What happens at Windows Ten end of support?
Hi everyone. Leo Notenboom here for Askleo.com.
It's a question we're probably going to hear more and more of over time,
not just because Windows Eleven has been around for a while,
but because Windows Ten end of support is getting closer and closer.
So what happens when that date hits?
Nothing.
I mean that in quite the literal sense.
It's not so much that something will
happen on that day, but things will stop happening on that day.
So let's take a quick look at what the dates are that we're talking about here.
Microsoft has published a rule that basically says each Windows Ten
feature release will be supported for 18 months from the day of its actual public
availability. A feature release are the 21H@ or 22H1. Or year,
followed by the half of the year that it was released in. The current one
as I'm recording this is 21H2.
Hopefully 22H1 will come out shortly.
Each one of those will get supported for 18 months.
The very last one is apparently 24H1, which will then get supported.
Until the second half of 2025.
So that's the real deadline.
Now, in your case, you may face a slightly
different deadline if, for whatever reason, you do not,
or you cannot upgrade to the most recent feature release.
In other words, say you're on 21H2 today, but you can't, for whatever reason,
update to one of the other feature releases that are coming down the pike.
Then you're stuck with an end of support
for your machine 18 months after the general availability of whatever
feature release it is you happen to be using.
In general, though, as long as you keep your machine up
to date, your Windows Ten should be supported all the
way through the end of 2025.
October of 2025 actually is the date that they've published.
That means nothing happens on that day.
I'll say that again, nothing is going to happen on that day.
Your machine will keep working.
Your applications will keep working.
Life will go on.
What will happen on that day is
that Microsoft will no longer make any bug fixes after that day for Windows Ten.
If it's a security bug,
if it's an application bug, if it's something else in Windows Ten
that needs to be fixed, it won't be after October of 2025.
That's all that really happens.
That's what end of support means.
It doesn't mean that the operating system will stop working.
It will keep working.
Just ask people who are still running Windows 7 and even running Windows XP.
Their operating system continues to work years after that.
Operating Systems end of support.
Now applications, I have to point out,
applications may get continued support after the Windows end of support date.
So, for example,
Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop or any of the other applications that you've
gotten in addition to Windows that you've installed on Windows.
Those may continue to continue to get support.
They're on a different schedule,
set by whatever that application's manufacturer chooses to support.
But Windows itself is what we're talking about here.
And what confuses this even more is
that Windows Update may continue to get you updates after the end of support date.
The trick is that Windows itself will not be updated, but some of the other things
that Windows Update actually supports will.
For example, Microsoft Security may continue to get updates.
Microsoft Office is supported through Microsoft or Windows Update.
That will continue to happen.
It's just that those pieces of Windows
itself might not get any more bug fixes and will no longer be updated.
So what's the risk?
What's the problem of just keeping running
with Windows Ten past the end of support date?
Well, like I said, we've been here before, both with Windows XP and Windows Seven,
and technically with Windows Vista and Windows Eight.
But with those two operating systems in particular, there's a very large
installed base of people that didn't want to upgrade.
So what did they do instead?
They may still be running Windows XP and Windows Seven.
What it really means is
that the responsibility for security and functionality falls even more so on you.
You need to make sure that your anti malware tools are running,
your security software is up to date and configured properly.
You may run into issues when applications eventually stop being supported,
but again, that's a decision then that you have to make.
The operating system will continue to work, but if vulnerabilities are found,
the theory is that hackers will then say, well, you know what?
There's a vulnerability in Windows Ten that's no longer going to get fixed.
Let's go exploit it.
All you need to do is stay safe.
Follow the usual litany of things
that keep you safe on the Internet, and more or less you will be fine.
But you don't necessarily have to update to Windows Eleven.
You certainly can if you want to.
But you don't necessarily have to.
It is not a requirement.
Microsoft is not forcing you to upgrade.
Like I said, the most important thing you
can do is to keep your security software up to date and make sure that it is fully
supported by whatever source you're getting it from.
Like I said again, we've been here before.
I have two articles on the site.
Will Windows XP keep working after support
ends? And will Windows Seven keep working after support ends?
The answer for both is yes and in fact, what many people were warning about,
some kind of apocalypse after end of support never really happened.
Either the hackers didn't find something
interesting in Windows XP or Seven, or they just decided that the installed
base was now small enough as people moved on to more modern operating system,
or the people who stayed with those operating systems were on top of it.
Enough to know here's what I need to do to stay safe.
That's really all that has to happen.
But the most important thing to realize about windows ten end of support is.
That quite literally nothing will happen on.
That date and in fact updates to windows itself will stop happening though updates
to many other things will continue for some time.
Hope that helps explain what's going
on for updates for related links for comments and more visit
askleo.com/145971. I'm Leo Notenboom this is askleo.com. Thanks for watching.