Support for Windows 10 ends October 14, 2025 - are you ready?If you still use Windows 10, you should do this NOW! | 9:52
Ask Your Computer Guy | 184K subscribers | 76,060 views | May 8, 2025
--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <-- 0:00 · if you're still using Windows 10 on your 0:02 · personal computer your days are numbered 0:05 · 173 days to be exact as of the date of 0:08 · this recording that's how many days left 0:09 · before Microsoft officially ends support 0:11 · for Windows 10 so the real question is 0:14 · what does that mean for you and are you 0:15 · prepared for it and do you have any 0:17 · options that's what we're going to talk 0:18 · about today the answer might surprise 0:20 · you hey guys my name is Scott Merrill 0:21 · i've been in it for almost 35 years now 0:24 · and on this channel I offer Windows tips 0:27 · tricks reviews how-tos and 0:30 · troubleshooting steps in addition to 0:31 · that I also offer guidance if you're 0:33 · looking for a new computer and you're 0:35 · not sure what to buy there's a link in 0:36 · the description below if you want to 0:38 · click on that fill out a quick form and 0:40 · send it to me and I'll do my best to 0:41 · guide you to making the right purchase 0:43 · 100% free happy to help so after October 0:46 · 14th of 2025 in about 170 days Microsoft 0:50 · is officially ending support for Windows 0:52 · 10 that means no more technical support 0:54 · no more new features no more bug fixes 0:56 · and more importantly no more Windows 0:58 · updates so for a lot of people 1:00 · especially those who've had issues with 1:02 · Windows updates causing crashes on their 1:04 · machine before not getting Windows 1:06 · updates sounds like a good thing and in 1:07 · some ways it might be but not getting 1:09 · those Windows updates could be 1:11 · troublesome for you additionally the 1:13 · Windows 10 installer that Microsoft 1:15 · hosts for free on their website for you 1:18 · to download will most likely also be 1:20 · taken offline considering that that's 1:22 · support once Windows 10 officially 1:24 · reaches end of support they're probably 1:26 · going to take it down just like they've 1:27 · taken down every other operating system 1:29 · that's reached end of life you cannot 1:31 · download those installer discs anymore 1:33 · once Windows reaches end of life so you 1:36 · might be saying "Okay so what my 1:38 · computer's running fine if I have an 1:40 · issue I can uninstall an update or do a 1:42 · system restore and everything's back to 1:44 · normal but sometimes those Windows 1:45 · troubleshooting steps that you might use 1:47 · to get your computer back up and running 1:50 · stop working specifically the Windows 1:52 · reset which reinstalls Windows on top of 1:55 · itself and in those cases the only 1:57 · option you might have is to do a fresh 1:59 · Windows install and if that installer is 2:01 · no longer available and you haven't 2:03 · created an installation disc you're 2:05 · going to have to pay somebody like me 2:07 · who does have that disc to back up your 2:09 · data wipe your computer clean reinstall 2:12 · Windows and that's going to cost you 2:13 · some money or you can absolutely do that 2:16 · today for free for less than a cost of a 2:18 · flash drive and about 30 minutes of your 2:20 · time and that's what I'm going to show 2:21 · you how to do and in case you're 2:23 · thinking you know what Windows 10 has 2:24 · been out for a while i'm sure they've 2:26 · worked out all the bugs and there's 2:28 · really nothing for me to worry about i'm 2:29 · a low-risk user and no big deal you'd be 2:33 · wrong even today in 2025 they are still 2:35 · finding vulnerabilities in the Windows 7 2:38 · operating system and the support for 2:40 · that expired in 20120 so just because 2:44 · you've been updated many many times does 2:46 · not mean that 3 years down the road 2:48 · after support has ended that somebody is 2:51 · not going to find a way to hack your 2:54 · Windows that's why having an 2:55 · installation disc is so important now 2:57 · with all that being said there are 3:00 · options for you if you want to continue 3:02 · to use Windows 10 microsoft will offer 3:05 · you extended support for personal users 3:08 · for $30 a year which is actually not 3:11 · really bad and