Free* updates
It is value noting that the Home windows Backup and Microsoft Rewards strategies for getting these updates require the usage of a Microsoft Account, one thing Microsoft has been pushing with slowly rising depth in Home windows 11. Home windows 10 pushed Microsoft Account utilization in numerous methods, too, however it was typically simpler to create and check in with a neighborhood account; for these folks, the “free” replace supply looks like one other effort from Microsoft to convey them into the fold.
The Home windows Backup possibility appears supposed to ease the migration to a brand new Home windows 11 PC when the time comes. The corporate could also be providing a brief reprieve for Home windows 10 customers, however the purpose remains to be to shift them to Home windows 11 finally.
“To assist make your transfer to a Home windows 11 PC, as easy and safe as attainable, we advocate utilizing Home windows Backup—constructed proper into Home windows 10,” writes Microsoft Shopper Chief Advertising Officer Yusuf Medhi in Microsoft’s weblog publish. “It’s a straightforward means that can assist you safely and securely switch your information, private recordsdata, and most settings and functions, so all the pieces’s prepared for you the second you check in.”
Folks with present Microsoft Accounts who do not need to use Home windows Backup could have already got the 1,000 Microsoft Rewards factors you would wish to enroll within the ESU program; my Microsoft account has 3,411 factors connected to it for some cause regardless of an 18-month expiration window and despite the fact that I’ve by no means taken any intentional steps towards incomes any. Customers creating a brand new account for the primary time can accumulate that many factors pretty trivially over the course of some days, together with by downloading the Bing app and doing numerous Bing searches.
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Ars that Microsoft Account sign-in might be required to enroll a PC into the ESU program. Should you reset or reinstall a contemporary copy of Home windows on a brand new Home windows 10 PC, you will have to signal again in with a Microsoft account to re-enroll the PC within the ESU program.
However “as soon as a Home windows 10 PC is enrolled in ESU, it stays enrolled in this system,” the Microsoft spokesperson instructed Ars. As soon as enrolled, in case you signal out of your Microsoft Account, or in case you cease utilizing the Home windows Backup app, your PC will proceed to obtain the safety updates afterward.
