Windows 10 Support until 2030? 0Patch makes it possible
Micro-patching service 0Patch will support Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system until 2030.
Microsoft plans to end support for Windows 10 officially in October 2025. For the first time in a very long time, Windows customers may not be able to upgrade their devices to a newer version of Windows.
When Microsoft announced Windows 11, it changed the system requirements significantly. The effect of the decision is that more than 200 million Windows 10 devices cannot be upgraded officially to Windows 11.
In other words: these devices and their owners are stranded without an upgrade path.
Come October 2025, owners of Windows 10 devices will have these five options, if they want to keep on using their devices:
- Upgrade to Windows 11 -- only available if the device is supported officially. Yes, there are workarounds, but Microsoft may introduce changes that are incompatible with older hardware. This happened once already.
- Join Windows 10 ESU -- Extended Security Updates will be offered to all customers for three years (until 2028). Microsoft has yet to reveal the price for home users. Businesses may pay more than $400 for three years of patching for a single machine.
- Continue using Windows 10 -- as more vulnerabilities are detected, unpatched Windows 10 systems face more risks.
- Migrate to Linux -- the best option in many regards, but also the most daunting one, as it means learning a new system and facing the stress of migration. Best, because it is free and not time-limited.
- Join 0Patch -- the company will create security updates for Windows 10.
0Patch pledges support for Windows 10 until 2030
0Patch is a micro-patching service that supports old operating system and software products with security patches. The company has done so for older versions of Windows already, including Windows 7 and several server products.
The company writes: "With October 2025, 0patch will "security-adopt" Windows 10 v22H2, and provide critical security patches for it for at least 5 more years - even longer if there's demand on the market."
0Patch has a long history of supporting Windows systems that ran out of support. It already has supported older versions of Windows 10 with continued security updates.
Here is how it works:
- Price: Consumers pay about $25 + tax per year to gain full support for that year. This includes security updates for Windows 10, but also for other Microsoft products, including older Office versions.
- Patching: A software applies the small patches "to running processes in memory". In other words, no Microsoft binary files are changed.
- Convenience: Since patches are applied in memory, there is no rebooting involved.
Patches may also be provided for security issues that Microsoft labeled as "wontfix" and for 0-Day issues for which no official security updates are available.
0Patch won't create patches for every vulnerability discovered. The company focuses on critical and easy-to-exploit vulnerabilities.
Closing Words
Windows 10 users may get continued security updates support for their operating systems until at least 2030 thanks to 0Patch. That's at least 2-years longer than what Microsoft is offering.
Users need to keep in mind that software support will dry out eventually. This won't happen immediately after end of support though. Eventually, programs like Steam, Google Chrome, or Microsoft Office, will stop supporting Windows 10.
0Patch adds another option for Windows 10 devices that are not supported by Windows 11. Five years of additional support extends the life of the operating system by at least 50%. Microsoft released Windows 10 in 2015.
What about you? Do you still run Windows 10? What will you do after October 2025?
Microsoft is the Boeing of security.
Over the weekend I abandoned Microsoft. I finally made the switch to (Mint)
Linux. All of my VMs, and my server that were previously on Windows are now
running on Mint Linux. I had set up a new VM host server on WIndows 11 with
Virtualbox and it was so incredibly bad, VMs would either freeze or crash
constantly. So far on Linux everything is running really well. The last
straw was Outlook – I’ve been using Outlook for several decades, I have all
emails going back to the 1990s.
I bought a “lifetime license” for Outlook and upon moving the VM that hosts
Outlook to the new server it wanted me to re-activate Outlook, but I
couldn’t use my “lifetime” license, they said it was only good for one
activation and they wanted me to buy another one.
FU Microsoft. That was the last straw. I installed Thunderbird on a Linux
VM and set up all my email accounts there, and calendar. I’m done, you lost
me Microsoft, I will never recommend anyone use Windows or any Microsoft
product ever again.