what that will do is 3:13 · allow you to continue to receive 3:15 · important security updates and patches 3:18 · for your Windows operating system now of 3:20 · course Microsoft wants you ideally to 3:22 · switch to Windows 11 and that can be an 3:25 · option for you but maybe you have no 3:27 · interest in Windows 11 this is a way 3:29 · that you can continue to use Windows 10 3:31 · continue to get those updates and know 3:33 · that your computer's going to be safe 3:34 · from a potential exploit or a hacker so 3:37 · again I'm going to show you right now 3:38 · how to go and get this Windows 10 3:40 · installer now before it gets taken 3:42 · offline and you can keep it in a drawer 3:44 · and if you ever need it you have it all 3:46 · it's going to cost you is a flash drive 3:48 · and if you don't have one of those I'll 3:49 · put a link in the description for you 3:51 · you can click on it and have it shipped 3:52 · right to your door now I'm sure some of 3:54 · you are going to have some questions if 3:55 · you stay to the end I will try to answer 3:57 · as many of those as I can so what you're 4:00 · going to want to do is you're going to 4:01 · just want to open Google and in the 4:04 · Google search box type in download 4:06 · Microsoft Media Creation Tool click 4:10 · enter and you'll see some of these links 4:13 · here the one that says download Windows 4:15 · 10 disc image here is the one you want 4:17 · to click on just want to scroll down the 4:19 · screen a little bit until you see right 4:21 · here create Windows 10 installation 4:23 · media click on download now and then 4:26 · you'll see this box that pops up asking 4:28 · you where you want to save it to just 4:29 · save it to your downloads and once that 4:31 · download is completed just go ahead and 4:33 · click on it to run and it'll take a 4:35 · second to go ahead and start the setup 4:37 · but you'll get this window when it's 4:38 · ready you just go down to the bottom and 4:40 · click accept and you're going to get a 4:42 · couple options here one of them is to 4:44 · upgrade this PC now but the other one is 4:46 · the one you want to choose the create 4:48 · installation media USB flash drive DVD 4:51 · or ISO file for another PC click next on 4:55 · this screen you should see Windows 10 4:57 · right here if that's the machine that 4:58 · you're using and just go ahead and 5:00 · select next now this part is important 5:03 · you're going to have a choice between a 5:04 · USB flash drive or an ISO file if you 5:08 · want to put this ISO file which is 5:10 · basically a snapshot of that Windows DVD 5:13 · you can use that and create what's known 5:16 · as a Ventoid disc i'll put a link up at 5:18 · the top for a video I made on how to do 5:20 · that both of them do the same thing 5:22 · basically the Ventoid disc allows you to 5:23 · have multiple installation files on one 5:26 · drive today I just want to show you how 5:27 · to use the USB flash drive so you're 5:29 · going to select USB flash drive it needs 5:31 · to be at least 8 GB and it needs to be 5:33 · empty anything that's on this drive is 5:35 · going to be deleted during this process 5:37 · so if you have any important data make 5:39 · sure you save it elsewhere or get a 5:42 · brand new drive you're going to click 5:44 · next and your next screen that's going 5:46 · to come up is going to show you all the 5:48 · available drives in this case I have 5:50 · several portable drives but this is my 8 5:53 · GB flash drive you want to make sure you 5:55 · select that correct drive because you 5:57 · don't want to overwrite any of the other 5:59 · stuff once you have that drive selected 6:01 · click next and then the process is going 6:03 · to start it's going to take a few 6:05 · minutes just sit back and wait and just 6:06 · a few minutes later your flash drive is 6:08 · ready and just click finish on this box 6:10 · and that's it take that flash drive out 6:13 · i'd probably put a label on it and stick 6:15 · it somewhere important like a safe or a 6:17 · desk drawer that nobody uses and now in 6:19 · case anything happens you're set to go 6:22 · even after end of support so let me try 6:24 · to address some of the questions that 6:25 · you might have the most common question 6:27 · I get is will Windows 10 still work 6:30 · after the