Windows 10 is about to pass into the realm of unsupported operating systems. On October 14, 2025, the final security update will be piped through for Windows 10, and after that, Microsoft won't supply any more. Well, not unless you sort out extended updates (and I'll come back to that).

There are plenty of people still using Windows 10, and at this point in time, right before the big deadline, they might have lots of questions. How safe is it to just remain on Windows 10 after the support deadline has passed? You may have heard it's risky, but is that just an exaggeration - is it really that bad to stick with an unsupported OS?

And what about the extended support program that I just mentioned - how does that fit in? If you avoid paying for this scheme, you may have heard that Microsoft requires you to sync the files on your PC with its servers - is that true? (No, in a word - there are nuances here).

In this article, I'm going to answer these, and some other pressing queries that you may have regarding Windows 10's End of Life, and how safe the operating system remains as it shuffles onwards in Microsoft's post-support era.

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