September 5, 2025 • 11 mins
Episode summary
After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide free updates or fixes for the many bugs found each month in Windows 10. That means it's time to make a hard decision.
Option 1: Do what Microsoft recommends and upgrade to Windows 11. There's many good and valid reasons not to, and my personal plan is to avoid it for hopefuly 5 years still.
Option 2: Pay Microsoft $30 for one year more of fixes, then upgrade to Windows 11. I may do this for a year, then switch to option 3 before moving to Windows 11.
Option 3: Pay 0 Patch about $30 per year for up to 5 years, then upgrade to Windows 11. This is my most likely plan.
Option 4: Don't upgrade to Windows 11, and don't pay any money for any bug fixes. Options 1-3 are fine, but this is the option I highly recommend against! One of the most universally important things you can do to stay safe online is keep Windows (and all software) updated with the latest bug fixes.
LinksMicrosoft announces end of support for Windows 10
0 Patch offers 5 years of bug fixes for Windows 10
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Super Simple Security Principles, where you learn how to think, not just what to do.
I'm Nick Jackson, here to learn along with my buddy and our master guardian, Makani Mason.
Let's go.
This is episode 79. Do you believe that? 79?
(00:25):
No, it's awesome.
No, it's pretty crazy.
Do I need to upgrade to Windows 11?
Fair question.
Right. And do you know, I don't know what it's come.
I know you don't use a Windows yourself, but I know your wife does.
Do you know why this question is coming up?
I'm assuming there's some security issues.
(00:49):
So, well, so something's happened in October and I wanted to get this out a little bit early.
So when it does really, I've had some people ask, but it's going to come up a lot.
So I'm going to read, here's the official notice from Microsoft about what's happening.
After October 14th, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide free software updates from Windows Update, technical assistance, or security fixes for Windows 10.
(01:15):
Your PC will still work, but we recommend moving to Windows 11.
Windows 11 offers a modern and efficient experience designed to meet current demands for heightened security.
Look, let me answer this one.
Can I answer this one?
Absolutely.
Let's hear what you have to say.
Google just forced your hand.
(01:38):
Microsoft?
Microsoft.
Excuse me.
My bad.
Yeah.
My bad.
I said Google.
I didn't mean that.
Microsoft just totally forced your hand.
Either you leave yourself vulnerable to all sorts of security threats and vulnerabilities, or you upgrade to Windows 11.
(01:58):
That's how I took it.
Am I wrong?
No, I'd say that's a pretty fair summary.
Now, it's a free upgrade, right?
So they're trying to be like, oh, no downside, and it's better, it's modern, efficient.
Now, we don't have time to, we're not going to analyze in detail how much I disagree or agree with that statement today.
(02:19):
Enough said.
But what we do want to address is what your core, what basically the core of what you just said, right?
Because it's saying either you upgrade or you're, you know, in a bad way security-wise, right?
I'll say it for you.
Either you're screwed.
Right.
Yes.
Yeah.
And, but...
(02:41):
I want to give an alternative, okay?
Okay.
But we want to clarify here, right?
So just to reiterate what you're saying, and you obviously caught it, so that's good, is there won't be any security fixes, right?
And this is one of the most vital, most fundamental things that obviously, as I beat the drum enough that you know and recognize that we practice talking about.
(03:03):
You get security updates for your operating system, for your phone, for your apps, anything, you know?
Yeah.
That's critical to staying safe.
And so what they're saying is here, we're not going to give that to you anymore on Windows 10.
And so here's another, okay, so here's one alternate solution, though, or not alternate, because this one's from Microsoft.
(03:31):
But it's an alternate to, I guess it is alternate, because it's an alternate to upgrading.
Instead of upgrading to Windows 11, they are giving you another option, and it's called Windows 10 Extended Security Updates, or ESU.
And I mentioned the ESU, because I'm going to read another short couple sentences from Microsoft, and they reference ESU a bunch, and that's talking about this Extended Security Updates.
(04:01):
Okay.
So Microsoft says, quote, ESU includes critical and important security updates only.
It does not include new features, which is good from a security perspective.
That's my aside.
Right.
So there's a bunch of details, and we'll have the links for this, but what this ESU is, is they're going to let you pay $30, let you, $30 per device.
(04:43):
And then they will give you one more year until October 13th of 2026, where they'll give you critical bug fixes and security updates.
Yeah, right.
It's kind of an interesting proposition, right?
(05:04):
Now.
