Windows 10 - end of support October 2025

[BlueSkies]

Hi there,

 

I have received some emails from various resellers regarding the MS EoL/support announcement for Windows 10 in Oct 2025. I know that the vast majority of computers/laptops we have here in school are not Windows 11 compliant and whilst we had plans to start a rolling program of kit upgrades, it hasn't always been possible due to financial constraints. Although the date is quite a way in the future - time has a habit of passing quite quickly in school, so I need to get a plan together!

 

Just wondering how everyone else is managing this and is anyone else in a similar position with regards to finances?

[ThatBoringBloke]

LTSC 2021. Supported until 2027.

LTSC 2019 is supported until 2029.

Edited February 12, 2024 by ThatBoringBloke

[Olliedawg]

As above could move to LTSC, which would be cheapest option by far.

 

In my case, we're buying refurbs for our 3 IT rooms. Looking at about £300 per machine (HP EliteDesk 800 G4). Come with a 3 year warranty which will suffice until the next refresh.

 

For staff desktops/laptops we are doing the same. Buying refurbs with minimum 8th Gen intel processors, 16Gb memory minimum.

 

I can recommend Home | ICT-Direct for buying refurbs. If you have an account with them & spend a certain amount each year, they give you a 5 year warranty instead of 3 on desktops/laptops.

[Rob_D]

I've pretty much just told our business manager about EOL date and every capital project request I've put in for the last year or so (and probably for the next couple of years, unless something else comes up) is for new (or refurb) windows 11 compatible machines to hurry this refresh cycle through more quickly.

 

We're looking at LTSC builds for some things and where we can moving non-contact machines (like signage) to linux, but that's a tiny fraction of the devices on site.

[BlueSkies]

I can recommend Home | ICT-Direct for buying refurbs. If you have an account with them & spend a certain amount each year, they give you a 5 year warranty instead of 3 on desktops/laptops.

 

Thanks! Yes, ICT Direct are always my first port of call ... although even at their fantastic prices, we would struggle to replace all the kit that needs replacing! LTSC might be the way to go.

:-)

[3s-gtech]

I’m doing another suite this week, from 2010 era HPs to 10th gen Core. We won’t be close to replacing everything by next October, but there is LTSC at a push and maybe extended support? Wonder if I can get 11 running on HP DC 7800s (mighty Core 2 E6600!) [emoji28]

[MrEprise]

I’m doing another suite this week, from 2010 era HPs to 10th gen Core. We won’t be close to replacing everything by next October, but there is LTSC at a push and maybe extended support? Wonder if I can get 11 running on HP DC 7800s (mighty Core 2 E6600!) [emoji28]

 

I've actually tried this - out of curiosity of course - that as long as the PC has at least 4GB RAM (with some Core 2 desktops being able to take more than that if you have more than 2 slots, the rare 2GB DDR2 modules or a DDR3-era board) and an SSD, then it's actually quite usable for a general office PC and you can also watch YouTube videos in 720p (or 1080p if you pair the system with a discrete GPU.)

 

I've even tried W11 on an i3-2120 and an i3-3240 and these seem just as fast as Windows 10 is on these systems again as long as you have the minimum 4GB RAM and an SSD.

 

The general rule of thumb is that if you can get W10 working on those systems with relative ease, then W11 will work also. I know Microsoft have given warnings that they could pull older drivers out of newer builds at any time, but if you install an older build and then find a way to upgrade from an ISO, the existing drivers generally carry over anyway.

[localzuk]

For those trying to run Win 11 on older kit, MS are definitely going to be removing legacy support as time goes on.

 

For example this is happening with the next release: https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/windows-11-will-soon-no-longer-boot-on-pcs-that-are-too-old-to-boot-it-anyway

[DrCheese]

Yes - I wouldn't try to run the normal builds on unsupported hardware. We trialed it on a few, but got really mixed results with stability that we didn't get under Windows 10 on the same hardware - It's not worth the headache of walking into hundreds of machines BSOD'ing oneday because MS have changed something.

 

I would *maybe* trial the Windows 11 LTSC when it's released this year on unsupported hardware, as in theory that's a fixed release with only security changes each month, rather than anything that could break between builds.

 

Failing that, My plan is to swap to the Windows 10 LTSC on those machines once the normal build goes EOL. I believe the last LTSC gives until 2027 & if you go back further, the 1809 LTSC will last until 2029.

None of this is ideal of course, but juggling budgets means we may not get to every machine.

 

 

I've also been buying some second hand 8th gen ones from ICT direct where I can't justify spending the cash for a full on replacement. Let me rip through a whole bunch of admin machines on the cheap.

Edited February 12, 2024 by DrCheese

[MrEprise]

For those trying to run Win 11 on older kit, MS are definitely going to be removing legacy support as time goes on.

