Microsoft’s new Windows-as-a-service strategy means that the company plans to roll out updates to Windows 10 on an ongoing basis. Not only will we see regular security and stability improvements pushed through Windows Update, but Microsoft will also add new features to the operating system as they become available.
So how long can we expect Microsoft to support Windows 10? For at least 5-10 years… but maybe longer.
Microsoft has updated its Windows lifecycle fact sheet with end-of-support dates for Windows 10. The company says mainstream support for the operating system ends October 13th, 2020 while extended support ends October 14th, 2023.
That makes sense, since Microsoft typically provides mainstream support for 5 years after releasing an operating system and extended support for about 10 years.
But Windows 10 may be different — because it’s not clear that Microsoft plans to launch a new operating system to replace it anytime soon.
While Microsoft tends to provide 5-10 years of support for an operating system, the company also tends to roll out a new version of Windows every few years. Before Windows 10 there was Windows 8. Before that there was Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000/ME, and so on.
The shift to Windows-as-a-service could mean that Microsoft could continue updating Windows 10 indefinitely rather than launching an entirely new operating system in a few years. And if that happens, I wouldn’t be surprised if the end-of-support dates get pushed back.
Note that there’s something else different about Windows 10. Since there are cumulative updates instead of Service Pack releases, Microsoft says it will only offer support for computers that have the latest updates installed.
via Myce
2025 – “at least”. OK. So now we’ll wait to see how Micr$oft will use Windows 10 to hook a vacuum-cleaner up to my wallet for 10 years.
How Windows is like Doctor Who:
https://i.imgur.com/wrxZeW5.jpg
Wow, there’s a lot of icons in the system tray in that screenshot!
10 years is about the time that it’ll take them to remove all the bugs they introduced in the major re-write that was Windows 8.
To be fair no one needed Windows 8 or expected it, and when it came out putting it on non touch screen devices? why? none of us will ever know.
if they hadn’t announced it we’d all still be happy with 7, all this hassle with coming up with a newer name, changing the interface, removing the start button, putting the start button back in, obviously a mistake removing it, then with Windows 10 bringing back the menu, removing it was another mistake, removing the metro interface another mistake they made allowing it be be the default and letting it be too late to give users the choice. the new systems updates causing crashes, errors on installing, reboots and BSOD. 7 doesn’t do that.
now that windows 10 is out it just goes to show was it worth all that? everyone was happy with 7 and the layout and the nice effects it offers already which is great! how about why not don’t change a thing, make a 7 service pack 2 or 7.1 update to add Cortana, new notifications, to the taskbar of Windows 7 and inside the windows 7 menu add the tiles in the apps section hidden away then all we have to do is click and out pop some tiles that way everyone is using the same OS just with a few features added.
Because it works fine without touch. Sorry, I get that some people like their start menu in a small window, but that’s not a touch vs non-touch issue. I hated the start menu used from XP to 7, but I don’t say “It’s unusable without a touchscreen, how dare they force it on us!” Removing the start button even more so – 8.0 used a hotspot, how on _earth_ is that a change made for touch? By it’s very nature, you can’t activate a mouse hotspot with touch. On the contrary, having the start button icon is more touch friendly. A hotspot was a good idea that removed wasted space and made use of Fitts’s Law, but because of the whiners, we now have the wasted space back again.
Windows 10 didn’t bring 7’s start menu back, it changed it again, offering users options and allowing the best of 7 and 8’s start menus (8 still had a start menu, whether we call it a “menu” or “screen” is semantics).
Metro/WinRT hasn’t been removed in 10. I’m not sure in what sense it was ever the “default” – it depends on what application you use – but there is more of it in 10, not less.
I find 8 just as stable as 7, I hope you’re not basing that on anecdotal evidence.
What you describe you want for 7.1 update is exactly what Windows 10 is. Calling it “10” or “7.1” is a matter for marketing.
8 is ok on a touch screen i don’t dislike it because i have it on a Lumia and like it.
But to recommend it for everyone and to put it on everything, the way they saw the future using it i could kind of understand that.
originally they thought PCS would be the be all but it was the way they did it and the managing afterwards.
8.1 is more stable now but it had more problems at release and complaints than 7 it wouldn’t even let 8 machines install it properly without BSOD just because they didn’t test the patches properly, and i say that from my experience i had with it.
The issue is now they got the whole thing mixed you have had Aero which is on desktops and you have metro with the square coloured tiles and apps for touch screen, i made a suggestion to bring back Aero for Windows 10 and so did a lot of other people because as you probably know they removed Aero in 8 and a few did like it.
But now what they’ve done they’ve combined Aero for dektops and Metro look for touch screens together for all devices including desktops but looks more square than anything else and it’s still not offering a choice be it classic style or Xp/7 style.
Aero does look ok it’s different but it’s not as full on and a lot either liked or accepted it some people turned it off.
