If I still had to use a PC running Windows 10, I'd be thrilled that Microsoft is extending its Extended Security Updates program for that operating system until Oct.14, 2027. Its original end-of-life date was Oct.13 of this year.

Yesterday, Microsoft quietly updated its original blog post from almost exactly a year ago with the new information, but without changing the post date (according to the Wayback Machine). Veteran Windows reporter Ed Bott from ZDNET noticed the stealth change to Microsoft's Windows 10 Consumer ESU page. 

Microsoft didn't offer a real reason for the date change, beyond saying that it "gives customers more time and flexibility to find the best PC for their needs while keeping them protected," in a statement via email.

Since Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 in October 2025, the program is the only way to continue receiving security patches to help protect old systems from new and future threats. 

Although extending programs like these isn't unusual -- sometimes users push back, and sometimes a company isn't quite ready to implement them -- this year it seems even more important to delay them. Upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 not only requires more powerful hardware, but also a piece of security hardware (or software emulation) called a Trusted Platform Module in order to run. 

Unlike Apple, Microsoft doesn't overhaul its operating system annually, which makes sense: Windows serves a very heterogeneous market, which makes development far more complicated than Apple's we-control-all-the-hardware approach. Though Windows 10 is 5 years old, a chunk of people never upgraded because of those updated hardware requirements, or even recently bought used systems that wouldn't support it.

Prices of laptops and desktop PCs have been rising due to artificial intelligence and data centers' voracious appetite for the manufacturing resources previously allocated to consumer components like memory and storage -- including a surprise round of increases this week from Apple. So it's a pretty bad time to buy consumer electronics, and will probably remain so through at least the next year.

If you're running Windows 10 and haven't yet enrolled in the program, it's still a pretty simple process, provided you're running at least 22H2 and have a Microsoft account. In ideal circumstances, it's just a link available from within Windows Update. 

And if you can afford it, computer prices haven't yet peaked, and a wave of cheap laptops has emerged in response to the success of Apple's entry-priced MacBook Neo.