Microsoft has quietly extended its free Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) program by another year, so enrolled devices keep getting security patches until 12 October 2027, as BleepingComputer reports. Windows 10 officially reached end of support in October 2025, and the free safety net was due to run out this October. There’s now an extra year on the clock — but read the fine print before you relax.

Here’s the catch most of the coverage skips: the free consumer ESU is for personal devices only. Microsoft explicitly excludes any PC that’s joined to an Active Directory domain, joined to Microsoft Entra, or managed through MDM — which is precisely how most not-for-profit fleets are set up. If your office laptops are domain- or Entra-joined, and properly managed ones usually are, the free route simply doesn’t apply to them. The business path is the paid enterprise ESU, which works out to around US$427 per device over three years. For a not-for-profit running 30 or 40 machines, that adds up fast — and it’s the kind of cost that lands on a board report with no warning.

So don’t assume the headline covers you. Ask your IT provider a simple question: are our machines domain- or Entra-joined, and which ones are actually eligible for free ESU? For PCs that can run Windows 11, plan the upgrade now while there’s breathing room — most hardware from 2018 onwards is fine. For older gear, weigh paid ESU against replacement, and remember eligible not-for-profits can access heavily discounted or donated hardware and Microsoft 365 licensing. The extra year is time to plan the migration properly, not a reason to stop.

If you’d like a simple inventory of which machines are covered, which can move to Windows 11, and which need replacing, that’s a standard part of our not-for-profit IT support.