Windows 10 given an extra year of supported life, for $30

The Register ^ | Oct 31, 2024 | iain Tomson

[dayglored]

Microsoft has thrown a lifeline to Windows 10 users ahead of the OS going end-of-life, by offering an extra year of patches for $30.

Support for Windows 10 ends in October 2025 and Redmond is pushing people to upgrade to Windows 11, with mixed success to date – as of last month, Windows 10 had 62.75 percent of Redmond's OS market share, compared to 33.42 percent for the newer version ago.

Perhaps that’s why the software behemoth has decided to offer Extended Security Updates - previously only available for business, education, and government users - to anyone who wants them.

"For the first time ever, we’re introducing an ESU program for personal use as well," wrote Yusuf Mehdi, consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft. "The ESU program for consumers will be a one-year option available for $30. Program enrollment will be available closer to the end of support in 2025."

This will be a boon to those who don't care to upgrade or who can't because their PCs aren’t capable of running Windows 11.

Enterprise users can pay $61 per device for an extra year of support, but that doubles the next year to $122, and again to $244 in year three. Users in the education sector have it much easier - they pay $1 per license for the first year, then $2, and then $4 per Windows 10 machine.

Windows 11 is one of Microsoft's most poorly performing operating systems, in part due to the powerful hardware it requires. Chipmakers and PC players expect the need for upgrades to bring a payday, but that hasn't happened yet.

Part of the problem, as The Register readers have noted on our forums, is that Windows 11 isn’t a significant improvement over its predecessor. While Redmond repeatedly touts the benefits of Copilot and AI, it doesn't seem to be an incentive for many people to rip and replace their hardware to take care of it.

Microsoft also risks driving users to non-Windows machines. With Apple's market share steadily growing in the US - and the iPhone's popularity - many may consider making the switch.

Or perhaps 2025 will be the year of Linux on the desktop. ®

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Note: My prior attempt to post this thread threw an error that caused there to be no initial "Comment" and no way to reply. Hopefully this one will work.

[ConservativeMind]

Your information is what I need.

Thank you!

[dayglored]

> DANGIT.. (I need sleep) 3 1/2 and 5 1/4 (local brain fog must be contagious)

LOL, no problem. I read right through all the previous iterations and my brain, which has not had to think about the dimensions of a diskette in many years, didn't even pick up the inconsistency.

Speaking of portable storage, the other day I came across a 64MB USB flash drive from many years ago, sitting in the back of my desk drawer. I remember when that was a big deal. Now I have a 128GB flash drive that is a tenth the physical size, and at least 100x as fast. We truly live in amazing times.

[daniel1212]

I can’t stand Windows 11.

Yet you can make it like Window 10 easy enough. I am the type of person who likes compact yet expansive menus, and overall enable quick access to programs and places, while improving layout without needing to learn much coding though I have edited the Windows registry a few times, and sometimes used Power Shell to accomplish such.

Therefore I like the the over 200 tweaks available in Ultimate Windows Tweaker for Windows 11 from the Windows club (Windows 10 users should use Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4.8 for Windows 10), as well as Winaero Tweaker and Explorer Patcher and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker beta.

To begin with, Explorer Patcher restores the Windows 11 taskbar to be exactly like Windows 10, and with it I use the Windows 7+ Taskbar Tweaker which provides more customization. Below is two-level (Windows enables this by dragging the top border upward) Taskbar:

Note that most of the buttons are that of multiple Portable Firefox installations, each generally being for its own purpose, from forums to shopping. (Note that to run more than one copy of installations of FF portable concurrently, you need to place a copy of the FirefoxPortable.ini from Other\Source to the main folder of FirefoxPortable and edit the FirefoxPortable.ini to instruct:
AllowMultipleInstances=true)
DisableIntelligentStart=true)

You can also create a Quick launch menu for your taskbar, either for a custom folders or the default Quick launch (buried in %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch) . Right click on your taskbar and hit Toolbars and then New Toolbars and navigate you the folder of your choice,

Add to this Right-Click Extender (add items to many right click menus), plus Open Shell to replace the Windows 11 start menu

Resulting in these expansive quickly accessible layouts (composite image of desktop view in Windows 11: Start and Right-Click menus, default Device manager; task bar via Explorer Patcher.

In contrast, are examples of more limited, spaced out/less compact (though scrollable) default menus in both Windows and typical Linux distros (and the sparsity of the Mint right click menus is not worth showing. Puppy Linux is better)

(Mint):

Yet which is better than the Windows 11 default Start menu (contrasted with OpenShell, on right)

How can anyone think that the default Windows (or Linux) is preferable to what OpenShell enables?:

[conserv8]

windows bkmk

[Bikkuri]

Still trying to figure out your FR name, lol..
I have ‘decoded’ so many names over the years, but yours still baffles me
;^)

Anyway, I ended up trashing any of my “thumbnail” drives under 64g.. (damn.. RAV playing in background, and a surprise show up of veteran dad.. daughter running up and BIG hug.. can’t see screen, got blurry real quick..)

Apologies, been since 1991 since I have experienced that, when I came home at Miami International, coming back from Desert Storm.

ANYWAY..

Use your flash drives as backup.. (even install your whole OS (operating System) on it, if you know how..)

(damn, RAV is showing it again..Blurry)..

