Make way for Windows 11? Windows 10 end-of-life is October 2025

Enlarge / Please show your retired operating system the respect it deserves, with a proper Viking funeral. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

A new Windows visual refresh, code-named Sun Valley. is on the way this summer. Until recently, we've assumed that this was simply a new look for Windows 10 21H2—the major release of Windows 10 in the second half of 2021—but new information in the form of posted EOL dates for Windows 10 and a leaked screenshot of something purporting to be "Windows 11 Pro" heavily imply serious changes are on the way.

Windows 10 EOL in 2025

Rumors of Sun Valley being "Windows 11" have been circulating for months—but until recently, we didn't put much stock in them. Windows 10 was intended to be Windows as a Service—a radical departure from the prior era of new, major Windows releases every three years or so. It seemed likely that Sun Valley's "sweeping visual rejuvenation" would simply result in Windows 10 21H2 looking very different from Windows 10 21H1. Why fix what's not broken?

The first strong indication that bigger things may be afoot landed last week, in the form of a Microsoft-published End of Life for Windows 10. "Windows 10 Home and Pro"—no code names, no minor version numbers—is now listed as retiring on October 14, 2025. "Retiring" is a part of the Modern Lifecycle Policy and means that the retired product leaves support entirely; this does not follow the old Fixed Lifecycle Policy with "mainstream" and "extended" support. Retired is retired; hit the pasture.

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

from Tech – Ars Technica https://ift.tt/3xm19pK