What happens after windows 10 ends its support in 2026?

Happy Hopping

Happy Hopping

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
Messages
7,833
as the story goes, microsoft said there is no more new ver. of windows, that windows 10 is the last ver.

is that a marketing scheme? because windows 10 support ends in 2026. So if there is no new ver. of windows, what happens after 2026?
 
Happy Hopping said:
as the story goes, microsoft said there is no more new ver. of windows, that windows 10 is the last ver.

is that a marketing scheme? because windows 10 support ends in 2026. So if there is no new ver. of windows, what happens after 2026?
Click to expand...

Each major update counts as a new version of Windows. So in 2025, Windows 10 build 1703 (creators update) will stop being supported. In the Fall when the new major update comes along, that might be supported until 2026 or a similar period of time. Windows 10 is technically already not "supported" anymore. Version 1503 dropped support in May. 1507 will get dropped next, then 1511, 1607 (Anniversary update), etc etc etc...
 
Windows is now a rolling release OS like a few Linux distros are and have been for a long time, so, as long as they keep updating it (which is their intention now hence the rolling aspect of it) it'll never really be out of date I suppose. AltTabbins covered it well in the post above, but basically if you choose to run Windows 10 as long as you keep it updated with the latest major updates it's apparently never going to end, I suppose.

Who the hell knows what things will be like ~9 years from now, we meaning humanity might not even be around at that point, one would think you and most folks have far more pressing concerns in the immediate future than worrying about whether you'll even be using Windows in 2026. :D
 
Windows 10 is it, there won't be any more numerical versions from now on, that at least is something that Microsoft has pretty insistent on promoting so no there won't be a Windows 11, 12, etc, what you've got now is what it'll be a decade from now unless something happens to drastically alter that.

And careful with the references to he-who-shall-not-be-named-outside-of-the-Soapbox lest the Admins or Mods drop a ban hammer on you - and I'm not being the least bit facetious either. ;)
 
It's okay because build 2605 nicknamed the "Gaseous Update" will have another ten years of support.
 
ManofGod said:
Wow, not sure if that took longer than I thought it would or not surprised it happened so fast. :D
Click to expand...

You misunderstand. No one will really be using PCs in 2026. Really 9 years from now... I doubt any of the majors are still selling traditional PCs, even the laptop form factor is likely to be mostly gone in 10 years.
 
ChadD said:
You misunderstand. No one will really be using PCs in 2026. Really 9 years from now... I doubt any of the majors are still selling traditional PCs, even the laptop form factor is likely to be mostly gone in 10 years.
Click to expand...

Until the productive and higher end uses of PCs are replaced by something else they aren't going away. The market might be substantially smaller but the need for local compute power will never vanish entirely.
 
ChadD said:
You misunderstand. No one will really be using PCs in 2026. Really 9 years from now... I doubt any of the majors are still selling traditional PCs, even the laptop form factor is likely to be mostly gone in 10 years.
Click to expand...

Try all they might, but the PC is going to be around for a very long time. It will change form factors like it has since 10 years ago, but the pure need for it in the business place will keep the pc around well past that 10 years.
 
AltTabbins said:
Try all they might, but the PC is going to be around for a very long time. It will change form factors like it has since 10 years ago, but the pure need for it in the business place will keep the pc around well past that 10 years.
Click to expand...

Bring your own device is more then just a thing these days. Don't get me wrong I'm sure a few people will have chrome books on their desks... but full on operating systems that need support. I doubt it. Windows is doomed as the PC platform is doomed... unless MS makes some glorious mobile come back they are in serious trouble 10 years out. 10 years is a long time in the tech world. (10 years ago MS was flogging Windows Vista... and the iphone was still a rumor)
 
I think once windows 10 finally is gone.. America will be great again. Actually.. All of the world will be! Though by than, I'm sure will we be on a single OS that spans mobile to server OS. oh Waite...
 
Calling Windows 10 a rolling release model is actually pretty correct. One main difference is on Linux users choose which distro they get such as those who want OpenSuse but don't want rolling release have an option as well as on a rolling release the users still choose when to do their updates which Windows 10 also lacks. So it's a rolling release, but pretty much the worst rolling release OS out there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChadD
like this
Simmonz said:
Calling Windows 10 a rolling release model is actually pretty correct. One main difference is on Linux users choose which distro they get such as those who want OpenSuse but don't want rolling release have an option as well as on a rolling release the users still choose when to do their updates which Windows 10 also lacks. So it's a rolling release, but pretty much the worst rolling release OS out there.
Click to expand...

