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this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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Do you have a source for that? Everything including Microsoft itself I find tells me that free ESU support for private users will end in Oct 26. Do you mean some paid feature for companies or so?
You can activate 3 years of updates for free with Microsoft Activation Scripts: https://massgrave.dev/windows10_eol
You are talking about the business extension that was already available everywhere, but it requires buying it. I haven't looked into it but I haven't seen anything saying it was free. The article is talking about Germany and the free version that Europe forced Microsoft to enable for everyone, even without a subscription - but only in Europe. That one is only one year.
The link I shared contains steps to activate the 3-year extension for free, on a non-business computer. I don't care if this extension is marketed towards business accounts. You can activate all 3 years on your personal computer for free.
Piracy is usually free yeah but that really doesn't count.
I honestly think it's a bit of a stretch to call it piracy when the open-source code is hosted on Microsoft-owned Github, and Microsoft support has been caught using it themselves: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-support-cracks-windows-for-customer-after-activation-fails/
I just know they said from the start that you could buy three years at escalating prices. Then later, closer to the original end of support they made the first year of ESU free for users in the EEA, and then they made it buy-able for reward points or something like that for everyone.
You're probably right on that