Here's a Band-Aid for that wound we just created.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, and, you know, the good news is they talk about, like, this, there's no new feature, like, this is a bad thing.
But the fact is, every time they do new features, there's more bugs.
Right.
So, you know, that's actually a good thing from a security perspective, and Microsoft specifically, because we've talked about before their monthly Patch Tuesday, where they fix lots of bugs.
(05:31):
And it'd be interesting to see if there are no longer interesting features, is that amount of Patch Tuesday bugs that they're fixing every month on Windows 10, does that number, you know, shrink?
Right.
Or does it stay steady?
It'll be interesting to see.
But anyway, that's one option to give you another year.
(05:51):
And just to be clear, I'm in this same boat.
I have, now, my main workbox is a Mac.
But I do have a Windows box that I use regularly, primarily for playing games, albeit in mid.
I play video games with my brothers.
And my son, actually, now, who lives in another state.
(06:12):
So, it still matters to me a lot.
Maybe not as much as to somebody who's using it for work.
But anyway, I'm going to be keeping an eye on it and deciding what I'm going to do, because I'm on Windows 10, and I do not want to upgrade to Windows 11.
Like I said, that's a bigger conversation.
But just the short version is, I do not want to upgrade.
So, I'm going to be delaying it as long as I possibly can and feel safe doing so.
(06:34):
So, I'm definitely here to try to help our listeners do the same, basically.
Yeah.
So, here's my second alternative solution.
And I haven't done it yet myself, so we'll probably make another episode once I have a chance to implement this myself and give a much more detailed instructions about it and give more commentary and whatever.
(07:00):
But there is a company that I trust based on, I listen to security now, and he's a security reacher, Steve Gibson.
We've talked about him before, who I trust quite a bit.
And he has talked about on his show a number of times a company called Zero Patch.
(07:22):
It's a number zero, not spelled out zero, patch.
And there's a link in the show notes.
But, so my plan is to use them because what they do is they actually offer support for Windows 10 for five years.
So, all the way up to 2030.
(07:43):
Where they will get all the bug fixes.
They'll do bug fixes and security things.
Now, they don't actually build them themselves.
They get them from Microsoft and then apply them for you.
It's kind of technical to explain, but it's legal and they've been doing it for a while.
And at least I've never heard of Microsoft having any issues with them doing it.
(08:03):
So, I'm hopeful that they'll stay viable and good for that time.
But you never know.
Yeah.
But anyway, that's where I'm pinning my hopes right now is to pay them.
Now, there's, you'll see if you go to their website, their price is in euros, but the current conversion is about 29 bucks a year.
So, it's essentially the same price as Microsoft.
(08:26):
Yeah.
So, you'll have to pay for it every year for five years.
So, that's the price.
So, I still have to really decide, do I, because I really don't want to upgrade to Windows 11.
But do I really not want to, to the tune of $150, right, or not?
(08:46):
I don't know.
But that's, anyway, that's where I am.
That's the other alternate solution.
And you can take a look.
And I have the Microsoft announcement and the zero patch, both in the show notes.
So, you can read and start thinking about this.
Because you've got not a lot of time before, about a month, before you're going to have to decide what you want to do before you start being vulnerable on your Windows box.
(09:13):
And for a lot of people, that's their main or only kind of computer.
And so, it's important.
So, anyway.
Right.
As much as, considering I only use Apple.
Right.
That said, we've got multiple, multiple window boxes that we're going to have to.
(09:36):
I know your wife's laptop is Windows, as I recall.
We've got three laptops and another box that we're going to have to figure out what to do with.
Yeah, okay.
So.
Yeah.
So, what's your takeaway from this, Nick?
I mean, other than you've got some things to think about for your personal situation.
(09:57):
Yeah, I was going to say, you just gave me some things to think about because I'm going to have to figure this out.
So, for me, this is very much a to-be-continued episode.
Obviously, I'm going to worry about some of the security features of upgrading that you are.
Yeah.
And so, for me, this is very much an awareness episode.
(10:18):
Hey, guess what?
This is coming.
Be prepared.
And to be continued.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And my summary for today, totally agreed.
It's going to be to be continued.
We've got to talk about this some more.
But is, I don't think you need to upgrade, personally.
(10:39):
Not from, I mean, you may need to for your own reasons or whatever, but from a security perspective, specifically, even though they tout it's all improved security.
We'll get into that more another time.
But you definitely don't need to upgrade from a security perspective.
