have a custom built computer. I just got a 2nd gen i5 Lenovo desktop in today that had it's power supply replaced back in 2020 and a new SSD put in for about $500. Now he's paying another $900 to upgrade the rest of it except the case. I'd say only 10% of my clients want to pay $100 for a newer, cool looking case and decide to just keep their OEM case. To them it's just a box. They couldn't care less what it looks like.

 

[Metanis]

I just noticed another interesting facet.

Windows 11 24H2 support (Home & Pro) will end before Windows 10 now. Interesting.

 

[ThatPlace928]

I just noticed another interesting facet.

Windows 11 24H2 support (Home & Pro) will end before Windows 10 now. Interesting.

I noticed that yesterday, as well. Everyone should be on 25H2, by now, and 26H2 is coming up, according to Microsoft.

 

[britechguy]

It doesn't surprise me at all that any Windows version under active support will have its older versions that "started out life" early will come to end of support prior to the ESU for Windows 10 having done so. I never expect any of the versions to go more than 24 months. The ESU encases the last supported version of Windows 10 in amber with the exception of security updates.

Perplexity.ai: [What is the length of support for individual versions in the Windows 11 progression for Home and Pro?]

If there ends up being another year extension of the Win10 ESU to October 2028 then Win11 26H2 will go out of support almost simultaneously if the typical progression continues as is.