Can’t quit Windows 10? You can pay Microsoft for updates after October, or try these alternatives

February 20, 2025 TH Author

An ESU subscription entitles customers to receive updates delivered automatically through Windows Update. If Microsoft follows its customary practices, those updates will also be available for download individually through the Microsoft Update Catalog.

It’s a tedious process, but a customer who’s determined to save money could set a calendar reminder to check for new updates a day or two after those updates are delivered on the second Tuesday of the month and install them manually. If you’re managing only one or two PCs, that process might be an acceptable workaround.

As an alternative, you could subscribe to the third-party service 0patch, which says it will provide “critical security patches” for Windows 10 for at least five years after the end-of-support date, at a price (in euros) that works out to something between $25 and $36 per PC per year at current exchange rates, plus tax. These aren’t clones of Microsoft’s updates. Here’s how the service explains their offering:

With 0patch, you will be receiving security “micropatches” for critical, likely-to-be-exploited vulnerabilities that get discovered after October 14, 2025. These patches will be really small, typically just a couple of CPU instructions (hence the name), and will get applied to running processes in memory without modifying a single byte of original Microsoft’s binary files.

Finally, there are completely unauthorized alternatives, such as the PowerShell activation scripts provided by the Massgrave hacking collective that will allow users to bypass Microsoft’s license agreements and sign up for a three-year ESU subscription without paying. Those scripts aren’t legal, of course, and businesses that rely on them will be at risk of being audited and subjected to lawsuits. Do you feel lucky?