What happens when 1803 reaches end of life date

I'm still running v 1803 and really have no desire to update but I read that 1803 is going to be past its use by date sometime in the next four months. I've not been offered any update so what happens if the end of 1803 life is reached and I still haven't upgraded?

Thanks

This is Windows lifecycle fact sheet:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...cle-fact-sheet


Windows builds that fail to upgrade may behave differently than builds that were modified to block upgrades.

This is an example for a failed Windows 1607 upgrade.
The end of service was April 10, 2018.

There were missed Windows updates:
cumulative updates
malicious software removal tool
etc.

These applications continued to be updated after end of support:
Microsoft Silverlight
Update for Adobe flash player

Silverlight was updated on 1/16/2019 and Adobe flash player on 10/10/2018.
The last successful Windows update was on 6/11/2018.

Windows can provide protection for malware that may not be able to performed in a timely fashion by third party software.
This happened with spectre-meltdown.

So without continued cumulative updates the risk for malware/ransomware may be increased.

Hi there

@Sam Vimes

It won't get any updates but *might* continue to get some security updates for a time (as per Windows XP after official end of life) --that rather depends on how many Corporate users are still using it --A load of Windows 10 Enterprise editions are running on 1803.

After that you are on your own - but you can always continue running this (or any other version of Windows) as a Virtual Machine.

Here --how about Windows 3.11 !!!!!! - No decent Windowed Internet Browsers in those days - although you could use slow (1200 Baud) text for remote communications to log on to things like Newsgroups and BBS's (Bulletin Boards --remember those things with grumpy SYSOPS !) etc ! and also a Novell DOSLAN for network sharing.



Cheers
jimbo

Thanks for the replies. Let me just say that I'm not a business just someone living his life in front of a home pc so I have Windows Home. Ok I have a few other machines of different flavours but they are definetly not Enterprise machines.

What I'm concerned about - amongst other things - is how can I determine that my current hardware and software will support going to 1903 without actually trying it - and then finding it screws something up.

The best option is to make a backup image.

(Acronis, Aoemi, EaseUS, Macrium, Paragon, etc.)

There are free and pay versions depending on the features.

Macrium is widely used in Ten Forums.

Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything

Windows has a 10 day rollback option immediately after an upgrade.

The backup image should provide nearly unlimited flexibility to return to a prior build.

Sam Vimes said:

I've not been offered any update so what happens if the end of 1803 life is reached and I still haven't upgraded?

Unless you've taken steps to block/defer feature and/or quality updates, then by now you should see an 'end of life' warning and a 'Download and install now' option for the Feature Update. I see this in 1803 on my test machine:



Some however are seeing a 'not quite ready...' message (usually due the 3rd-party drivers/software that needs an update).


Device not ready to update to 1903


As the end of life approaches an 'un-tweaked' install of 1803 should be automatically updated to 1903 through Windows Update. This has already started....


Microsoft now auto updating Windows 10 version 1803 and older to 1903

If you have 'tweaked' your system in any way to put off updates, then undo those tweaks now. After clicking 'Check for updates' it should either say 'download and install now' if it passes initial compatibility checks, or 'not quite ready...' if it doesn't.

I have a full version of Macrium so image backup is no problem although restoring to an image that's going end of life in the next month or so isn't a great help.

As far as I can tell I have nothing blocking or defering updates and I've never attempted to do so. 1803 got installed ok over the previous version back in May 2018. Never seen anything offering me 1809 for example although I get numerous cumulative updates for 1803.

If I select check for updates all I get is a message saying I'm up to date.

It seems to me that the info from MS regarding version updates is as clear as mud.

Could some one confirm or deny in simple terms that if I try to install 1903 it will warn me before screwing something up that I can't do it because there's a potential problem?

This then begs the question - if MS wont let me do this update what can I do after 1803's end of life?

Thanks again