Windows 10 - Has anybody been able to sign up for extended support?

poseidon1

alanwsg said:

Microsoft agrees to 11th hour Win 10 end of life concessions
(This is in the EEA)
https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/26/not_in_eu_and_want/

But specific to the EEA only. UK users still stuck with the other default options for esu.

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/operating-systems/turns-out-microsoft-will-offer-windows-10-security-updates-for-free-until-2026-but-not-in-the-us-or-uk/

GDB2222

For the average user, having things backed up to the MS cloud is “a good thing “. I appreciate the privacy concerns, but for many people the cloud is their only backup. They get the ESU thrown in for just a couple of clicks with the mouse. 

poseidon1

GDB2222 said:

For the average user, having things backed up to the MS cloud is “a good thing “. I appreciate the privacy concerns, but for many people the cloud is their only backup. They get the ESU thrown in for just a couple of clicks with the mouse. 

However not necessary to backup your personal files to the cloud, I only backed  up MS user settings and that sufficed to open up access to free ESU.
Personal files regularly  backed up to a couple of  external  SSD storage.

GDB2222

poseidon1 said:

GDB2222 said:

For the average user, having things backed up to the MS cloud is “a good thing “. I appreciate the privacy concerns, but for many people the cloud is their only backup. They get the ESU thrown in for just a couple of clicks with the mouse. 

However not necessary to backup your personal files to the cloud, I only backed  up MS user settings and that sufficed to open up access to free ESU.
Personal files regularly  backed up to a couple of  external  SSD storage.

You ideally want some off-site backup as well. The days of taking physical media off site are long past, of course. So, that means some sort of data transmission. Preferably encrypted.

My brother in law is in the process of writing an enormous textbook. He’s backing it up by emailing copies to his family. Encryption is not a requirement, as he would be delighted if someone reads it! 

ih8stress

Not had the enrol button yet - is it possible to enrol with just a Local Account instead now?

GDB2222

If you’re not getting the enrol button yet, one way to hurry it up is to enrol in the windows release preview channel. There’s an option for this in the windows update section of Settings. It means you will get windows updates a bit sooner than the general release. There’s also a beta channel that may be a bit more risky, and I haven’t tried that, but I have had no issues with the preview channel. You can opt back into the mainstream channel any time. 

Northern_Wanderer

GDB2222 said:

If you’re not getting the enrol button yet, one way to hurry it up is to enrol in the windows release preview channel. There’s an option for this in the windows update section of Settings. It means you will get windows updates a bit sooner than the general release. There’s also a beta channel that may be a bit more risky, and I haven’t tried that, but I have had no issues with the preview channel. You can opt back into the mainstream channel any time. 

If I turn this on, do I automatically get the "optional" updates automatically installed? I have not turned this on yet but still no ESR option for me. with 11 days to go. It's a bit rediculous.

Northern_Wanderer

I do have an optional update that I haven't installed yet: 

2025-09 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5066198)

Is this a requirement to get the optin to enroll on ESU?

Northern_Wanderer

Northern_Wanderer said:

GDB2222 said:

If you’re not getting the enrol button yet, one way to hurry it up is to enrol in the windows release preview channel. There’s an option for this in the windows update section of Settings. It means you will get windows updates a bit sooner than the general release. There’s also a beta channel that may be a bit more risky, and I haven’t tried that, but I have had no issues with the preview channel. You can opt back into the mainstream channel any time. 

If I turn this on, do I automatically get the "optional" updates automatically installed? I have not turned this on yet but still no ESR option for me. with 11 days to go. It's a bit rediculous.

If you activate this setting, the optional updates automatically start downloading. I quickly turned off my internet connection to stop this, then toggled the button off. I don't want the silly feature updates.

I watched the video linked here earlier, and some other ones about using some commands. I suspect that I am not seeing the enrol option as I am using Shut Up 10 for privacy reasons and with that, I have disallowed the User Experience & Telemetry settings which I think is what the reg edit (DiagTrack) command will enable, and is required to be able to enrol. Going to have to have a think about this.

BFBW

Northern_Wanderer said:

Northern_Wanderer said:

GDB2222 said:

If you’re not getting the enrol button yet, one way to hurry it up is to enrol in the windows release preview channel. There’s an option for this in the windows update section of Settings. It means you will get windows updates a bit sooner than the general release. There’s also a beta channel that may be a bit more risky, and I haven’t tried that, but I have had no issues with the preview channel. You can opt back into the mainstream channel any time. 

If I turn this on, do I automatically get the "optional" updates automatically installed? I have not turned this on yet but still no ESR option for me. with 11 days to go. It's a bit rediculous.

If you activate this setting, the optional updates automatically start downloading. I quickly turned off my internet connection to stop this, then toggled the button off. I don't want the silly feature updates.

I watched the video linked here earlier, and some other ones about using some commands. I suspect that I am not seeing the enrol option as I am using Shut Up 10 for privacy reasons and with that, I have disallowed the User Experience & Telemetry settings which I think is what the reg edit (DiagTrack) command will enable, and is required to be able to enrol. Going to have to have a think about this.

I also had those things disabled, via Local Group Policy and Services. Enrol option still appeared. Though I'm not in the U.K. Don't use One Drive for anything and wasn't asked to do so. Clicked to enrol, signed in to a random Microsoft account and that was it. I use a Local account to sign in. Signed out of the Microsoft account everywhere afterwards and that was it.