Microsoft has confirmed it’ll end support for Windows 10 in 2025, amid speculation it is about to announce the Windows 11 operating system it said would never happen.
Ahead of an event to reveal the ‘next-generation of Windows’ on June 24, Microsoft has confirmed the current desktop platform will reach the end of its lifecycle on October 14 2025. That means it’ll no longer receive security or feature updates, although Microsoft has often extended these dates for past versions, as users transition.
In a post (via BetaNews) on the Windows 10 Home and Pro lifecycle page, the company writes: “Microsoft will continue to support at least one Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel until October 14, 2025.”
Whether that means we’re going to see Windows 11 after all remains to be seen. However, it does ensure Microsoft has a successor of some kind planned in the near future. In the last week, we’ve heard whispers of the name Windows Sun Valley, but that’s likely to be a codename for whatever Microsoft is working on.
Until very recently, the official word from Microsoft had been that Windows 10 would be the last major named version of the world’s most popular operating system. Back in 2015 Microsoft itself said Windows 10 would be “the last version of Windows,” and we’d heard very little to suggest otherwise, with Microsoft regularly updating Windows 10.
Then came Microsoft Build, last month, when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed he was using a brand new, top secret version of the operating system the company was going to reveal very soon.
He said: “Soon we will share one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators. I’ve been self-hosting it over the past several months, and I’m incredibly excited about the next generation of Windows. Our promise to you is this: we will create more opportunity for every Windows developer today and welcome every creator who is looking for the most innovative, new, open platform to build and distribute and monetise applications. We look forward to sharing more very soon.”
Whether we’ll see Windows 11 running on the best laptops in 2021 or beyond remains to be seen, but Microsoft clearly has something big up its sleeve ahead of the June 24 event.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
