To continue receiving updates for Windows 10 after 14 Oct 2025, read this full page first, and then follow these three steps:
- SETTINGS – Go to Windows 10 Settings by clicking on the Settings gear icon in the start menu.
- UPDATES – From the main settings screen, look for the Updates option and select that.
- ENROLL – On the resulting screen, where you normally would see updates for the computer, you will likely see a message stating, “Windows 10 support ends in October 2025” and “Enroll in Extended Security Updates to help keep your device secure.” Click the blue link text that says “Enroll now.”
If your computer is already connected to Microsoft using a Microsoft account (free or paid), you will be able to enable extended support.
If you’re not connected to Microsoft, you would need to setup a free Microsoft account first (or pay $30) to get the extended updates.
To learn if your computer is connected to Microsoft, when you are on the main Settings page for Windows, in the upper left corner under your name you should see your email address which signifies that you are connected to Microsoft.
This should all be explained when you reach step three described above.
Regarding the Backup to Cloud Option
The option to connect to Microsoft will be described as something like “Backup your PC at no extra cost” but as soon as you enable the ability to backup your entire computer to the free 5GB Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage, you will likely exceed the available free storage capacity and then need to pay about $2 or more per month for additional storage.
To avoid the problem of exceeding the cloud storage limit, you can simply connect to a free Microsoft account first, and not turn on the full computer backup. Even without the backup to cloud option turned on, your connection to Microsoft is sufficient to get the free continued updates for one year.
Document History
This document is a follow-up to the post “Windows 10 Extended Security Update” from 11 Nov 2024.