 

For example this is happening with the next release: https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/windows-11-will-soon-no-longer-boot-on-pcs-that-are-too-old-to-boot-it-anyway

 

I'd be curious whether Microsoft actually puts in some level of detection at boot that stops the Kernel loading if it doesn't detect POPCNT or whether it'll just do the detection during Windows Setup. For example, Windows 8 required PAE, NX & SSE2 before it'd boot, or so Microsoft said as it turned out if you loaded the image using DISM, it bypassed the Setup checks for those and booted up regardless. Windows 10 for example also required extensions not present in old Core Solo and Core Duo CPUs but again, this was a check in Setup and applying the image to the computer using DISM showed that it'd still boot up okay afterwards.

 

However, I'm not suggesting anyone do this in a production environment so it's all irrelevant anyway.

[KK20]

a couple of gotchas on LTSC, if you use intune and roll out MS store apps then this wont work on LTSC. You can easily get the store back (its a simple as wsreset -i and waiting) and you can also easily install winget via a single command but neither will trigger the ability to install store apps via intune. You can still use winget to manually install or you can repackage the appx bundle and install via a win32 package. Edge will need to be installed manually on 2019 as it will come with IE out of the box. There are also TLS issues with the base LTSC that you will need to address or else you wont be able to download from a few repositories. Chocolatey works on LTSC, office 365 does, onedrive does etc.

 

Not ideal but for machines that wont run windows 11 it is a reasonable solution until you can upgrade. Our fleet will be 75% there, we have already moved to windows 11 but do have a chunk on LTSC. we are migrating to 1:1 devices so these wont be replaced.

Edited March 18, 2024 by KK20

[Jobos]

So I'm testing Win10 LTSC 2021 as most of our machines will not run win11 so needed something to tide us over until they can be replaced. This will will probably be a long time the way things are going but I'm stumped over how to overcome new Teams not installing on LTSC. Classic Teams works fine but support ends July 1st 2024 and the new Teams will not install so where do I go with this?

[LeMarchand]

I'm stumped over how to overcome new Teams not installing on LTSC. Classic Teams works fine but support ends July 1st 2024 and the new Teams will not install so where do I go with this?

 

Will Teams 365 run in a browser?

[Michael]

I've been running/supporting LTSC 1809 for years now!

 

Teams V2 is all going browser based, so will work in Chrome or Edge without any issues regardless of OS.

[Jobos]

Didn't think of that. Thanks.

[Koldov]

I was told yesterday you cannot use LTSC.

[Olliedawg]

I believe the new teams does not support LTSC. If you are going to run LTSC, I suppose you could just run the web version of teams?

[Primus]

I was told yesterday you cannot use LTSC.

 

Microsoft say you shouldn't use LTSC on general purpose machines.

[DrCheese]

Microsoft can say what they like, it doesn't stop you from using it.

[msi_school]

Microsoft have been threating for years to stop office from working on LTSC

[DrCheese]

Office 365 yes, the LTSC branch no (eg 2021)

 

If we rolled out LTSC on the machines that can't run Windows 11 current branch I'd stick them on the LTSC office as well.

[Primus]

Microsoft can say what they like, it doesn't stop you from using it.

 

We tend to take note of instructions on use from the manufacturer of products we purchase.

[DrCheese]

We tend to take note of instructions on use from the manufacturer of products we purchase.

 

ah, but do you?

 

Windows 10 22H2 isn't officially supported on a bunch of older processors that aren't on this list (That the initial windows 10 version WAS supported on)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-10-22h2-supported-intel-processors

 

but I bet we all run the latest versions of Windows 10 regardless of what MS say in terms of support.

 

Our 2nd & 4th gen i3 CPUS don't appear on the initial (1511) build support list, but we ran it all the same.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-10-1511-supported-intel-processors

 

Nor did the vendor (XMA) officially support Windows 10 on this hardware either. A bunch of other vendors (Dell/HP/Lenovo) never released official windows 10 driver packs either.

 

What I'm getting at it's that it's down to you/us if we want to take the risk of LTSC on unsupported hardware.

Edited June 20, 2024 by DrCheese

[Primus]

ah, but do you?

 

Windows 10 22H2 isn't officially supported on a bunch of older processors that aren't on this list (That the initial windows 10 version WAS supported on)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-10-22h2-supported-intel-processors

 

but I bet we all run the latest versions of Windows 10 regardless of what MS say in terms of support.

 

What I'm getting at it's that it's down to you/us if we want to take the risk of LTSC on unsupported hardware.

 

From your link:

"Earlier generations and models of the CPUs listed may have limited support for devices on this version of Windows 10."

 

It doesn't say it's not supported, it says limited support.

[DrCheese]

From your link:

"Earlier generations and models of the CPUs listed may have limited support for devices on this version of Windows 10."

 

It doesn't say it's not supported, it says limited support.

 

Right. But we'd have all had hardware that the vendor didn't support Windows 10 on. Dell, HP, Lenovo didn't all release Windows 10 driver packs for every model and essentially said we were on our own. We still ran Windows 10 on them fine, even tho the vendor considered them "unsupported"