Microsoft is continuing with its planned schedule for ending support for Windows 10. While in practice users have enough time to enjoy updates until 2025, the company announced that it will stop selling licenses online for download through its official store.
January 31, 2023 will be the last day that Windows 10 will be available for sale on the site,” reads a note on the product pages for Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro. Windows 10 versions will remain supported with security updates that will continue to protect your PC from viruses, spyware, and malware others until October 14, 2025″.
Today it is still possible to make a direct purchase through Microsoft’s official website, when the price for Windows 10 Home is 700 shekels in Israel or 139 dollars on the American website (almost double) and for Windows 10 Pro the price is 999 shekels in Israel or 199 dollars in the USA. While purchase will not be possible, installation media will still be available or downloaded as a manual installation (ISO) file.
Of course, Microsoft is not the only source to obtain licenses and it has quite a few distributors like Amazon where the price is lower. Besides that, even in Israel, suppliers offer different prices, and in any case there are still reports that using an original Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 product key will also work on a clean installation of Windows 10.
Either way, Microsoft is certainly not satisfied with the relatively slow adoption rate of Windows 11, which is content with a 16% market share about a year after launch, especially in light of the rumors that it is already preparing for the launch of Windows 12, which is expected to arrive in 2024.