To stay safe in Windows 10 from next October you'll have to pay $61, then 'double every consecutive year for a maximum of three years'

pcgamer.com:

Windows 10 is, I'm afraid to say, not long for this world. While Microsoft has confirmed that the ageing OS will still receive free security updates until October 14, 2025, after that you'll have to be part of the ESU, or «Extended Security Updates» program, and that costs money. Depending on your use case, that could be much more than you expected.

In a recent blog post, Microsoft listed out its plans for extended support, including the revelation that if you want to buy an activation key to enrol a Windows 10 device in the ESU, you'll need to cough up $61 per device for year one (via The Register). If that figure seems steep, then prepare to hold on to your collective hats, as Microsoft has also announced that «the price will double every consecutive year for a maximum of three years».

It's worth noting that the price is also cumulative, meaning that if you decide to join the program in year two, you'll have to pay for year one as well.

There are some exceptions worth paying attention to. For one, Windows 10 devices used to access Windows 11 Cloud PCs through Windows 365 will receive security updates without taking any additional steps as part of the Windows 365 existing licence, provided you've committed for over a year. 

You're also entitled to receive a 25% discount on ESU licensing if you use a cloud-based update management solution like Microsoft Intune or Windows Autopatch.

But perhaps the biggest concession is the decision to allow Microsoft Education customers to pick up ESU licences for $1 a pop over the first year, $2 for the second, and $4 for the third. While that might cause a sigh of relief from IT admins working for schools where upgrading to Windows 11 might be difficult for a variety of reasons, it does strike as a very unbalanced pricing model.

As we pointed out when we first covered Microsoft's plans back in December, many will have chosen not to upgrade to Windows 11 due to the TPM and supported CPU requirements that technically rule out a