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Windows 11: 24 months of support and one major update per year

During the Windows 11 presentation live stream, Microsoft briefly mentioned improvements to how Windows updates work. The company wants to entice migration to Windows 11, free for existing Windows 10 users, by simplifying updates the OS will be getting. After the even, Microsoft published a more detailed document that reveals some curious changes in Windows Update mechanisms and policies.

Windows 11 Banner

First, with Windows 11, regular updates now 40% smaller. That means the operating system needs less time to download, process, and install patches. Also, they will take less of your data and bandwidth. Quality assurance remains unknown, but Microsoft has already improved Windows update quality by using some advanced tools, such as Known Issue Rollback.

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Second, Windows 11 gets a new support schedule. Current Windows 10 support policies grant regular consumers 18 months of active support. Enterprise and education customers get double that, 36 months in total. With Windows 11, Microsoft extends the lifecycle for regular consumers for additional six months. Now, Windows 11 will be getting full two years of active support. That means you will have more time to run the preferred feature version without bothering by forced upgrades from Microsoft. By the way, if your PC runs Windows 10 2004, prepare for the upcoming upgrade to Windows 10 21H1.

As for enterprise customers, nothing has changed. These users will keep their 36 months of mainstream support for each Windows 11 feature update.

Finally, Microsoft is moving to one update for Windows per year. Instead of two feature updates per year, Windows 11 will be getting major updates similar to how Apple and Google upgrade their operating systems. Again, that will make upgrading Windows less tedious and help Microsoft stir more excitement into fresh releases.

Microsoft plans to release the first public preview of Windows 11 next week with the public launch scheduled this fall. Before upgrading, be sure to check minimum system requirements, as some quite significant changes may render some older machines incapable of running Windows 11.

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Author: Taras Buria

Taras is here to cover stories about Microsoft and everything around, although sometimes he prefers Apple.

4 thoughts on “Windows 11: 24 months of support and one major update per year”

  1. hai winaero, how to add wireless display features in windows 10? i try it and always failed. Please help me to add this features. Thanks.

  2. “Microsoft has already improved Windows update quality by using some advanced tools, such as Known Issue Rollback”.
    KIR doesn’t improve the quality of updates. It merely allows to rollback the updates of low quality.

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