It is odd seeing someone suggest users stay away from X or Y rolling release Linux release cause they are unstable... and then see them suggest windows 10.

Seriously I do like that MS decided to move to a rolling type release... imo they just haven't done a good job of making it clear to end users (or themselves) what that means. They should have dropped the entire Home/Pro/Enterprise confusion with 10. They could have moved to Windows LTS, Windows Stable, Windows Rolling. Charging companies for LTS which would be a bit of current Enterprise and Pro.... Stable and Rolling could be identical other then the timing of updates. With stable getting security updates only, with features rolled out much slower then rolling which would just get everything pushed like a true rolling release. As it is Windows 10 seems to be a "semi-rolling" release with big massive feature updates now and then that some users love and some users hate with passion. They should simply let everyone opt into rolling or stable. (End users really do get that... companies like Google have taught them the difference with things like Chrome Stable/Beta channels ect)
 
heatlesssun said:
Until the productive and higher end uses of PCs are replaced by something else they aren't going away. The market might be substantially smaller but the need for local compute power will never vanish entirely.
Click to expand...

Plus the fact that there is a world wide usage to consider and some things only a PC form factor can do, even in the consumer market.
 
BulletDust said:
I think this is the most interesting question in this thread that most people do their best to avoid answering for obvious reasons.
Click to expand...

I agree, but unless you work at a high level at Microsoft, then anyone who does answer would just be speculating and likely spouting BS.
 
Brian_B said:
I agree, but unless you work at a high level at Microsoft, then anyone who does answer would just be speculating and likely spouting BS.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't expect anything other than BS from a Microsoft employee. Not saying you won't get BS from other sources but the company has a history of lies and deceit.
 
They have to eventually get money from somewhere, that part can be assumed. Personally, I know the best method for MS to reclaim lost revenue as a result of forcing everyone onto the same platform.
 
Most likely a year's subscription is how they will make money from it after they make sure most windows users will be using windows 10 on all their devices and become addicted to it, while silently cutting support to all software/hardware but that with windows 10 and voilaa, users will happely open their wallets to pay M$ monthly just to be able to use the OS where all their life is on it so to speak, I bet that was M$ wet dream for a long time and it is slowly coming true... plus cheap adware from 3rd parties silently being pushed into system another great source of money... and tell me that I am wrong ;)
 
akmens said:
Most likely a year's subscription is how they will make money from it after they make sure most windows users will be using windows 10 on all their devices and become addicted to it, while silently cutting support to all software/hardware but that with windows 10 and voilaa, users will happely open their wallets to pay M$ monthly just to be able to use the OS where all their life is on it so to speak, I bet that was M$ wet dream for a long time and it is slowly coming true... plus cheap adware from 3rd parties silently being pushed into system another great source of money... and tell me that I am wrong ;)
Click to expand...

Cha..Ching! Good job. it won't be accepted as easily as you think though.
 
Look at ANY other software co., for e.g., Adobe photoshop. They release newer ver. to lure household / business to buy their new products. Car co., sells newer models to lure you to buy their new car. If microsoft is doing something that noone else is doing, then something doesn't add up. Because they are a public traded co., to not make a new product called windows Ver. XX, would be killing their own revenue, killing their own stock price. So all these talk that there won't be a newer ver. of windows, I don't see how the shareholders can agree.
 
Happy Hopping said:
Look at ANY other software co., for e.g., Adobe photoshop. They release newer ver. to lure household / business to buy their new products. Car co., sells newer models to lure you to buy their new car. If microsoft is doing something that noone else is doing, then something doesn't add up. Because they are a public traded co., to not make a new product called windows Ver. XX, would be killing their own revenue, killing their own stock price. So all these talk that there won't be a newer ver. of windows, I don't see how the shareholders can agree.
Click to expand...
It's cute that someone is having this revelation now, in 2017, when Win10 has been out for two years and was a *free upgrade* for half of that time.

Long story short, retail Win10 sales are a small chunk of Windows sales and they don't care. They sell a lot more packaged with Dells and HPs and Lenovos etc. You buy a Lenovo with Windows, MS makes a few bucks. Done. In three years you buy a new(er) Lenovo with Windows, MS makes a few bucks. Done. In fact they got their money before you ever bought it.

Enterprise clients, their other big money maker, still pay a revolving cost for Windows. Stuff like Software Assurance and Volume Licensing and Enterprise Support are mad mad chedda.

As well, Windows 10 opens a new cash revenue in the Store apps. Which is an ultra LOL cuz who is buying apps from the Store? But.. MS wants to believe it so there ya go.
 
