this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
753 points (98.6% liked)

Technology

80503 readers
4060 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] muelltonne@feddit.org 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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?

[–] AlDente@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You can activate 3 years of updates for free with Microsoft Activation Scripts: https://massgrave.dev/windows10_eol

[–] Uruanna@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] AlDente@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Uruanna@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Piracy is usually free yeah but that really doesn't count.

[–] AlDente@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

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/

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago

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.

tells me that free ESU support for private users will end in Oct 26

You're probably right on that