Windows 10 end of life is nigh: On Oct. 14, 2025, Microsoft will officially stop supporting the OS. That doesn’t mean Windows 10 machines will stop working overnight. On the contrary, the experience will feel exactly the same. The difference, however, is that Microsoft will no longer issue security updates for Windows 10, putting those users at great risk going forward.
Those users will either have to update their existing machines to Windows 11, buy a new machine that is compatible with Windows 11, or enroll in an extra year of Extended Security Updates. That last option is likely the choice for most Windows 10 users who want to continue safely using their OS in an uninterrupted manor: It’s like an alternate reality in which Microsoft never ended Windows 10 support, and now continues to patch security vulnerabilities—at least for a year.
If you want to keep your Windows 10 PC protected from security vulnerabilities past Oct. 14, this is the option for you. The thing is, it likely involves a one-time payment of $30, unless you’re open to one of Microsoft’s two alternative enrollment methods: opting into Windows Backup, or redeeming 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points. There’s apparently another option, however, that most of us hadn’t considered: suing Microsoft directly.
The lawsuit against Microsoft
Lawrence Klein of California filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in June, alleging the company is unfairly forcing customers to buy new computers in order to continue using Windows. Klein argues that customers bought their Windows 10 PCs with the expectation that they’d be able to upgrade them into the future, while, at the same time, Microsoft was knowingly selling machines that they planned to make impossible to update.
Klein himself has two PCs that reportedly cannot be upgraded to Windows 11. The lawsuit doesn’t specify which minimum requirements Klein’s hardware is missing, but it does highlight general specs including Intel 8th Gen Coffee Lake or Zen 2 CPUs and up, TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) support, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. The TPM 2.0 requirement in particular went viral when Windows 11 dropped, because it’s simply a piece of security hardware. Even high-end machines without TPM 2.0 weren’t “Windows 11 ready.”
Klein points to Microsoft’s market dominance in this area as the reason behind the decision. In Klein’s view, Microsoft wants customers to use their new AI products, both those products require newer hardware—such as those with neural processing units (NPUs)—in order to run. Windows 10 machines largely do not have the necessary hardware to run Microsoft’s AI products, and, as such, Klein believes Microsoft is trying to force users to buy new machines to boost the number customers using the AI products.
Klein also argues that Microsoft has offered more of a sunset window for previous OS deprecations. The lawsuit points to how the last three deprecations offered an eight year window between when a new OS launches and the previous OS was dropped, while the fourth, Windows XP, offered a seven year window. By contrast, Windows 11 came out in 2021, which offers users a four year window.
There’s also the argument about the number of users who will be affected by this decision. Independent estimates suggest Windows 10 might be running on as many as 54% of PCs around the globe. Klein’s lawsuit argues that Microsoft is putting hundreds of millions of devices in jeopardy, since a lack of security update will leave devices vulnerable.
Does this lawsuit have a chance?
I’m no legal expert, but I am a cynic who covers technology for a living, so my gut says “no.” It’s not necessarily the fact that this is one man against the entity that is Microsoft, though there is that: It’s that some of the main arguments here won’t stand up to scrutiny.
The plaintiff claims Microsoft only gave users less than a year’s notice for Windows 10 end of life; that simply isn’t true. As early as 2021, Microsoft listed the retirement date for Windows 10 on its website. I can buy that the company might not have been as transparent as it could have been with its messaging—general users are not going to be digging through Microsoft’s support documentation—but, to be fair, Oct. 14, 2025 has been the date for over four years now.
Microsoft is also not the first company to drop software support for an OS. In fact, it’s an inevitability. Sure, the window between Windows 11’s release date and Windows 10 end of life is only four years, but Windows 10 came out in 2015. 10 years is not a bad run for an OS. Apple dropped support for macOS Monterey, for example, in 2024, less than three years after it first came out. When you look at hardware support, macOS Monterey was the last supported version for a number of Macs, which were generally released anywhere between 2013 and 2017. That means, depending on your Mac, you received seven to 11 years of security updates. It’s not a perfect comparison, but this is largely how tech works.
I agree that it’s scummy that Microsoft blocked users from upgrading to Windows 11 because of TPM requirements, especially since upgrading an unsupported machine to Windows 11 could result in dropped Microsoft support anyway. I also agree that it’s concerning that the Windows 10 market share is still so high: While some users may enroll in Extended Security Updates or buy a Windows 11 machine, I can imagine millions will not. Will Microsoft really allow that many machines to connect to the internet totally exposed? But at the end of the day, do I think the arguments in this lawsuit are enough? I don’t.
What to do if your PC is still running Windows 10
For all we know, Microsoft changes its stance before Oct. 14, and offer users another option. Maybe they’ll kick the can down the road for another year, and automatically enroll everyone in Extended Security Updates for free. Maybe Klein will win his lawsuit, and bring real change to tech industry.
But that’s speculative. I can only give advice based on what we know now. And right now, Windows 10 support is dropping in October. Before that happens, you need to make a decision that will guarantee continued security updates going forward. That means enrolling in Extended Security Updates in one of the three aforementioned ways, moving to a new Windows 11 machine, or permanently disconnecting your Windows 10 PC from the internet. There are no other safe options.
While I believe it’s unwise to use any unsupported software while connected to the internet, it’s especially dangerous with something like Windows 10. Considering the market share, and the high profile nature of the OS, Windows 10 users are going to be prime targets for bad actors and hackers as soon as Microsoft pulls the plug. They’ll look for any and all security vulnerabilities they can exploit, and without a patch to protect users, they’ll be able to run those exploits against millions of targets.
Personally, I hope Microsoft changes something before October, but there’s no way to know if they will. Until then, the best thing you can do as a Windows 10 user is prepare.
