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The story
Windows 10’s mainstream support ended on October 14, 2025, but in addition to the $30/year paid ESU (Extended Security Updates) program, Microsoft is offering a free enrollment option for home users and small offices, delivering critical security updates through October 2027. The target is tens of millions to hundreds of millions of PCs that can’t meet Windows 11’s requirements, such as TPM 2.0 support and eligible CPU generations. On 5ch’s News Express+ board, the topic drew over 40 replies, with discussion ranging from being stuck on old CPUs that block the upgrade to 11, to differences in memory usage compared to Macs, nostalgia for older Windows versions, and frustration with Microsoft’s development practices.
Support for “Windows 10” officially ended about a year ago, on October 14, 2025. Windows 10 PCs running with default settings no longer receive the monthly critical security updates from the “Windows Update” servers. However, if enrolled in the “Extended Security Updates” (ESU) program, Microsoft will keep delivering updates to the OS even after its support end date.
When Microsoft first announced ESU for Windows 10, it had planned to charge $30 for a one-year subscription. But the company came to realize that many consumer PC owners weren’t prepared, willing, or financially able to replace their old computers, and also weren’t willing to pay $30 for an ESU subscription — so a few months before the support end date, it announced a “free enrollment option.”
This free ESU subscription is available for PCs running “Windows 10 Home” or “Windows 10 Pro” in homes and small offices. It covers the tens of millions to hundreds of millions of consumer PCs that can’t get the free upgrade to “Windows 11” because they don’t meet the compatibility requirements.
Source: japan.zdnet.com / Original article here
What people said
It eats up like 80% of your PC's resources, so users only get to actually use about 20% of their machine's power.
True that.
What you can actually do hasn't changed much since the Windows 2000 days, yet the resource requirements just keep ballooning.
If you're just running one piece of software continuously,
the OS is nothing but dead weight.
I think 10 is basically 7's upward-compatible successor.
When I boot up a 7 install I left sitting on an HDD, though,
it feels incredibly dated lol
You can if you try hard enough.
This is the one area where iMacs — or really Apple in general — are impressive.
Even with 8GB, it runs perfectly smooth.
My work PC only has 8GB and I haven't had any particular problems?
If it's ESU, you're fine.
I pulled the RAM out of my work PC and swapped in 16GB I'd brought from home — no good, it stutters a bit.
So instead I bumped my home PC up to 32GB, and now it runs decently smooth.
Though it still chugs a little when gaming.
A PC that still stutters with 16GB probably has nothing to do with the RAM — it's just junk.
Weren't you guys the ones saying 10 was supposed to be the last OS?
It wasn't "the last OS," it was "the last Windows."
If they wanted to be consistent, they should've given Windows 11 a completely different name,
but instead they broke that promise and cashed in on the Windows brand name — that's the crappy part.
Just buy something new already lol
I think there's way more Win10 users out there than you'd expect.
There's gotta be plenty of people who genuinely still can't afford to upgrade.
everything since has just been downhill.
Everything since Vista has just been a worse version of Vista.
People who trash-talk the 8-series — 8, 8.1, 8.1 Update — don't actually know the differences, or how lightweight 8.1 Update was.
Though the official download isn't even around anymore.
Though it won't make anyone happy.
Saying Microsoft's technical skill has declined might be overstating it, but they only seem to develop tech in directions unrelated to the OS, like AI — so as veteran engineers retire, OS quality just keeps sliding.
It's such an easy fix, really.
Exactly, exactly.
Microsoft is seriously dumb.
That misses the point.
The goal of moving to Win11 is to cut off support for old hardware, and the CPU restriction is just the means to that end.
The pool of engineers who can solve device-driver-level problems has shrunk, so they had no choice but to narrow the range of hardware they support.
Can't be helped — for security reasons, the number of CPUs that actually have TPM 2.0 built in is limited.
Online banking and everything else I do from my iPhone anyway, so I'm fine.
Since I made an account anyway, I've been steadily grinding Microsoft Rewards points (slang for casual point-farming as a hobby), and it's actually pretty worthwhile (´･ω･`)
I trade them in for Amazon, Rakuten, and Apple gift cards.
I browse with Firefox.
That's just definition-file distribution — actual security patches stopped long ago, so use it entirely at your own risk, literally.
What even is an OS anymore?
These days they just keep bolting on useless features.
Good or bad aside, the foundation has been the same since the NT line hit 2000 —
it hasn't really changed since.
Dunno though.
Under Satya Nadella, who's having AI build the OS, 12 is just going to be another bug-riddled mess.
Microsoft will stay garbage until they overhaul how they actually build the OS.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Windows 10’s mainstream support ended on October 14, 2025, but shortly before that deadline, Microsoft added a free home-user enrollment option to the ESU (Extended Security Updates) program it had originally priced at $30 per year. It covers personal and small-office use of Windows 10 Home/Pro, delivering critical updates through October 2027. The backdrop is that tens of millions to hundreds of millions of PCs still can’t meet Windows 11’s requirements, such as TPM 2.0 support and eligible CPU generations. In the thread, opinions split between frustration that an unsupported CPU blocks the jump to 11, and comments pointing out that security requirements like TPM 2.0 are the real reason. There’s also a correction worth flagging: the claim that “Windows 10 was supposed to be the last OS” was actually meant as “the last Windows brand” — a mix-up that’s easy for readers to fall into too. It’s also worth remembering that the free ESU is only a time-limited measure through October 2027, not a permanent move to free updates.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[OS] How to Get “Windows 10” Security Patches for Free — Through October 2027.”
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