SuperSubZero said:
Enterprise clients, their other big money maker, still pay a revolving cost for Windows. Stuff like Software Assurance and Volume Licensing and Enterprise Support are mad mad chedda.
Click to expand...

Even more so now. They are pushing at every opportunity for companies to move from their off prem systems. Companies are moving too. In 2015 if you asked the head of IT in our company if we would ever consider Office 365 and he would have rolled on the floor laughing. We are deploying it in August. Last year if you asked him if we would ever look at Azure for any of our services and he would have gave you a flat out "no, not a chance" answer. We just rolled out our first Azure AD server and Exchange in March to handle our EU office.

Will we ever move completely off prem? I doubt it. But we are sipping that koolaid for sure.
 
MS wants to move all of their stuff to a subscription based model and eventually Windows will be no different.

Anyone who thinks that the traditional PC is going to not be here in the near future has a few screws loose :eek:
 
subscription based software, like Office 365, is a nice way of saying rental. Everyone knows rental makes more $ than buying it out right. Look at the $ that Norton makes on those annual anti virus renewal
 
There is also another problem: for any co., not necessary a software co., who "appears" to keep the same product, its competition such as Apple can use it against them. Apple can advertise "would you like to use a 10 yr. old operating system", or would you like to try the new MAC OS ??

How would you feel if Toyota keeps the same car year after year, and said "we change the inside, the engine, etc.", but it's the same car outside. How would you feel if Canon makes the same camera year after year? Or your pre-amp. is the same model year after year, and they said they changes the inside, but the outside looks the same, so they keep it the same name?
 
I don't honestly feel the need to get something new and pretty and shiny every <insert time frame here> - in fact I prefer older hardware for a variety of reasons one of them being that manufacturers and software developers (like Intel and Microsoft) end up doing stupid shit like the recent and still ongoing fiasco with making some modern chipsets and CPUs "only work with Windows 10" which is utter bullshit. As for the Apple situation and a 10 year old Mac, those decade old machines can't run macOS Sierra which is the latest version but a 10 year old traditional PC can run Windows 10 (if you absolutely had to do it, and it would run fairly well too).

Forced obsolescence is just a way of life now for the world, and today's disposable society is just making it much worse by the minute. Yes you can get a smartphone fixed nowadays for not a whole lot of money but you'd be amazed at how many people will still toss 'em and just buy another one even in spite of some damage being relatively cheap to fix. I've got 4 smartphones presently:

- a very old but completely functional Samsung Galaxy S Captivate (the first Galaxy S model) and I keep it because it works and it has a Wolfson DAC for audio playback and there's not much even today that sounds as good

- a BlackBerry Z10 (runs BB10 OS which is pretty much dead now and never was really all that popular) for similar reasons: it works and it too has a Wolfson DAC but it can and does actually run Android apps as well, not all of them but enough of the ones that I find useful

- an LG G Vista I found at a pawn shop for $25, has a mildly shattered screen with the typical "spider-web" style damage but even in spite of the damage the digitizer is 100% functional meaning it responds to touch as expected and has no dead spots, and the actual LCD panel has no damage either and it's now unlocked too

- an Amazon Fire Phone, my latest used acquisition, all for $10 because it needed a new battery (Amazon has it built so when the battery capacity lifespan reaches a certain point the phone won't even power on with a full charge, kinda fucked up) so I bought a new battery for $21 and voila, it works, and I rooted it and put Lineage on it (what used to be CyanogenMod) and it has zero issues whatsoever

My wife has an LG G Flex 2, a flagship device in early 2015, $759 retail price when it was new, the previous owner bought it, had it a week, dropped it, shattered the glass in the spider-web pattern but the digitizer (again) survived and works fine and has no dead spots - the Flex 2 has a POLED (Plastic OLED) flexible display panel and that has zero damage so, when I saw it on craigslist for $25 I snatched it quick and the wife has been using it for about 1.5 years now without a single problem (I did replace the original battery recently because it needed it after so long)

So yeah, used stuff, even damaged stuff that's well past what some folks might consider functional or worthwhile or flat out obsolete - like me, as the quote in my sig states (shamelessly stolen from Terminator:Genisys) - I find such hardware quite useful, just like I prefer older OSes more than the latest and greatest and I use Windows 7 and will for many years to come even in spite of all the bullshit Microsoft is shoveling at me to move to Windows 10.