end of life absolutely 100% it 6:33 · will work like it has always worked 6:36 · there's not going to be any limitations 6:38 · any functionality issues anything like 6:40 · that the only thing that you may run 6:42 · into is several years down the road some 6:45 · of the things you do normally like using 6:48 · your web browser those browsers may no 6:50 · longer work in Windows 10 because too 6:53 · much time has gone by and they've 6:54 · updated and you have to have a newer 6:56 · operating system but that's several 6:58 · years down the road and you don't have 6:59 · to worry about that second question is 7:01 · what if I make this flash drive and I 7:02 · lose it or it gets damaged well that's 7:05 · also a good question one of the things 7:06 · that I would do is get two of these 7:08 · flash drives create this disc twice keep 7:12 · them in separate places the odds of both 7:14 · of those drives failing is highly 7:16 · unlikely it's always better to spend a 7:18 · few extra bucks make another disc and 7:21 · that way you always have a backup 7:22 · solution if you absolutely hate the 7:24 · thought of Windows 11 and you want to 7:26 · stick with Windows 10 that's the best 7:27 · way to do it and as an added bonus you 7:30 · can reinstall Windows yourself with this 7:32 · disc instead of paying somebody like me 7:33 · to do it for you the another question 7:34 · you might have is that extra $30 of 7:37 · support that you pay Microsoft to 7:38 · continue to get updates how long is that 7:40 · going to last unfortunately nobody knows 7:42 · we know it's going to last at least a 7:44 · year my guess would probably be 2 3 4 7:47 · years before Microsoft stops doing that 7:50 · because they ultimately want you to 7:52 · upgrade to Windows 11 since Windows is 7:54 · now becoming a software as a service 7:56 · they make a lot more money off of you if 7:58 · you use Windows 11 another question is 8:00 · should I make one of these for Windows 8:02 · 11 if that's what you end up getting and 8:06 · yeah I would absolutely recommend doing 8:07 · that the process is the same you do the 8:09 · same Google search just use Windows 11 8:11 · instead of Windows 10 go ahead and 8:13 · create that media installer disc because 8:15 · even if you have Windows 11 and you 8:18 · don't have the software to reinstall 8:19 · Windows you're still going to be in that 8:21 · same situation and additionally Windows 8:23 · 11 is going to no longer be supported at 8:25 · some point so it's not a bad idea to 8:26 · have that operating system available for 8:29 · you if you need to troubleshoot or 8:30 · repair your own computer so as you can 8:32 · see if you are insistent on using 8:34 · Windows 10 and I have no problem with 8:37 · that i prefer Windows 10 over Windows 11 8:40 · but you just have to understand that it 8:42 · is a crapshoot if you do not buy the 8:45 · extended support you are going to be 8:47 · vulnerable now again that's a chance 8:50 · that you have to take and you have to 8:52 · decide if it's worth $30 a year for you 8:54 · to have that comfort level to have that 8:56 · security blanket of Windows updates if 8:58 · you don't want to do it don't do it you 9:00 · don't have to microsoft is offering that 9:02 · to you but it's not required totally 9:06 · optional if you follow these steps and 9:08 · create this disc at least you know that 9:11 · you have that comfort level of being 9:13 · able to reinstall Windows on your own 9:16 · without having to pay a technician to do 9:18 · it and the worst it's going to cost you 9:20 · is about $5 for a flash drive and about 9:23 · 30 minutes of your time you follow these 9:24 · steps one at a time exactly like I 9:26 · showed you and you're set you're good to 9:28 · go and it's going to save you hundreds 9:29 · maybe thousands of dollars in service 9:31 · repair costs down the road now I've 9:34 · showed you how to create a Windows 10 9:36 · install disc but if you're thinking 9:38 · maybe a Windows 11 upgrade might not be 9:40 · that bad but you've heard things about 9:42 · it I made a detailed walkthrough on 9:44 · everything you need to know about 9:45 · Windows 11 and I'll put that video right 9:47 · here for you hope you enjoy it let me 9:49 · know if you have any questions down in 9:50 · the comments thanks so much for watching