Although Microsoft had no intention of ever releasing a successor to Windows 10 for a long time, the moment has come. Windows 11 is a fact and will be released at the end of this year. What does this mean for Windows 10 support?
Windows 11 brings few changes under the hood, but does come with some new interesting features such as widgets, an integration of Teams, support for some Android apps and much more. However, not everyone will want to switch to the new operating system. Or you can switch, because older computers may struggle to run Windows 11.
Support continues
For these users, Microsoft has a reassuring message: The company will continue to support Windows 10. More than 1.3 billion people have used the operating system since the launch of Windows 10, making it arguably the company’s most popular operating system after Windows 7.
It is therefore no big surprise that Microsoft wants to continue to support Windows 10. Nevertheless, the company considered it necessary to pay extra attention to the decision in a blog post. “While we can’t wait for the next generation of Windows, we want to continue to focus on supporting 1.3 billion devices running Windows 10,” Microsoft said. “Windows continues to play an important role in the lives of many people.”
Some are slightly concerned that Microsoft should mention this so explicitly. Has the end of Windows 10 support ever been a point of contention? We won’t find out. It is clear that Microsoft continued to support its operating systems for a long time in the past. For example, basic support for Windows 8.1 ended on January 9, 2018, more than two years after the launch of Windows 10, but extended support will not end until January 2023. By the way, you have to pay for the extensive support.
Slow rollout
A difference with the switch from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 is that the rollout of Windows 11 will be a lot slower than that of its predecessor. Microsoft wants to prevent the launch of the new operating system from being accompanied by many problems and is therefore releasing Windows 11 in phases. The first users will be able to get started with it by the end of 2021, but it will be well into 2022 before everyone has access to Windows 11. This will also probably influence a future decision about support for Windows 11 Windows 10.
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