The period of Home windows 10 is sort of over. On Oct. 14, Microsoft can be stopping Home windows 10 help, and there can be no extra updates to the OS. If you cannot improve to Home windows 11, do not panic. For $30 you possibly can snag a 12 months of safety updates to maintain your OS secure. Alternatively, you possibly can benefit from this free choice by enabling cloud backup and connecting it to your OneDrive account.
The flexibility to get free updates on Home windows 10 is a reasonably large deal as a result of it’s nonetheless essentially the most broadly used Home windows OS, accounting for simply over 53% of installs as of Might 2025. That leaves tens of millions of individuals with out safety help in only a month until they improve. The cloud backup choice offers customers a method out with out costing them any cash.
The one potential subject is OneDrive. Anybody with a Microsoft account will get as much as 5GB of storage free of charge. Nevertheless, as The Verge factors out, some backups could exceed this limitation, requiring customers to buy a month-to-month or yearly plan. At $2 a month for 100GB of cloud storage, a 12 months of OneDrive nonetheless prices lower than the $30 for a 12 months of extra safety updates, however it might nonetheless trigger frustration amongst some clients.
Home windows 10 was launched greater than a decade in the past, in July 2015.
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Microsoft is providing a 12 months of Home windows 10 safety updates, however there’s a catch.
The way to get Home windows 10 safety updates free of charge
Per Microsoft’s weblog put up, there at the moment are three choices for many who wish to keep on Home windows 10 and nonetheless obtain safety updates:
These choices can be found now. Microsoft started providing its Prolonged Safety Updates program in July. Signing up for this selection will assure updates till Oct. 13, 2026, though companies can have the choice to buy as much as three years of extra updates. So, this is not a long-term resolution, however fairly offers you extra time to improve to Home windows 11.
It has been an uphill battle for Microsoft, as folks have been reluctant to improve their current {hardware}. There are myriad variations between the 2 working methods, however Microsoft’s string of unpopular choices together with Home windows 11 compatibility points have saved the prior technology OS round lots longer than it usually could be.
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