Windows 10 EOL @lifecycle | ESU | consumer

Sep 1, 2025  

1. Consumer ESU (must login to MSA @6-mo)
1. encroll MSA + OD Backup @60d login: forbes | tg
2. 1000 MS reward points
3. $30 yr 1 until oct 13, 2026 ESU (MVL pgm $61+2×+4× =$427)
2. Enterprise ESU
• Yr1: $61/dev Yr2: $122 Yr3: $244 3-yr total $427.
• If enroll for the first time in Year 2, they will have to pay the Yr1+Yr2 costs.
• VL pgm only, domain joined wkstns must use this instead of consumer pgm
3. buy new PC
4. Win365 cloud PC (still need a "terminal")
5. 3rd-party services: 0patch €0/25/35
6. LTSC Ent →Jan 12, 2027; LTSC for IoT →Jan 13, 2032
7. employ bypass methods to suppress qualification test during W11 upgrade
   

1. isolation + mitigation: vm  / containerize / TS centralize / pare down & harden
2. do nothing: WinDef db upd cont thru 2028
3. Linux/FreeBSD/MacOS

(12 pathways in total)

1. official support for installed MCA (despite ESU)
2. certain restrictive SaaS
3. regulatory compliance / certification
4. future device driver glitches
5. stigma
6. security

• PC Health Check

• devices joined to an Active Directory domain or Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) are not eligible for free 1-year ESU program offer
• free ESU program is designed for personal PCs. A device that is joined to a domain is, by definition, a commercial device under central management, and therefore falls under the purview of the commercial ESU program and Vol Lic.
• technically feasible to convert a specific local user account to a Microsoft account on a domain-joined node
• Windows always allows users to sign in with their Microsoft account credentials
• However, machine remains a member of the Active Directory domain, and the domain-level policies and management still apply. Microsoft's exclusion criteria for the consumer ESU program are based on the machine's domain-join status, not the type of user account logged in.
• The catch-22 for this scenario: A domain-joined machine is typically managed by an organization's IT department. Even if a local user account exists on that machine, and even if you link that local account to a MSA, the underlying machine's status as a domain member and its connection to the corporate network make it ineligible for the consumer ESU. Attempting to use the consumer ESU on such a device would violate Microsoft's licensing terms and would not be supported. The enrollment wizard is designed to detect these commercial characteristics and will not offer the consumer ESU path.