Yeah basically what i said about 7.1 update is have those features on windows 7+ allow the Windows 7 start menu to be resizable and have the apps +tiles hidden away at first, entitled apps, and allow the appearance to be changed back to older styles then it’s not just considering a young audience but for everyone.
Your comparison to Windows 7 is really invalid on several counts…
1) Windows 7 wasn’t a new OS release but a fixed version of Vista that benefited from over 2 years of fixes and driver development. So didn’t start from scratch like Windows 8 had to with WinRT…
2) Windows 7 was actually less popular than Windows 8 when released, MS was still reeling from the negatives from the Vista release and many had bunkered down with XP… In fact, Windows 7 didn’t become the new dominant version of Windows until years later when MS finally announced that XP support would finally officially end! But even now Windows 7 only has 52% of the Windows market…
3) Windows presence in the tablet market was less than 1% when Windows 8 was first released, a status it had for years as Windows was never ideal for mobile usage and even with netbooks and UMPC’s many switched to more versatile Linux distros. Yet, despite it’s apparent unpopularity Windows 8 more than quadrupled Windows tablet market share, marking it as an actual success and not failure…
4) It was always MS long term goal to push for convergence, where a single OS could serve the needs of all form factor devices. Many of the elements needed to reach this goal was introduced with Windows 8 and is what allows Windows 10 to finally take that step to allow for features like Continuum to finally be pushed… This can’t be said for Windows 7, which is essentially a dead end of the old way to do things…
5) Windows 8 issues were mainly with mouse users, the UI was actually optimized for both touch and keyboard usage. Those who are used to using keyboard commands easily adapted and they never really removed the original start menu, even without a 3rd party utility you could have restored the All Programs folder to the taskbar.
Windows 8 also introduced improvements in other aspects, like Multi-Monitor support that Windows 7 required 3rd party add-ons to do… among many under the hood improvements.
So the UI issues were not universal but regardless of whether they were only perceived faults or actual problems like any new feature it was all just too basic and under developed and that imposed compromises and limits to the UI that caused the majority of the complaints…
What has to be understood about Windows 10 is they didn’t go back to the drawing board but rather just continued to improve and evolve what they started with Windows 8… Many of the limits they had to work with at the time of Windows 8 release are no longer as limiting and that allows them to avoid as many compromises… Even what we see now with Windows 10 is still far from the final version MS has envisioned and we’re already seeing more improvements being introduced in the latest preview builds.
So Windows 7 was the end of the traditional desktop Windows but Windows 10 is the official start to a new way of computing that isn’t limited to just the desktop anymore and Windows 8, regardless of its faults, helped pave the way for it…
Btw, without WinRT Windows 7 can’t have a lot of the new features that Windows 10 has… Win32 is just too old, too bloated, too many legacy issues, etc. and if it wasn’t for legacy support it would have been killed off long ago…
Along with things like .NET is now Open Source with Windows 10… among other major changes…
It literally can’t be Windows 7 anymore if they were to make all the changes required to give it all the new features and capabilities of Windows 10…
but clearly it’s funny how they jumped to 8 nope that wasn’t good and have now jumped to 10 to fix that which is what they should have done in the first place kind of but it still doesn’t explain why they couldn’t have added all the capabilities to 7 it’s not like 7 is useless and can’t do what the new systems can do the only thing 7 doesn”t have is features compared to 10 but it’s still an everyday OS and i think a lot of people will probably cling to it for as long as possible.
Sure, people will probably cling to Windows 7 like they clung to XP but it wouldn’t be because it’s such a great OS and there’s no need for support of newer features.
People tend to forget things like long before Windows 8 came out people were actually criticizing Windows 7 for the things it didn’t fix from previous releases, like lack of features and capabilities compared to other platforms, and long time Windows issues they couldn’t solve without moving away from legacy support that traditional Windows was mired in…
While just like you see now, people compared Windows 7 to XP and there were people who argued the changes to Windows 7 made it worse… It’s only now that the roles have changed and now Windows 7 is the legacy OS that people are clinging to that as if it’s suddenly the near perfect OS…
People tend to have revisionist perceptions of how these OS releases actually stand. Like XP actually took a couple of years to be considered fixed enough to be considered as finally stable enough to replace the previous versions of Windows, which were hardly known for stability to begin with and MS wasn’t done fixing it until nearly 7 years after its release…
Windows 7 was obviously more stable, more secure, etc. than XP but that didn’t prevent people still clinging to XP until MS finally ended support for it… Even now there are still businesses that not only cling to XP but pay MS extra to still support it, and many others switched to Windows 7 only because they were forced to…
So sure, there will be people who will cling to Windows 7 all the way to the end but change is ultimately inevitable and in probably less than a decade from now people will probably not even remember what the big deal was all about…
Go back to Windows 95 then. No one needs anything new, I don’t want this XP touch rubbish!