Microsoft will give customers within the European Financial Space no-strings prolonged assist for the soon-to be-EOL Home windows 10.
In October last year, customers globally have been informed that they may get a 12 months of prolonged safety updates after the October 14 2025 sundown date for Home windows 10 assist, in the event that they’re ready to pay a one-off $30 payment (native charges apply). Then, in June this 12 months, Microsoft offered a “free” option – if prospects coughed up Microsoft Reward Factors or used Home windows Backup to sync their settings to the cloud.
Nonetheless, Luxembourg and Brussels-based client rights group Euroconsumers determined that this was not adequate. In July it wrote to Redmond [PDF] to argue that the coverage was not consistent with the Digital Markets Act or the Digital Content material Directive. Or the EU’s sustainability targets, come to that.
This has prompted an obvious rethink at Microsoft, revealed in correspondence between Microsoft and Euroconsumers, and flagged by Tweakers this week.
Within the newest letter to Microsoft, Euroconsumers’ head of litigation, Marco Scialdone, states [PDF]: “We’re happy to be taught that Microsoft will present a no-cost Prolonged Safety Updates (ESU) choice for Home windows 10 client customers within the European Financial Space (EEA).”
Clients will nonetheless want a Microsoft account to safe the ESU, however Euroconsumers considers this doesn’t violate the DMA.
Scialdone provides: “We’re additionally glad this selection is not going to require customers to again up settings, apps, or credentials, or use Microsoft Rewards.” The requirement to “interact” with different companies to safe assist had been “our essential Digital Markets Act (DMA) associated concern.”
Nonetheless, Microsoft’s transfer would not absolutely tackle the issues which Euroconsumers raised again in its first letter in July, the group claims. The one 12 months interval was not within the spirit of the Digital Content material Directive, or the EU’s broad sustainability purpose, the letter notes.
That is due to the truth that the Home windows 10 to 11 migration will drive many customers to purchase new {hardware}, largely due to the brand new working system’s Trusted Platform Module requirement.
“This creates an enormous extra burden for customers, with some estimates suggesting that over 850 million energetic units nonetheless depend on Home windows 10 and can’t be upgraded on account of {hardware} necessities,” the letter states.
“In contrast, upgrades from Home windows 7 or 8 to Home windows 10 didn’t carry such limitations.” And Scialdone’s letter reiterates that Home windows 10’s phaseout was “on a a lot shorter timeline than up to now.”
Californian man so livid about compelled Home windows 11 improve that he is suing Microsoft
He provides: “Our personal survey confirms {that a} important share of customers stay on older however nonetheless useful units: 22 p.c nonetheless run Home windows on a PC or laptop computer from 2017 or earlier, which can’t be upgraded to Home windows 11 however proceed to serve customers’ on a regular basis wants.”
We will anticipate additional missives from the group, in its makes an attempt to “interact in fruitful dialog with Microsoft over the following 12 months to increase gadget safety.”
So does this reprieve for European Home windows 10 customers alone assist customers within the UK when the EOL comes on October 14?
We requested Microsoft about this on Wednesday and have but to obtain a press release from its PR machine. There was some confusion, seemingly, when final night time The Reg referred to as one among its representatives who thought they’d already despatched us a press release.
That assertion nonetheless hasn’t arrived and there hasn’t been a mega Outlook outage that we all know of. ®
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