Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and now 10 – Microsoft is gradually phasing out older operating systems. The end of Windows 10, introduced in 2015, is now certain.
As early as February 2023, Microsoft completely stopped selling Windows 10. TECHBOOK also saw this as a sign that the company wanted to urge users to upgrade to Windows 11. As it turns out now, there is a simple reason for this: Windows 10 no longer gets a major update. The current version 22H2 from last year will be the last.
From now on only monthly security updates for Windows 10
Microsoft announced this in a post on its IT-Pro blog. Many users now feel alienated because, according to the life cycle information on the Microsoft website, the operating system should actually get one major function update per year like Windows 11. In the tweet, however, the company now indicates that until the planned “EOS” (End of Service) in October 2025, only monthly security patches will be deployed.
Windows 10 received the last update in September 2022 in the form of 22H2 (second half of 2022) parallel to Windows 11. Microsoft only announced at the end of 2021 that Windows 10 should only get annual – instead of semi-annual – function updates. However, nobody expected that 22H2 would be the final version.
The older operating system continues to enjoy great popularity. Now that more and more users are turning their backs on Windows 7 since the beginning of the year due to the end of support, Windows 10 was able to record a 4.6 percent increase in market share in March, according to “Statcounter”. Over the same period, Windows 11 has only increased by 2.83 percentage points. Windows 10 accounts for almost three-quarters (73.46 percent) of the market, while Windows 11 is just one-fifth (20.95 percent).
Not everyone can upgrade to Windows 11
Windows 10 users should now switch to Windows 11 if they want to receive feature updates. While the upgrade is free, many PCs cannot do it due to hardware limitations. Because Windows 11 has certain minimum requirements, without which an installation is not possible. The security functions Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and Secure Boot must be activated. However, some older computers do not support these technologies and therefore cannot upgrade. In other cases, turning on the TPM and Secure Boot renders the Windows installation unusable. Users must therefore set up Windows 11 from scratch.
Another limitation of Windows 11 is that the operating system is no longer available as a 32-bit version. As a result, it will not run on systems with less than four gigabytes of memory (RAM). For example, if you use an older laptop with little RAM as a media center, you cannot install Windows 11.