Microsoft has a serious problem on its hands, thanks to competition from ... itself?
Windows 10 is about to expire.
In just over one year, Microsoft's most successful operating system release ever will reach its end-of-support date. Like Monty Python's Norwegian Blue, it will be pushing up the daisies. It will have shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain, and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!
How is this even possible? It feels like only yesterday, but in fact, Windows 10 was officially released to the public more than nine years ago, in July 2015. Following on the heels of the ill-fated Windows 8, it became an unqualified success among consumers and business customers alike.
That's good news, right? Well, not exactly.
Microsoft has a big challenge on its hands in the runup to that end-of-support date: convincing its enormous installed base to leave their beloved Windows 10 behind and make the move to its successor operating system, Windows 11.
Like every version of Windows in the modern era, Windows 10 adheres to a 10-year support lifecycle. That means that most Windows 10 editions -- Home, Pro, Pro Workstation, Enterprise, and Education -- reach their end-of support date on October 14, 2025. (For the nerdy details on how that date is calculated, see "When will Microsoft end support for your version of Windows or Office?")
So, what happens when that day arrives? Nothing. Seriously, absolutely nothing happens on that date. PCs running Windows 10 continue to work just as they always have, and they will do so indefinitely.
From that date forward, however, those PCs will no longer receive security fixes through Windows Update unless their owners pay Microsoft for an Extended Security Updates (ESU) subscription. On Windows 10 PCs without an ESU subscription, however, any security flaws found from that day forward will remain unpatched, making those PCs increasingly vulnerable to online attacks.
There is at least one exception to this cutoff date, which applies to PCs running Windows 10 Enterprise Long Term Servicing editions. In all, Microsoft has released four of these editions. The 2015 Long Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) ends support on October 14, 2025, along with the editions described earlier. The 2016 LTSB release ends support a year later, on October 13, 2026. Beginning in 2019, the name changed to Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC). For Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019, the end date is January 9, 2029.
Confusingly, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 has only a five-year support lifecycle, which means it ends support on January 12, 2027.
Microsoft and its OEM partners would prefer that the owners of those devices dump them in a landfill and buy a new PC running Windows 11. However, my experience with PC owners, especially older people on a fixed income, is that they will use those devices until they stop working. Those PCs will be sitting ducks for a cyberattack like WannaCry, which was brutally effective against the large population of Windows 7 PCs that were still in use three years after its support ended.