@ m$ SUX,
You need to remove the checkmark from Notepad’s Format –> Word Wrap before copy/pasting what you’ve written into a web page. Makes it much easier to read without all those spaces after each sentence.
Still on W7 Pro 64x with 0Patch. No time to begin with W10 and Microsoft is done before 2030… watch my word and I hope that then W7 will be made open source…
Yes I know very crazy thinking here, but watch…
What ever happened to the days when Windows 10 was supposed the last version of Windows?
I was looking forward to never having to buy a new computer or go through pain of OS upgrades ever again!
I’m getting fed up of this constant upgrade treadmill.
Linux is even worse for the upgrade treadmill, because Linux is developed by hipsters who refuse to support 32 bit hardware and impose constant change and updates.
> What ever happened to the days when Windows 10 was supposed the last version of Windows?
Thats a myth.
Great job on this post! Your attention to detail and thorough explanations make your blog one of my favorites.
“these devices and their owners are stranded without an upgrade path.”
The “upgrade path” is called “new install.” Buy a Windows 11 license from a gray marketer, $15-25.
Or Linux. Pay nothing except massive amounts of time learning it.
Or even better, hypervisor and downloaded images. Spend even more massive amounts of time learning it.
Bottom line: You – that is, corporate world – made the mistake over the last forty years allowing Microsoft to dominate the market instead of supporting open source operating systems.
Deal with it, suckers.
No I think I will not use the Windows 11 botnet.
Why so vocal about being milked by big tech for private data?
There are 2 options- without spending more money- if you wanna use win 10 after 2025 ;
1. Wait for a ESU patch.. so you can use Win10 another 3 years!
2. install W10 LTSC IOT.. without bloatware + support till 2032!
(message made on a windows 7 system with ESU Patch( 3 years extra!)
and after last year with embedded patch…
( that support ends in october/november this year…..)
mind adding some info? ESU requires a licence, right? Or can those files be found around the web?
I’ve been using 0patch for a couple years now on Windows 10. It isn’t at all a ram or resource hog. It’s never caused any problems.
I only moved from Win 7 to Win 10 after I learned enough to be able to decrapify it, customize its interfaces and lock it down to work more like Win 7. When Oct 2025 comes around, I’ll be extremely relieved that MS won’t be whacking me with trashy updates and new “features” to tame or rip out every month. But I’ll keep using Win 10 with 0patch – until software vendors and online services abandon it.
I also have Linux Mint installed as a dual boot, which has been a relatively easy transition, though I’ll likely try switching to a Plasma distro eventually.
I’ve used Windows since back in the early ’80s but Microsoft has pretty much burned any bridges of loyalty with me. Windows is clearly becoming an “Ad Serving System” and “Data Gathering System” rather than an Operating System. Ugh.
Steve, I’ve been a satisfied customer of 0patch since Windows 7 went out of support. When I switched to Windows 10, I signed up with 0patch again, and their service has been excellent. I hope to remain with them long after Windows 10 is out of support.
As a user of 0Patch on my own Windows 7 Pro boxes — and several others under my wing — since Win 7 went EOL, I (and my customers) have been exceedingly pleased.
Early on, there was one customer’s machine for which installation had repeatedly failed and rather than performing a complete reinstall of Windows, I contacted 0Patch co-founder Mitja Kolsek who was extremely generous of his time in diagnosing the problem and providing a solution.
I plan to build a Win 10 Pro box, and will absolutely be adding 0Patch to it.
I would not be surprised if Microsoft has signed secret deals with manufacturers to make people buy new hardware.
“Patches are applied in memory” needs more explaining. So, they require extra RAM?
update: after taking a look at their website (FAQ), it seems that some RAM is required (minimal amounts). More worrying is the rest of their Resource Consumption section.
I’ve used 0patch for five years. I never noticed any effect. In fact, it’s only using 1.3MB of RAM on a Windows 11 laptop. I use it with both Windows 10 and 11 because 0patch actually patches critical issues faster than Microsoft does.
