Quote:Windows 10 has just a few more weeks to go officially before Microsoft ends support for the operating system officially. Customers who run Windows 10 devices may extend support by a year or three, depending on whether they are home or business customers.

But joining the Extended Security Updates program has a cost attached to it, even for consumers. The three options that Microsoft has created have you either pay with your money, with Microsoft Rewards points, or with your data.

This approach has been a major concern for consumer rights organizations. The Euroconsumers Group, for example, criticized Microsoft for "linking access to essential security updates to engagement with Microsoft's own services".

Today, Microsoft released a statement that improves access to Windows 10 Extended Security Updates for users in the European Economic Area (which includes all EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

It unlocks access to Extended Security Updates for users from the EEA and removes the requirement to pay with money or points, or to sync data with the Microsoft cloud. In other words, they can be enabled for free, even when not meeting any of the requirements that Microsoft created.

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