Update, October 2026 — Both dates in this article have now passed. Windows 10 reached end of support on 14 October 2025, and the one consumer year of Extended Security Updates it describes expires on 13 October 2026. Microsoft has said there is no second consumer year. What happened, and what is left, follows the original article.
On 14 October 2025 Microsoft stops issuing security updates for Windows 10. The operating system will keep running — nothing switches off — but every vulnerability found after that date stays open, and criminals time their campaigns to exactly such dates. Microsoft’s advice is to move to Windows 11. For a very large number of machines that is not possible: Windows 11 requires a processor from roughly 2018 or later and a TPM 2.0 security chip, and much of the installed base in Bangladesh — office desktops bought in bulk, cybercafé PCs, the family laptop — fails one or both tests. For those, Microsoft has opened a one-year bridge called Extended Security Updates (ESU), with three ways in.
Option 1: pay $30
Consumers can buy one year of ESU for US$30 per device, covering security patches until October 2026. Businesses have a separate, pricier programme that can run for three years. Payment needs a Microsoft account and an international card, which is the usual obstacle here.
Option 2: back up to the cloud, free
Enrol in ESU at no cost by turning on Windows Backup to sync your PC settings to your Microsoft account. It is done from Settings → Accounts → Windows Backup. Microsoft gives 5 GB of OneDrive storage free; settings take almost none of that, but if you also let it back up folders you may hit the limit and be asked to buy more. You do not have to.
Option 3: 1,000 Rewards points, free
Microsoft Rewards points are earned by searching with Bing, buying from the Microsoft Store, playing Xbox games and completing daily tasks. 1,000 points redeem for a year of ESU. Starting from zero, that is several weeks of daily Bing searches; it is the option for people who refuse the cloud backup on principle.
How to enrol
- Install all pending Windows 10 updates; the ESU enrolment wizard appears under Settings → Update & Security → Windows Update on updated 22H2 machines.
- Sign in with a Microsoft account (local accounts cannot enrol).
- Choose one of the three options. Enrolment must be completed before the free-option deadline in October to be covered from day one.
If you do nothing
The PC keeps working and the browser keeps updating — Chrome and Firefox will support Windows 10 for a while — but the operating system itself becomes a growing liability, and any machine handling bKash, banking or office email should not be on it unpatched. The honest long-term answer for an ineligible PC is a lightweight Linux, or a new machine; ESU buys a year to decide.
Source: News18, via Prothom Alo.
Where this stands today
Windows 10 reached end of support on schedule on 14 October 2025. Consumer Extended Security Updates ran from the following day for one year and end on 13 October 2026. Microsoft has said consistently that the consumer programme is a single year and will not be extended; the separate commercial programme can be renewed annually for up to three years, at a price that doubles each year.
So the breathing space this article described is nearly spent. Anyone still on Windows 10 has days, not months.
The one thing that changed after publication
The three enrolment routes described above were the arrangement for most of the world, and two of them had a condition attached: the free path required turning on Windows Backup, which syncs settings to OneDrive and ties the machine to a Microsoft account, or spending 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points earned through Bing and the Microsoft Store.
Consumer organisations in Europe objected, arguing that charging — or extracting cloud sign-ups and search activity — to keep a working computer secure amounts to making functional hardware obsolete by policy. Microsoft gave way for the European Economic Area, where consumers were offered the ESU year free of charge without the backup or Rewards conditions.
The split matters for what it demonstrates rather than for who benefited. The same company, the same software, the same security patches, delivered on materially different terms depending on which regulator was watching. For readers outside the EEA the practical lesson is that the terms were never a technical constraint.
What is actually left after 13 October 2026
Four options, in rough order of how much they cost.
1. Upgrade to Windows 11, if the machine qualifies. Free, and the only route Microsoft supports. The requirement that disqualifies most hardware is TPM 2.0 plus a processor from roughly 2018 onward. Check with the PC Health Check tool rather than guessing — a number of machines fail only because TPM is switched off in firmware, which is a BIOS setting and not a hardware limit.
2. Install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. It is possible, and Microsoft documents a registry route for it while explicitly disclaiming support, warning that such machines may not receive updates and that damage is not covered by warranty. It works today for many people. It is a configuration the vendor has reserved the right to stop serving, which is a poor foundation for a machine that handles banking.
3. Move to Linux. On a 2015-era laptop that cannot take Windows 11, a mainstream desktop Linux will be faster than the Windows 10 it replaces and will receive security updates for years. The real cost is not difficulty; modern installers are straightforward. It is compatibility: specific Windows-only software, a particular printer or scanner, or an employer's remote-access client can each make it impossible. Check what you actually depend on before wiping anything.
4. Buy new hardware. The option Microsoft prefers, and for a machine already old enough to fail the Windows 11 test, often the one that makes sense on its own terms.
If you simply carry on
The computer will keep working. Nothing switches off, and this is exactly why unpatched machines persist for years.
What changes is that each newly discovered Windows vulnerability stays open on your machine permanently, and attackers specifically target the window after an end-of-support date because the population of unpatched systems is known, large and no longer shrinking. Browsers lag the operating system — Chrome and Firefox continue supporting Windows 10 for a period — and Microsoft has committed to security updates for Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 until October 2028. Neither protects the operating system underneath them.
The practical line to draw is by use. A machine that plays media, runs offline software or drives a workshop tool is a tolerable risk. A machine used for banking, mobile financial services, business email or anything holding other people's data should not be running an unpatched operating system, and the fact that it still boots is not an argument that it is safe.