But I, if you use it much at all, I highly recommend that you do what you need to, to keep getting security fixes.
(11:03):
Okay.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Okay.
That's it.
Woo!
Are you ready to take action and wondering where to start?
Get my Bulletproof My Identity Starter Kit for free.
The seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs.
I'll send you one step at a time and help you if you get stuck.
(11:26):
Just go to bulletproofmyid.com and enter your name and email, and I will send you the first step.
Again, that's bulletproofmyid.com.
Welcome to Super Simple Security Principles, where you learn how to think, not just what to do.
I'm Nick Jackson, here to learn along with my buddy and our master guardian, Makani Mason.
Let's go.
This is episode 79. Do you believe that? 79?
(00:25):
No, it's awesome.
No, it's pretty crazy.
Do I need to upgrade to Windows 11?
Fair question.
Right. And do you know, I don't know what it's come.
I know you don't use a Windows yourself, but I know your wife does.
Do you know why this question is coming up?
I'm assuming there's some security issues.
(00:49):
So, well, so something's happened in October and I wanted to get this out a little bit early.
So when it does really, I've had some people ask, but it's going to come up a lot.
So I'm going to read, here's the official notice from Microsoft about what's happening.
After October 14th, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide free software updates from Windows Update, technical assistance, or security fixes for Windows 10.
(01:15):
Your PC will still work, but we recommend moving to Windows 11.
Windows 11 offers a modern and efficient experience designed to meet current demands for heightened security.
Look, let me answer this one.
Can I answer this one?
Absolutely.
Let's hear what you have to say.
Google just forced your hand.
(01:38):
Microsoft?
Microsoft.
Excuse me.
My bad.
Yeah.
My bad.
I said Google.
I didn't mean that.
Microsoft just totally forced your hand.
Either you leave yourself vulnerable to all sorts of security threats and vulnerabilities, or you upgrade to Windows 11.
(01:58):
That's how I took it.
Am I wrong?
No, I'd say that's a pretty fair summary.
Now, it's a free upgrade, right?
So they're trying to be like, oh, no downside, and it's better, it's modern, efficient.
Now, we don't have time to, we're not going to analyze in detail how much I disagree or agree with that statement today.
(02:19):
Enough said.
But what we do want to address is what your core, what basically the core of what you just said, right?
Because it's saying either you upgrade or you're, you know, in a bad way security-wise, right?
I'll say it for you.
Either you're screwed.
Right.
Yes.
Yeah.
And, but...
(02:41):
I want to give an alternative, okay?
Okay.
But we want to clarify here, right?
So just to reiterate what you're saying, and you obviously caught it, so that's good, is there won't be any security fixes, right?
And this is one of the most vital, most fundamental things that obviously, as I beat the drum enough that you know and recognize that we practice talking about.
(03:03):
You get security updates for your operating system, for your phone, for your apps, anything, you know?
Yeah.
That's critical to staying safe.
And so what they're saying is here, we're not going to give that to you anymore on Windows 10.
And so here's another, okay, so here's one alternate solution, though, or not alternate, because this one's from Microsoft.
(03:31):
But it's an alternate to, I guess it is alternate, because it's an alternate to upgrading.
Instead of upgrading to Windows 11, they are giving you another option, and it's called Windows 10 Extended Security Updates, or ESU.
And I mentioned the ESU, because I'm going to read another short couple sentences from Microsoft, and they reference ESU a bunch, and that's talking about this Extended Security Updates.
(04:01):
Okay.
So Microsoft says, quote, ESU includes critical and important security updates only.
It does not include new features, which is good from a security perspective.
That's my aside.
Right.
So there's a bunch of details, and we'll have the links for this, but what this ESU is, is they're going to let you pay $30, let you, $30 per device.
(04:43):
And then they will give you one more year until October 13th of 2026, where they'll give you critical bug fixes and security updates.
Yeah, right.
It's kind of an interesting proposition, right?
(05:04):
Now.
Here's a Band-Aid for that wound we just created.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, and, you know, the good news is they talk about, like, this, there's no new feature, like, this is a bad thing.
But the fact is, every time they do new features, there's more bugs.
Right.
So, you know, that's actually a good thing from a security perspective, and Microsoft specifically, because we've talked about before their monthly Patch Tuesday, where they fix lots of bugs.
(05:31):
And it'd be interesting to see if there are no longer interesting features, is that amount of Patch Tuesday bugs that they're fixing every month on Windows 10, does that number, you know, shrink?
