Free updates run to 12 October 2027 — if you qualify

Can this PC get ESU? Let's find out.

Microsoft's Extended Security Updates keep Windows 10 patched until October 2027, free for most home users — but the eligibility rules are scattered across half a dozen documentation pages, and one of them (the Microsoft-account requirement) catches people out after they've tried to pay. Six questions and we'll tell you exactly where you stand, and the cheapest way in.

Last updated: 8 August 2026Runs in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere

This checker needs JavaScript (it runs entirely in your browser — that's the point; nothing you answer leaves your machine). With it off, here are the rules in short: you need Windows 10 version 22H2, a Home or Pro-family edition (not Enterprise, not a work-managed PC), and a Microsoft account with administrator rights — local accounts can't enrol even if you pay. In the EEA it's free with just a sign-in; everywhere else (including the UK) it's free via PC-settings sync or 1,000 Rewards points, or $30 one-time. The full enrolment guide walks through all of it.

Why this is a questionnaire and not a “scan”

A web page cannot read your Windows version, your edition, or how you sign in — and any site that claims to “scan” your PC from the browser is bluffing. What we can do is ask you the six facts that decide the outcome, tell you exactly where in Settings each one lives, and then apply Microsoft's rules properly — which, as far as we can tell, no other site has bothered to do in one place.

Your answers never leave this page. There's no scan to upload, no email gate at the end, and nothing stored. Close the tab and it's as if you were never here.

The rules we check, in plain sight

Everything the checker applies, so you can verify us:

Windows 10 version 22H2 only. Older versions must update first (free, via Windows Update).
Home, Pro, Pro Education or Pro for Workstations. Enterprise, Education and work-managed machines fall under the separate commercial programme — that's your IT department's job.
A Microsoft account with administrator rights, signed in. The big one: local accounts cannot enrol, even paying $30. Enrolled PCs also re-check the account periodically.
Region changes the terms. In the European Economic Area, enrolment is free with just a sign-in. The UK is not in the EEA — a detail that surprises a lot of British readers — so UK users get the standard routes: free via settings sync, free via 1,000 Rewards points, or $30.
One licence covers up to 10 devices on the same account — the under-advertised part that changes the maths for families.
Enrolment stays open until 12 October 2027 — but an un-enrolled PC is receiving no security patches in the meantime, so late enrolment has a real cost.

Sources for every rule are linked from the enrolment guide, which also has the step-by-step with the gotchas illustrated.