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The new screen works. That is the irritating part. The phone boots and responds, then a settings banner says the display cannot be verified as genuine, and a colour-tuning feature quietly switches off. Swap a battery and the health readout can go blank the same way. That is parts pairing, software that ties each component to one serial-numbered phone, and a parts pairing ban in three US states now limits it. Whether it limits it for your phone comes down to two dates on a receipt you may have thrown away.

What is parts pairing on a phone, and why do the dates matter?

Parts pairing is software that links a replacement screen or battery to one phone's serial number, and the dates matter because each state's protection only reaches devices built or first sold after a fixed cutoff.

Makers say pairing stops stolen parts circulating. Fair for a fingerprint sensor, or, well, any part that unlocks the phone. For a battery it is hard to defend: the result is a working part the phone treats as suspect, and a shop that cannot clear the warning without the maker's software. My view: the security argument has been stretched well past the parts it fits.

Oregon moved first. Oregon's SB 1596 was signed on 28 March 2024, and a 2024 Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren analysis found it was the first US law to ban parts pairing outright, for devices manufactured after 1 January 2025. That is a build date, so a phone made in late 2024 and bought new months later gets nothing from the pairing clause. Washington's HB 1483 and Colorado's HB24-1121 key on first sale instead. Compare India's 1-5 repairability index, which scores phones at sale, or the EU replaceable phone battery rule, which designs the problem out.

Four figures decide your leverage, from the Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren summary of Oregon's law and US PIRG's May 2024 guide to Colorado's (as of 2024):

Price parity is the figure people skim past, and the one that changes a repair quote. Colorado caps what a maker charges an independent shop for a part at what it charges its own authorized network. The gap between a mall kiosk and an official store becomes labour and margin, not a locked-up part.

Which states have a parts pairing ban, and from when?

Oregon has the only outright ban, for devices built after 1 January 2025, while Washington and Colorado restrict pairing under laws that took effect on 1 January 2026 for devices first sold after 1 July 2021.

Washington's law, KUOW reported on 27 May 2025, makes makers supply tools, parts and documentation to independent shops and bars parts that inhibit repairs. That report gives no separate pairing start date, so treat 1 January 2026 as the earliest it could bite.

Here is the arithmetic the laws leave to you. Oregon's cutoff is a build date, so as of October 2026 any phone more than about 21 months old sits outside its pairing ban, however recently you bought it. That is my reckoning from the statute date, not a published figure. Washington and Colorado offer a wider window but a softer promise.

Does my phone have to be made after 2025 to be covered?

Only in Oregon, and only for pairing: Oregon's ban needs a phone built after 1 January 2025, while its parts and manuals duty, and the Washington and Colorado laws, reach phones sold since July 2021.

Oregon also covers other electronics sold there since July 2015, which creates an odd split: an older laptop can be owed a manual while its parts stay paired. You can fix it. You may not get every feature back.

Colorado's breadth matters more than its pairing wording, and the usual advice to buy refurbished only from the maker is outdated there. But a repair is only as useful as its software support, a deadline none of these laws touch, as the Windows 10 extended security updates deadline shows. Exact figures are still being studied, but early indicators suggest the disputes that matter will be over software checks, because pairing is the clause each state worded differently.

• Game consoles, cable boxes, motor vehicles, boats, medical equipment and power-generation gear sit outside Colorado's law.
• A phone first sold in Washington before 1 July 2021 gets nothing from HB 1483.
• An Oregon phone built in 2024 gets parts and manuals, but no protection from pairing.
• Washington only largely outlaws pairing, so ask whether the part will raise a warning before you pay.

That settles the real decision: repair independently, or pay the maker's desk to make the warning go away. This week, find the box or receipt for the phone you plan to fix or buy used and check it against the two dates. If a covered device still throws a parts warning after a fair repair, file a complaint with your state attorney general.

The processor is the part that failed, except it never actually broke. Your desktop boots and runs exactly as it did the day you bought it, yet PC Health Check calls the chip unsupported and Windows 11 refuses to install. Until June, patches for it were due to stop in October 2026. Then the Windows 10 ESU extension changed the arithmetic. The PC gets another year. What that year costs you is the real question, and the answer is rarely money.

BleepingComputer reported on 25 June 2026 that Microsoft had quietly moved the consumer end date to 12 October 2027. No pop-up announced it, so don't wait for Windows to tell you.

Is Windows 10 ESU extended to 2027?

Yes, consumer Extended Security Updates for Windows 10 now run until 12 October 2027, one year past the original cut-off, and anyone already enrolled keeps receiving patches without signing up again or paying twice.

That second half matters most. BleepingComputer says existing enrollments carry over on their own, so if you signed up last year you have nothing to do.

Getting in is cheaper than the headline price suggests. Help Net Security's 26 June rundown lists three routes: switch on Windows Backup, redeem Microsoft Rewards points, or pay $30 plus tax for the year. Two cost nothing in cash. The catch is that each one requires an administrator Microsoft account, so the free year is paid for in synced settings and in the offline local account you may have kept on purpose. For most people that is a fair trade. If you have already weighed cloud storage against a local NAS, you know which side of that line you sit on.

A PC that still works should run as long as it can be kept safe, the logic behind a repair score that asks when repairing beats replacing. Four numbers decide it. The business price is BleepingComputer's, the Rewards threshold Help Net Security's; the countdown from 5 October 2026 and the price gap are this article's arithmetic.

The countdown is the one to act on. It is long enough to skip a panic purchase and wait for a sale, and short enough that a Windows 10 PC in late 2027 is a choice you made.

