Home windows 10 customers can get prolonged safety updates for 1,000 Microsoft Rewards factors

As we edge nearer to Windows 10’s end-of-support on October 14, 2025, Microsoft is throwing its extra cussed customers one other bone. The corporate previously announced that, for the primary time, customers would be capable of buy one yr of Home windows 10 Prolonged Safety Updates (ESUs) for $30. Right this moment, Microsoft revealed that you will additionally be capable of use 1,000 reward factors to snap up an ESU. That may very well be useful if, like me, you have been slowly amassing Microsoft Rewards and fully forgot they existed. (You may earn factors by looking on Bing, buying on the Microsoft retailer and taking part in Xbox video games.)

To recap, the Home windows 10 ESU will get customers bug fixes, safety updates and technical assist till October 13, 2026. If you happen to do not pay for the ESU, you may nonetheless maintain utilizing Home windows 10, you simply will not get any main updates. On the very least, although, Microsoft will proceed to ship MS 365 app safety updates, in addition to Home windows Defender antivirus intelligence updates, till October 2028. I might additionally wager you will begin to see loads of notifications nagging you to replace to Home windows 11 after this October.

Microsoft says Home windows 10 customers will be capable of enroll in its ESU by notifications and Home windows Settings. The enrollment wizard is presently accessible to Home windows Insider testers, and the corporate plans to start out rolling it out to common customers in July, with vast availability in mid-August.

I can perceive why Home windows 10 customers can be reluctant to maneuver. It was a rock solid upgrade after the fiasco of Home windows 8, and it is merely annoying to readjust your whole workflow for an entire new OS. However I also liked Windows 11 when it debuted in 2021, because it supplied a extra refined Home windows expertise. Microsoft has additionally addressed most of my issues with Home windows 11 by now — for instance, you may lastly see app names on the duty bar once more, as a substitute of getting them hidden for the sake of aesthetics.