Right.
Or does it stay steady?
It'll be interesting to see.
But anyway, that's one option to give you another year.
(05:51):
And just to be clear, I'm in this same boat.
I have, now, my main workbox is a Mac.
But I do have a Windows box that I use regularly, primarily for playing games, albeit in mid.
I play video games with my brothers.
And my son, actually, now, who lives in another state.
(06:12):
So, it still matters to me a lot.
Maybe not as much as to somebody who's using it for work.
But anyway, I'm going to be keeping an eye on it and deciding what I'm going to do, because I'm on Windows 10, and I do not want to upgrade to Windows 11.
Like I said, that's a bigger conversation.
But just the short version is, I do not want to upgrade.
So, I'm going to be delaying it as long as I possibly can and feel safe doing so.
(06:34):
So, I'm definitely here to try to help our listeners do the same, basically.
Yeah.
So, here's my second alternative solution.
And I haven't done it yet myself, so we'll probably make another episode once I have a chance to implement this myself and give a much more detailed instructions about it and give more commentary and whatever.
(07:00):
But there is a company that I trust based on, I listen to security now, and he's a security reacher, Steve Gibson.
We've talked about him before, who I trust quite a bit.
And he has talked about on his show a number of times a company called Zero Patch.
(07:22):
It's a number zero, not spelled out zero, patch.
And there's a link in the show notes.
But, so my plan is to use them because what they do is they actually offer support for Windows 10 for five years.
So, all the way up to 2030.
(07:43):
Where they will get all the bug fixes.
They'll do bug fixes and security things.
Now, they don't actually build them themselves.
They get them from Microsoft and then apply them for you.
It's kind of technical to explain, but it's legal and they've been doing it for a while.
And at least I've never heard of Microsoft having any issues with them doing it.
(08:03):
So, I'm hopeful that they'll stay viable and good for that time.
But you never know.
Yeah.
But anyway, that's where I'm pinning my hopes right now is to pay them.
Now, there's, you'll see if you go to their website, their price is in euros, but the current conversion is about 29 bucks a year.
So, it's essentially the same price as Microsoft.
(08:26):
Yeah.
So, you'll have to pay for it every year for five years.
So, that's the price.
So, I still have to really decide, do I, because I really don't want to upgrade to Windows 11.
But do I really not want to, to the tune of $150, right, or not?
(08:46):
I don't know.
But that's, anyway, that's where I am.
That's the other alternate solution.
And you can take a look.
And I have the Microsoft announcement and the zero patch, both in the show notes.
So, you can read and start thinking about this.
Because you've got not a lot of time before, about a month, before you're going to have to decide what you want to do before you start being vulnerable on your Windows box.
(09:13):
And for a lot of people, that's their main or only kind of computer.
And so, it's important.
So, anyway.
Right.
As much as, considering I only use Apple.
Right.
That said, we've got multiple, multiple window boxes that we're going to have to.
(09:36):
I know your wife's laptop is Windows, as I recall.
We've got three laptops and another box that we're going to have to figure out what to do with.
Yeah, okay.
So.
Yeah.
So, what's your takeaway from this, Nick?
I mean, other than you've got some things to think about for your personal situation.
(09:57):
Yeah, I was going to say, you just gave me some things to think about because I'm going to have to figure this out.
So, for me, this is very much a to-be-continued episode.
Obviously, I'm going to worry about some of the security features of upgrading that you are.
Yeah.
And so, for me, this is very much an awareness episode.
(10:18):
Hey, guess what?
This is coming.
Be prepared.
And to be continued.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And my summary for today, totally agreed.
It's going to be to be continued.
We've got to talk about this some more.
But is, I don't think you need to upgrade, personally.
(10:39):
Not from, I mean, you may need to for your own reasons or whatever, but from a security perspective, specifically, even though they tout it's all improved security.
We'll get into that more another time.
But you definitely don't need to upgrade from a security perspective.
But I, if you use it much at all, I highly recommend that you do what you need to, to keep getting security fixes.
(11:03):
Okay.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Okay.
That's it.
Woo!
Are you ready to take action and wondering where to start?
Get my Bulletproof My Identity Starter Kit for free.
The seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs.
I'll send you one step at a time and help you if you get stuck.
(11:26):
Just go to bulletproofmyid.com and enter your name and email, and I will send you the first step.
Again, that's bulletproofmyid.com.
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