Side by side, the free and paid routes differ less than the price implies.

Windows 10 ESU extension: backup, points or pay?

Choose the free Windows Backup route if you are content to sync settings to Microsoft, use Rewards points if you have them banked, and pay only when you refuse cloud sync but accept a Microsoft account.

Points sit in the verdict row because, once redeemed, they act like the paid license without the charge.

Read down the right-hand column and the paid route buys one thing: not syncing your settings. It rescues no local account and unlocks no managed laptop. Both June reports say one license stretches across a household; the per-PC cost above is this article's division, not a quoted price.

The bigger slice cuts the other way: new apps and drivers will target Windows 11 first, so the extra year buys security, not parity.

Can I use Windows 10 ESU with a local account?

No, every enrollment route, including the paid license, requires signing in with an administrator Microsoft account, so a local-only Windows 10 setup has to convert before it can receive the extended patches.

Here the common advice goes wrong. Skeptics of the backup route are told to just pay, as if money bought back the local account. It doesn't. Help Net Security adds that child accounts are excluded, which catches the hand-me-down laptop a teenager uses.

The other wall is management. BleepingComputer lists PCs joined to Active Directory or Microsoft Entra, or enrolled in device management, as ineligible; merely Entra-registered PCs can enroll. A laptop bought from your employer may stay locked out until it is wiped and released. Reclaiming a machine from a system you do not control is a familiar fight; the EU's rules on what leaving a cloud provider costs show how far regulators think that freedom should go.

And ESU delivers security fixes only, under Microsoft's program terms: no new features, no technical support. Your PC stays safe online. It gets no newer, or, well, no faster either.

• Do not wait for a prompt: the enrollment option sits in Settings, under Windows Update.
• A PC on a child account cannot enroll until an adult admin account is added.
• Check Access work or school on any ex-work laptop first.

This week, open Windows Update on every Windows 10 PC in the house. If the enrollment link is there, take the backup route unless you have points banked, and pay only for a machine you refuse to sync. If the link is missing, fix whatever blocks it now, not in September 2027.

The battery-health screen says 79%. The rest of the phone is fine, but the cell no longer lasts past lunch, and it sits under glass held down by adhesive that only lets go to a heat pad and solvent. That is the job the EU set out to end. From 18 February 2027, its battery law says a phone sold there must carry a replaceable phone battery that the owner can pull with ordinary tools. Must, that is, unless the maker takes the exit written for durable cells.

Will phones have replaceable batteries in 2027?

Some will, and only in the EU: Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 requires phones sold there from 18 February 2027 to have batteries the owner can remove and replace, but long-lasting cells can qualify for an exemption.

The definition is the useful part. Article 11 of that regulation, adopted in July 2023, says removable means removable with commercially available tools. Specialised tools are allowed only if the maker supplies them free of charge, and proprietary tools, thermal energy and solvents are ruled out entirely. That is a list of what makes a DIY swap risky today, or nearly all of it, and a compliant design needs none of it.

The catch arrived through a different door. A TechRadar report from April 2026 found that batteries holding 80% capacity after 1,000 cycles are not covered by the removable-battery requirement, and Apple's own support documents rate the iPhone 15 and later at that level. That exit comes through the smartphone ecodesign rules, not the battery law itself. If you buy an iPhone, plan on a service counter, not a screwdriver.

We think the rule is still a real win, just a narrower one than the coverage suggests. It extends the thinking behind India's 1-5 repairability score for phones from a label into a legal duty,, much as the EU Data Act's cloud switching rules did for data. The European Commission's ecodesign rules, applying since 20 June 2025, supply three of the numbers below; the fourth is our arithmetic.

The parts window changes behaviour. It runs from the day a model leaves EU sale, not the day you bought it, so a battery failing in year five becomes a parts order, not an upgrade.

Who is exempt from the replaceable phone battery rule?

Phones whose battery keeps 80% of its capacity after 1,000 full charge cycles can skip user replacement, and devices designed for regular splashing or immersion may limit swaps to independent professionals instead of owners.

The table sets a swappable phone against an exempt one. The daily-use row is our own arithmetic: the exemption's cycle count divided by one full charge a day.

An exempt phone is a bet that you upgrade before the cell fades. Keep phones three years or longer and a swappable design wins; trade in every two and the glue costs you nothing.

Does the EU battery law apply to iPhone?

Yes, it covers every phone sold in the EU, iPhones included, but Apple's current durability rating puts its recent models on the exempt side of the line, so a screwdriver swap on a new iPhone looks unlikely.

Apple has not said which route it will take. The exemption does not remove the repair duty, though. The EU's Right to Repair Directive has applied since 31 July 2026, and the Commission says makers of covered products, mobile phones among them, must repair outside warranty for free or at a reasonable price, within a reasonable timeframe. A glued battery stays your maker's problem.

The water clause is the grey area worth watching. Article 11 lets devices designed for regular splashing or immersion restrict battery replacement to independent professionals. Most flagships carry a water-resistance rating, and in our view whether an ordinary sealed phone counts is where the next loophole lives. eSIM against the physical SIM showed the same trade of a removable part for convenience.

• A phone bought now is not covered.
• Outside the EU, a regional model may keep the glue.
• The rule sets how the cell comes out, not what it costs.
• Trust the cycle rating over a shelf tag saying "repairable".

Buying in the next few months? Ask one question: how many cycles to 80%? A rating of 1,000 or more means the phone is built to be exempt, so price in a service visit around year three. Write that number down before you pay.

Related: how a parts pairing ban in Oregon, Washington and Colorado decides which battery and screen swaps are protected