In the end, there is small print. Users of Windows 10 They received the news last week that Microsofteliminated the conditions to obtain one more year of security update support in the operating system and that would be completely free. The company has planned to end the next October 14a decade after the launch of Windows 10but now everyone can prolong their use with security for twelve more months, although there is a condition.
According to Windows Central, to continue receiving security updates users must Authentic with your Microsoft account on your Windows 10 computer at least once every 60 days. If they do not, your team will stop updating.
Originally, the conditions were greater. Users who wanted to access that year extra security updates should do so through the program ESU (Acronym for extended security updates) and to access it they had three options: pay 30 dollarsspend 1,000 Microsoft Rewards pointswhich is a loyalty program with which actions such as bing searches, or carrying out A backup of your equipment In Microsoft’s cloud storage. Since the free space it offers OneDrive To Microsoft accounts it is only 5 GB, this would force in many cases to acquire a subscription of payment to the service to be able to perform it.
Finally, it has been the pressure of the International Consumer Organization Euroconsumers and the possibility of risking a sanction by the European Union for violating article 6 (6) of the Digital Markets Law What has led Microsoft to change its position. This law was born with the aim of ending some activities of technological giants in Europe. This turn benefits only the users of the European economic space, so In the rest of the world they continue with the same conditions.
Business users have a slightly clear horizon: Three years of security updatesbut paying annually for each Windows 10 license that receives them.
Posture change comes at a sweet time for Windows 11. According to Statcounter figures, which are not numbers provided by Microsoft but estimates that the statistics service performs, last Julio Windows 11 managed to overcome for the first time the market share of his predecessor: 53.39% compared to 42.99%. This abrupt fall of Windows 10 was attributed to the proximity of the end of the support, which would have pushed many users to update their operating system.
However, the figures that Statcounter gives in this month of September show a slight recovery of the veteran operating system. Now Windows 11 would have 49.02% compared to 45.75% of Windows 10.