As it prepares to reveal a significant update of its Windows operating system later this month, Microsoft has announced that it will discontinue supporting Windows 10 in 2025.
Microsoft stated when Windows 10 was released that it was meant to be the final version of the operating system.
However, no further updates or security patches will be available for either the Home or Pro editions after October 14, 2025.
Microsoft claims that its successor will be one of the "biggest important improvements" to the operating system in the last ten years.
Windows 7, its predecessor, was discontinued in 2020, while companies may pay Microsoft to receive upgrades for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise until then.
Windows 10 was introduced in July 2015 and was called "Windows as a service," which meant that instead of the business released a new version of its operating system every few years, the programme was progressively upgraded at no extra price.
Satya Nadella, the company's CEO at the time, claimed it signaled the start of a "new era" in personal computing.
Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft developer advocate, went even farther, calling it "the last version of Windows."
Mr. Nadella went on to say that he was particularly "excited" by features like Cortana, Microsoft's digital personal assistant, which was designed to compete with Apple's Siri.
Cortana, on the other hand, never really took off, and it was withdrawn from mobile in April of this year, focusing instead on productivity assistance in Windows 10, Outlook, and Teams.
Many popular cameras stopped operating a month after Windows 10 was released, forcing Microsoft to fix a problem in the way Windows compressed video.
Hundreds of customers reported losing files and emails that were no longer synchronized, as well as problems with wi-fi connections and printing.
According to consumer watchdog Which? some customers had to pay to have their computers fixed, while others complained the constant notifications made them feel "nagged" to update.
The French data authority said Windows 10 gathered an excessive amount of personal data on users a year after its release.
Mr. Nadella and chief product officer Panos Panay will unveil the new OS on June 24 at a virtual event, with Microsoft now facing stiff competition not just from Apple but also from Google.
While PC sales continue to dominate - according to Gartner, 79.4 million will be sold in 2020 - Google's alternative is proving popular, with 11.7 million Chromebooks, which run on Google's Chrome OS, expected to be sold in the same timeframe.
Some speculate that instead of being number 11, the next OS will be given a name.
Aside from rumours of a rebranding, it is expected to have a slew of new features, a fresher look, and a revamped Start menu.
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source: bbc.com