I have a 31 year old pair of Sony V6 headphones, 1st generation models, and I have a 31 year old pair of Koss PortaPro headphones, also 1st generation models, so yeah, again, old stuff rules. :D
 
I run a 2012 Mac Mini as it's better and more expandable for the $$ than the current Mac Mini. Furthermore my main PC is based around a Dell T5500 with dual X5675 Xeons, built like a tank and handles anything I throw at it.

My HT receiver is a Pioneer VSX-LX70 as it's also built like a tank with a huge PSU and discrete amplifier modules, about 10 years old now.
 
I'm more worried about 2023 when they stop supporting windows 8. Hopefully current trend of more games getting Linux/OSX versions will keep up.
 
ChadD said:
You misunderstand. No one will really be using PCs in 2026. Really 9 years from now... I doubt any of the majors are still selling traditional PCs, even the laptop form factor is likely to be mostly gone in 10 years.
Click to expand...
They can pry my gaming PC from my cold dead fingers.
 
Happy Hopping said:
There is also another problem: for any co., not necessary a software co., who "appears" to keep the same product, its competition such as Apple can use it against them. Apple can advertise "would you like to use a 10 yr. old operating system", or would you like to try the new MAC OS ??

How would you feel if Toyota keeps the same car year after year, and said "we change the inside, the engine, etc.", but it's the same car outside. How would you feel if Canon makes the same camera year after year? Or your pre-amp. is the same model year after year, and they said they changes the inside, but the outside looks the same, so they keep it the same name?
Click to expand...

It's more like Ford still selling the 40-year old F-150 truck. Same model, but many updates internal and external, but still an F-150.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
MS wants to move all of their stuff to a subscription based model and eventually Windows will be no different.

Anyone who thinks that the traditional PC is going to not be here in the near future has a few screws loose :eek:
Click to expand...
Not only has Microsoft made absolutely zero effort to do this on the consumer front and they seem unlikely to, they *do* offer it (OFFER. OPTIONAL.) on the Enterprise end, which is a base that could be all too eager for this model as it really streamlines paying for and supporting Windows.
 
I have a question:
AltTabbins said:
Each major update counts as a new version of Windows. So in 2025, Windows 10 build 1703 (creators update) will stop being supported. In the Fall when the new major update comes along, that might be supported until 2026 or a similar period of time. Windows 10 is technically already not "supported" anymore. Version 1503 dropped support in May. 1507 will get dropped next, then 1511, 1607 (Anniversary update), etc etc etc...
Click to expand...

Okay, how can an average consumer understand the above when they buy win 10? How does microsoft make consumer understand some build ends at 2026, some newer build will end after 2026. And for that matter, say I buy that "new major update" that comes in the Fall, how does that get identify? will the package say "this is build ????"
 
Happy Hopping said:
I have a question:


Okay, how can an average consumer understand the above when they buy win 10? How does microsoft make consumer understand some build ends at 2026, some newer build will end after 2026. And for that matter, say I buy that "new major update" that comes in the Fall, how does that get identify? will the package say "this is build ????"
Click to expand...

I don't think they really have to explain it. The updates will be forced on them regardless so they will always have the most recent version and will never be out of support in theory unless they're not connected to the internet.
 
Michaelius said:
I'm more worried about 2023 when they stop supporting windows 8. Hopefully current trend of more games getting Linux/OSX versions will keep up.
Click to expand...

The Linux train is rolling forward slowly but surely. Only getting better, I'm actually looking forward to the future for this reason.
 
Last edited:
Happy Hopping said:
Okay, how can an average consumer understand the above when they buy win 10? How does microsoft make consumer understand some build ends at 2026, some newer build will end after 2026.
Click to expand...

Honestly, they don't need to worry about it. Updates come down the pipe automatically. The version that is no longer supported shouldn't even be installed on any machine because they should be somewhat updated by now.

Happy Hopping said:
And for that matter, say I buy that "new major update" that comes in the Fall, how does that get identify? will the package say "this is build ????"
Click to expand...

Most people wont care, but you can check your version you are running by checking "about my pc" in the settings. Updates are usually labeled. My creators update said it was installing the creators update.
 
Happy Hopping said:
I have a question:


Okay, how can an average consumer understand the above when they buy win 10? How does microsoft make consumer understand some build ends at 2026, some newer build will end after 2026. And for that matter, say I buy that "new major update" that comes in the Fall, how does that get identify? will the package say "this is build ????"
Click to expand...

99% of consumers aren't going to care, as long as the OS is supported for at least the warranty period of their hardware. So MS doesn't need to, and won't bother to, press education of the public at large on the details. They'll have the details in the license, and on their webpage and such, but they're not going to bother making consumers understand something like this. No other vendor does either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top