Microsoft said schools will be charged $1 per computer for the first year, $2 the following year and $4 the third year for the extended support for Windows 10. | Wachiwit/Shutterstock
Several months after announcing it planned to offer extended support for Windows 10, Microsoft named its price for schools and businesses – the cost for individuals is still yet to be announced.
Previously Microsoft announced it would stop providing security updates for Windows 10 on Oct. 14, 2025, but the Public Interest Research Group, an NGO focused on consumer protection, public health and transportation, argued that Microsoft should extend support for the operating system. The company said in a Dec. 5 blog post it would offer extended security updates on a yearly subscription basis, for three years.
Now Microsoft has clarified that schools will be charged $1 per computer for the first year, $2 the following year and $4 the third year for the extended support. Small businesses and commercial customers will be charged $61 in the first year, and the price will double each year for the second and third years.
The subscription will provide monthly critical and important security updates but not new features, customer-requested non-security updates or design change requests.
In a press release, Lucas Rockett Gutterman, PIRG’s Designed to Last campaign director, referenced a recent U.N. report on how e-scrap generation is outpacing recycling and noted that “it’s irresponsible to toss working computers just because their software has expired.”
“Abandoning Windows 10 and rendering 400 million computers useless could cause the biggest jump in junked computers ever,” Rockett Gutterman said. “Microsoft’s affordable extension to schools is a positive step, but automatically extending the life of these computers for everyone is the best way to cut down the toxic e-waste overwhelming our landfills.”