Windows 10 security updates have three prices, and the free one is not free

Windows 10 reached end of support on 14 October 2025. Security updates did not stop, because Microsoft opened a consumer Extended Security Updates programme that runs through to 12 October 2027, and enrolment stays open until that date.

There are three ways in. Microsoft lists them as: at no additional cost if you are syncing your PC settings, redeeming 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or a one-time purchase of $30 plus tax.

The free route has a price, it is just not money

The no-cost option is conditional on syncing your PC settings, which means signing in with a Microsoft account and letting Windows Backup push your settings to Microsoft’s cloud.

That is a real trade rather than a formality. It converts a local account into a cloud-linked one, and it puts your configuration on Microsoft’s servers. Plenty of people will consider that fine. The point is that it is a decision, and the word “free” in the headline does not describe it.

The Rewards route has the same shape. A thousand Microsoft Rewards points is not currency you happened to have. It is accumulated by using Bing and Microsoft services, so it is paid for in attention rather than dollars.

The $30 is better value than it looks

The purchase covers up to 10 devices. For a household with three or four Windows 10 machines still in service, that is a few dollars per device for two years of critical patching, and it does not require a cloud-linked account on any of them.

Set against the alternative, which for many machines is new hardware because they cannot meet Windows 11’s requirements, thirty dollars across ten devices is the cheapest line item in the decision.

What you are actually buying

Read what ESU covers, because it is narrower than “updates”.

Microsoft says the programme provides “critical and important security updates as defined by the Microsoft Security Response Center”. It explicitly excludes other types of fixes, feature improvements and product enhancements, and it does not include technical support.

So this is a holding pattern, not a maintenance contract. If something breaks that is not a security hole, it stays broken.

The eligibility conditions that catch people

Three requirements do the filtering:

• The machine must be running Windows 10 version 22H2, in Home, Professional, Pro Education or Workstations edition. Older builds do not qualify, so a machine that stopped updating years ago has to be brought current first.
• Enrolment requires a Microsoft account with administrator rights. This applies to the paid route as well as the free one, so the account requirement is not avoidable by paying.
• Child accounts cannot enrol. A family machine administered by a child account will need that changed.

Microsoft also notes that enrolment options and timing “may vary by region, such as in the European Economic Area”, while stating the updates themselves are applied consistently everywhere. If you are outside the US the routes available to you may not match the three listed above, though what arrives on the machine is the same.

The practical read

If you are staying on Windows 10 past this year, enrol. There is no version of this where unpatched is the better answer, and one of the routes costs nothing but a decision about your account.

If you have several machines, the $30 licence across ten devices is likely the cheapest and least intrusive of the three, which is not the conclusion the pricing structure is nudging you toward.