(deleted a lot of stuff because it was not useful)

[Bob434]

Thsnks- I’m gonna listen to the video today, and start the process (I’ll have a macrium backup before I start though, just incase I do something wonky lol). I’m definately gonna try to rid it of the call home stuff as much as possible

One question if you don’t mind? Do you go online with the stripped down version? I have windows 20 installed on another backup drive but never registered it, so I can’t do things like customize the look or a few other things, but that is ok- but when I connect to the internet with it, it tries downloading stuff and I think if I remember right, tries to get me to register (it’s been awhile, so i might be mistaken on that- I haven’t used it in a few years as I only use windows 7 now)

Just wondering if the offline install will remain unregistered or if updates will cause it to want to register it or render it crippled?

[dayglored]

> Still trying to figure out your FR name, lol.. I have ‘decoded’ so many names over the years, but yours still baffles me ;^)

My handle "dayglored" derives from when I had a CB radio in my red 1974 Fiat sedan, and a penchant for Italian wine, bright colors, double entendres, and bad puns.

My original CB handle was "Dago Red" (based on my car and and a preference at the time for Chianti), but a couple of other drivers advised me that that handle might get me in a diner fight some late evening. So I revised it to its current form and have used that ever since.

[Bob434]

I don’t know if you would be interested in the following “tiny windows 11- builder” that suppoxoedly,can run on jusy 2 gb of ram, and ancient pc’s, but if so, here is an artic,e on it- he apparently straps out a bunch of stuff from 11

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/make-lightweight-windows-11-image-tiny11-builder

[Bob434]

Woops, disregard the last post, it does remove some stuff, but no control,over what it removes, and it doesn’t disable phone home stuff I guess? Oh well, looked good till I read the whole article

[Bikkuri]

You can go online if you wish, and as far as I know, you can run it without registering it, but like you said, it will be limited as to what you wish to ‘personalize’.
If you have had a legal version of Windows, but are no longer using it, you can use that number (you may have to re-register it through MS), and you can also purchase another new number, if you wish, through a web-site like Kinguin, which purchases overstock versions of software and resells for really cheap (I bought Win 10 & 11 for around $30 each).

Or, you can leave it unregistered and I believe the only limitation is personalizing it & a constant reminder in the lower right corner.

If I remember correctly, some of the updates may install stuff that you previously avoided installing (like the ‘call home’ Windows defender), so it would be a good idea to keep the utility handy and run it every once in awhile to make sure that stuff isn’t installed by an update.

[Bikkuri]

Always some interesting stories behind that 'handles'/names/knicks, lol 😃

[Still Thinking]

Just get IoT. Support till 2032 and LESS of MSs bullshit.

[dayglored]

> Just get IoT. Support till 2032 and LESS of MSs bullshit.

IoT to me means "Internet of Things". Is there a computer, or operating system by that name also?

[Still Thinking]

Win10 LTSC IoT. Intended (by MS) for embedded devices, its essentially debloated LTSC, which is debloated Enterprise.

[Bob434]

The pro version though allows only n3cessary security updates, and does away with other bloatware adding and spying updates- I beleive you can even turn off updates altogether for awhile. Sure wish they’d bring back allowing users to choose what to install.

[Bob434]

thanks bikuri- i had a respopnse, but it didn’t post-

Im trying Chris Titus’ newest program which has soem improvements- it’s pretty easy to use=- just gotta take some time- my clean install went from 147 processes down to 67, but I’m sure it iwl lgo back up with more programs isntalled- but sitll it’s startign out pretty clean-

Here is a video of Britec09 using it plus doing a bunch of other tweak stuff after running it, which i am doing tonight-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmIT1oSkdSk&t=461s

I’m also trying to make a Virtualbox .vmd to .iso- it’s a little complicated- but I think I’ve got it- but we will see- only 1/2 done now-

[Bikkuri]

His tweaks come in real handy, but just make sure to baby-step so if you mess up, it is easy to undo 😉.

[Bikkuri]

I mentioned before that you can legally purchase W 10 PRO @ 11 PRO (can't remember if it was on this thread) for under $50 (I had bought BOTH for about $39 each) on Kinguin.


I just took this screen-cap from Kinguin, and it is even cheaper than what I had bought them for back then:














Totally legal.. What they do is take overstock software from companies that aren't using it and resell it at discount prices. (There are 2 companies I purchase software like that).


(And, like you mentioned, the PRO version gives you more options, which is why I purchased it for both versions.)

[Bob434]

Yep. I don’t mind if it messes up- I’m doing it in a virtual,machine, and while it’s taking some time to do, it’s fine- if it breaks, I will start over- I have lots of free time- keeps the brain from going comatose lol.

My goal if possible is to get a trimmed down fresh install in a vm, then turn that into an .iso if possible- then install it to an HD, unregistered, and have as a backup. Then install a bunch of programs that I use, customize it how I like, and do another .iso and have that as a backup too- my main backup which I will use for reinstalling if need be on main computer. The fresh trimmed one can be used for any computer possibly, if driver issues don’t mess it up, or “changed hardware” isn’t an issue.

I’m gonna purchase probably 10 for now, maybe both now that the sale is on.

Pro purchasing tip; wait for black Friday to purchase most stuff- Christmas too, and cyber Monday. I have a few programs I am gonna purchase but am waiting. I bought one program onsale at black Friday and renew it each year at discounted price- same with an online game I used to play, called Iracing- get it deep discount and renew the subscription at discounted prices.

[Bob434]

Great price on that- im gonna have to jump on that- hopefully they are us company so I can use a gift card to purchase with.