so.. windows 10 support ... education extended for free

[5nowman]

I just found out.. If you have the education OVS malarke.

 

windows 10 support is 0p for the first year extended.

 

wish I had known.. would not have upgraded everyone to windows 11!!!

 

This means no TPM deadline etc right?

 

[Olliedawg]

Do you have a source for this please?

 

We're OVS but haven't heard about this being free. I was told £1 per device for the first year

[3s-gtech]

Yeah been through the process, got the keys, and deploying and activating them with scripts.

 

£1 a machine. Not heard owt about them being free?

[Gongalong]

The last we heard from our reseller, before the summer hols, MS hadn't told them anything. Hopefully they're now also clued in... (I'd seen it was $1/machine for the first year in the USA)

[5nowman]

6 hours ago, Olliedawg said:

Do you have a source for this please?

 

We're OVS but haven't heard about this being free. I was told £1 per device for the first year

 

I don't have it in writing.. just info I got today at like 1600! from software reseller who questioned it and got confirmation of the price

 

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Yup, I can confirm this little surprise too.

 

Windows 10 Extended Security Updates are now live.

 

The Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) program gives customers the option to receive security updates for PCs enrolled in the program. ESU is a paid program that provides individuals and organizations of all sizes with the option to extend the use of Windows 10 devices past the end of support date in a more secure manner

 

They are licensed on a per device basis – 1 licence per device. Year 1 covers October 14^th 2025 to October 2026. Year 2 covers October 14^th 2026 to October 2027 and so on. A customer only needs to purchase 1 at a time, though all 3 exist on the price list for convenience and price transparency. They are cumulative, which means for example if a customer decides to enrol in year 3, they also need to order the year 1 and 2 SKUs, though for education and charity, year 1 is free.

 

 

Windows 10 ESU Year 1 (2025 - 2026)	£0
Windows 10 ESU Year 2 (2026 - 2027)	£1
Windows 10 ESU Year 3 (2027 - 2028)	£3

 

Best,

Col

[bkelly]

Hi Col,

 

Thank-you for the information.  Do you have a Microsoft link or similar that we can reference to our software suppliers please?

 

Kind regards, Brian

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10 | Microsoft Learn

[3s-gtech]

Well balls, there goes several hundred quid.

[enbiggen]

Our reseller is checking something, but they say that extended support is not available under OVS, but would be available under Campus or CSP. I'm not sure where that leaves us - Campus I'm assuming is for universities, and looking at the CSP acronym, it looks to be "Cloud Solution Provider"?

[TheRobins]

19 hours ago, enbiggen said:

Our reseller is checking something, but they say that extended support is not available under OVS, but would be available under Campus or CSP. I'm not sure where that leaves us - Campus I'm assuming is for universities, and looking at the CSP acronym, it looks to be "Cloud Solution Provider"?

Understaning is you would need to get a cloud licence (can run along side your OVS) just for this purpose. Once purchase you will then get a MAK key from that portal to deploy to your machines.

 

They have a learn article on how the MAK keys will be activated. Looks like it will not be supported by KMS server activation. Also waiting news on if the updates can then be pushed via WSUS but that is looking highly un-likely.  Just correct that, looks like they say WSUS will support the deployment of Windows 10 ESU updates to correctly licenced machines. 

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/enable-extended-security-updates#get-the-product-keys-for-activating-extended-security-update-esu-licenses

 

Edited September 3, 2025 by TheRobins
WSUS update

[password1234]

Have Microsoft Done a U-Turn about this? Just  heard from one of our suppliers they now charging £1 even for year 1

 

[BOOT]

...and that you have to buy all 3 years at once?

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Correct... Now £1, £2 & £4 (Yr 1,2,3) for Education....

 

Info landed late yesterday..

[enbiggen]

I wasn't aware that it was all three years at once - so we can't buy year 2 or 3 once we've purchased year 1?

Edited October 2, 2025 by enbiggen

[5nowman]

soo cheeky of them!

[Spookyville]

Luckily I acquired ours last week when still £0 for year 1. Will only need a year so no issues. 

[enbiggen]

1 minute ago, Spookyville said:

Luckily I acquired ours last week when still £0 for year 1. Will only need a year so no issues. 

We were told they couldn't be ordered until the start of October...

 

I may order 4 additional licences for three years, as there are four devices we can't easily replace within 1-year.

[Olliedawg]

18 hours ago, Spookyville said:

Luckily I acquired ours last week when still £0 for year 1. Will only need a year so no issues. 

I got ours last week too, £0 for the first year.

[Gongalong]

That might explain why our reseller have been dragging their feet getting this sorted! So they can make £10ish out of the licenses we need...

[TheRobins]

1 minute ago, Gongalong said:

That might explain why our reseller have been dragging their feet getting this sorted! So they can make £10ish out of the licenses we need...

100% this, I suspect it was an agreement as resellers were saying, hold on a minute we have to do all this work for nothing???

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Morning All!  Spoken to our Licensing chaps.  You don't have to buy all 3 years upfront, however... we all know our friends at Microsoft, and we all know how this ESU thing has played out so far, so the FUD is; in year 2 what if the cost surges again, and in year 3 what if it's increased again?  So, the best advice I would give is, if you want to extend the usable lifespan of the device for 3 years, go for the lot now.

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

1 minute ago, TheRobins said:

100% this, I suspect it was an agreement as resellers were saying, hold on a minute we have to do all this work for nothing???

 

Hey mate, absolutely no idea who your reseller is, but from our perspective this whole ESU thing has been chopped, changed, unconfirmed, committed to and reneged on so much by the vendor that there's been no funny business from a partner perspective, and no attempt to acquire ill gotten gains by delaying.  Perhaps higher up the food chain, who knows, but certainly not at a partner level.

[TheRobins]

Im talking of your top of the chain for processing the orders, Westcoast and alike. 

[Gongalong]

56 minutes ago, VeryPC_Colin_M said:

 

Hey mate, absolutely no idea who your reseller is, but from our perspective this whole ESU thing has been chopped, changed, unconfirmed, committed to and reneged on so much by the vendor that there's been no funny business from a partner perspective, and no attempt to acquire ill gotten gains by delaying.  Perhaps higher up the food chain, who knows, but certainly not at a partner level.

Fair point. I could imagine resellers have been waiting for the dust to settle. Another M$ mess, along with half a billion PCs going to e-waste...