When does Windows 10 Support End?

Discussion on the end of the Windows world as we know it (maybe) - 2025:

Windows 10 will reach end of life on 14 October 2025 | TheINQUIRER

Generally:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...cle-fact-sheet

stevec59 said:

Looking at Microsoft's fact sheet, I see May 12, 2020 for Windows 10?

One has to assume there will be more releases than listed for Home/Pro to continue to 2025.

Bear in mind this has to be somewhat conjectural, but one might surmise MS will move to a different model that generates more revenue. Cloud based Windows??

Matthew Wai said:

Windows 10 is the last version of Windows.
Windows 10 will reach end of life on 14 October 2025.
Should we abandon Windows after 14 October 2025?

Impossible to say.. will Windows still exist in the form we know and love/hate, or simply change to a differently licensed model? An interesting question might be how a major change might or might not influence hardware puchases...

The original 2015 release of Windows 10 will lose all support in 2025 - each biannual issue will lose all support after approximately ten years so Creators Update will see EOL around 2027 and so on.

There are serious business reasons why an OS has to have an EOL [end of life], this is used for calculating depreciation of stock values for company inventory and Tax. In addition there is a law of diminishing returns as time goes on and hardware no longer can be supported.

stevec59 said:

Looking at Microsoft's fact sheet, I see May 12, 2020 for Windows 10?

Steve,

EOL is set for individual versions not for Windows 10 as a whole. The 12th May 2020 date, just by way of example, applies to version 1809.

There is currently no defined EOL for Windows 10.
- MS has said Windows 10 will not end. [The 2015 online links I have to Windows blogs no longer find their target pages otherwise I would be able to show you MS's statements on the subject.]
- None of use can predict the future but every article [including the 2015 Inquirer article linked to above] is based on speculation not fact.
- There are no known facts other than those in the Windows lifecycle fact sheet that dalchina gave you a link to above.
- There used to be a lot of similar speculation about Windows eventually becoming a paid-subscription-only OS but that was also balderdash [some online articles were deliberate lies published as click-bait to gain advertising revenue].

So you can buy your new computer without any worries about its OS becoming out-of-date as long as you buy from a computer maker who is going to keep publishing new hardware drivers & BIOS for several years as the OS evolves.
- Personally, I believe that hardware issues are always going to be the limiting factor in any computer's life so I would only buy a computer that the maker is still actively marketing and hence [hopefully] willing to continue spending development money on.
- Having said that, I still have version 1709 operating correctly on a laptop bought in 2005. Its hardware incompatibilities only manifest themselves as a couple of annoying shortcomings [one is that it cannot resume from sleep automatically whilst I have got so used to the other one that I cannot even remember what it is off the top of my head].

Denis

Steve,

Since the old Windows blogs are no longer available online, here are some quotes from old ones by Terry Myerson, Windows and Devices Group Executive Vice President

In The next generation of Windows: Windows 10 dated 21st Jan 2015, he wrote, "once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost.". Added 6th Jan 2021 - The new address for this blog is The next generation of Windows - Windows Insider Blog

In Genuine Windows and Windows 10 dated 15th May 2015, he wrote "Once a customer upgrades, they will continue to receive ongoing Windows innovation and security updates for free, for the supported lifetime of that device.". Added 6th Jan 2021 - The new address for this blog is Genuine Windows and Windows 10 - Windows Experience Blog

There have not been any MS statements to contradict these ones.

It is true that there was, for a while, a single EOL given in the Windows lifecycle fact sheet but that entry was always qualified by a Version number and [poorly] clarified by additional notes.



[These additional notes also represent the closest thing there is to a definition of the "supported lifetime of a device".]

All the best,
Denis