0patch client is not memory intensive or memory hungry beast.
We are using their solution for last few years on a bunch of old 2008 (R2) servers, now also on a few 2012 R2 servers as well and so far excellent performance. Way better than the original M$$$ “cumulative update” packages that are now like a Pandora’s box (you’ll never know what is inside).
Most likely come the EOS in 2025 for Windows 10 we will see a lot of unsupported PC’s still running that OS for some time to come. Its not something that makes sense to orphan so many PC’s and will not be beneficial for the Windows ecosystem.
I guess I’ll make noise about “moving to (one of the many flavors of) Linux”, but like most people who make posts like that, will rapidly realize that it’s a non-consumer-friendly pain-in-the-ass to install. So if I can’t find a Linux geek friend who is willing to install it for me, I’ll either stick with unpatched Win 10 (which is not sex-without-a-condom dangerous if you have your head on straight, security-wise; my home desktop is not a big target) or maybe jump to Apple.
I’m not going to move to Win 11; Win 10 was bad enough. The last MS OS that I didn’t actually hate was Win 7 Pro.
I believe that most people that use windows 10 are only concerned that windows defender can still get updates. They do not really care about any other extended support. Some will look at other anti-virus options. Alot wil just go without hopeing for the best, becuse of the cost of supportand the economic issues lots of people face.
Linux while is a great option, is not known or understood by vast amonts of people.
Most internet providers have a free AV for their customers, this needs to become more well known.
@yeahmaybe
I guess I’ll make noise about “moving to (one of the many flavors of) Linux”, but like most people who make posts like that, will rapidly realize that it’s a non-consumer-friendly pain-in-the-ass to install.
Did you ever try to install Linux? I guess not.
I’m a Linux user not a Linux geek, the first time I installed Linux was about 7 years ago on a old laptop and it installed perfectly. On my favorite W10 laptop I followed the instructions on how to install Linux Lite. That’s how easy it is to install Linux and it is even much simpler now. I would recommend Linux Mint to start with, maybe this can help [https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/] the best 2 flavors of Linux, if you choose cinnamon. Sorry @bruh I like dose flavors not only in my food and drink but also on my laptop ;
A&Q
A: because it made me switch to Linux
Q: why you wrote my favorite W10 laptop?
I swear every time I hear this phrase “flavours of Linux” it actually grates with annoyance. Such a stupid cliche statement to say, definitely overused…
Personally I just stick to what I know, using an “unsupported” os which you know all the ins & outs of trumps using a supported OS which you can’t operate with full confidence.
I’m at the point in my life (24) where i’d rather just get on with the work that needs doing, than fuss about updating systems, etc. If you avoid “re-learning the wheel” you can spend more time being productive. I support W10/W11 systems at work and as a result have to know the ins and outs of them, the quirks, the UI changes, how to install/reinstall them, troubleshoot, etc, and personally, I hate it, the very idea of a “systemapps” folder, which contains many many programs, but you cannot get the path easily, or even create a desktop shortcut for the program because of it’s “secure” location – it’s wrong and goes against normal computing – I’ll never use an OS that treats me like a moron. (whether I’m a moron or not is another matter…)
At the end of the day it’s all about 1) workflow, 2) user experience 3) stability.
I thought so too, then installed Linux Mint in March 2024 and have been using it since. I got some games to work, others don’t, I thought not being able to run certain games will push me to return to Windows, but I was suprised how much I didn’t care that something wouldn’t run. After all, games are a complete waste of time.
W10 LTSC IOT has official support until 2032
This is the way. Illegal activation is worth it.
There is a free version of OPach as well as the paid version. Google search 0Patch to learn about it. Visit the website. It explains also the differences between the one free plan and the two paid plans.
W10 will be the end of Nadella.
Nadella ruined Windows, converting it into advertising and malware-infested rubbish like Android. This person, like all of his current cronies, including Pavan Davuluri, should retire. His goal is to ruin Microsoft products by converting them into slow cloud-based trash.