2025 was a tough year for many users of Microsoft products. It was the year that support for Windows 10 ended officially, albeit with the option to extend support by a year for consumers and by up to three years for businesses.
Windows 11, version 22H2 support ended just a few months ago for business customers and version 23H2 support ended for consumers as well. Additionally, Microsoft Office 2016 and 2019 reached end of support.
Looking forward, 2026 will be another interesting year. Consumers who run Windows 10 PCs with ESU will no longer get updates from Microsoft after the one-year extension has run its course.
But that is not the only change. Windows 11, version 24H2 reaches end of support as well. Business customers have to upgrade Windows 11, version 23H2 to ensure that their devices remain supported with updates.
Here is the list of products that reach end of support or life in 2026. Note that this may not be complete, as Microsoft does not provide an easily accessible list for all of its products.
Inspiration was taken from the list over at Deskmodder, but I have fine-tuned it somewhat.
Microsoft Windows
- Windows 10 2016 LTSB / IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016 reach end of ESU on October 13th, 2026
- Windows 11, version 23H2 Enterprise/Education/IoT Enterprise editions reach end of support on November 10th, 2026.
- Windows 11, version 24H2 Home/Pro editions reach end of support on October 13th, 2026.
- Windows 11 SE, reaches end of support in October 2026.
- Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 reaches end of ESU on October 13th, 2026.
- Windows Server 2022 reaches end of mainstream support on October 14th, 2026. ESU available.
Microsoft Office
- Microsoft Office 2021 reaches end of support on October 13th, 2026.
- Office LTSC 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 for Mac reach end of mainstream support on October 13th, 2026.
Other Microsoft products
- Microsoft .NET 8 (LTS) reaches end of support on November 10th, 2026.
- Microsoft .NET 9 reaches end of support on November 10th, 2026
- PowerShell 7.4 (LTS) reaches end of support on November 10th, 2026.
- SQL Server 2016 reaches end of extended support on July 14th, 2026.
Generally speaking, Microsoft is supporting Windows 11 Home and Pro editions for two years, while business and Enterprise editions get three years of support.
Now You: Do you use a product or service that is reaching end of support this year? What are your plans dealing with this? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
Not only am I using a product or service reaching end of support this coming year, I’ve been using one which has reached it years ago, Windows 7 that is, and Firefox 115 ESR bound to be history some time in 2026, the latter tied to the former in that it is the last Mozilla’s browser to support it.
When it comes to security upgrading is of course essential. Firefox’s innovations since the 115 branch don’t thrill ma and 115’s features are all I need. But once 115 no longer supported will mean security fixes no longer available as well, not to mention extensions which will required (some already do) a post-115 version of the browser.
When it comes to new features of whatever service or product I’d often replace “innovation” by “bloat” and “improvement” by “confusion” and/or redundancy.
Upgrading, yes for security, thinking twice otherwise. This said, seems some of us are still running Windows XP, and that is really Columbo’s 403 Peugeot, isn’t it? 🙂 In that perspective I’d dare compare Win7 to a Jaguar XP of the sixties …
*** HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026 ***
I honestly don’t care. I am fortunate in that I have a large desktop with 3 operating systems, each on a separate drive. My main OS is Linux Mint, which I’ve been using for years. I have a copy of Win 10, which never really goes on the web, and is kept for Adobe Reader (needed for tax purposes) and 3 purchased Windows only programs I use every so often, although much less so the past couple of years. I also have MX Linux on another SSD, which is another Debian based system that is really quite nice. AS these are all in the same computer I find that I have no problem moving any needed files from Linux to Windows if need be.
As for Firefox, esthetics don’t bother me, so it continues to be my main browser. I also have Waterfox, Pale Moon and ungoogled Chromium installed.
I find I do less with the computer as I age; mainly just browsing and using it for music files. And reading Mr. B’s posts, of course. 🙂
EOL for .net? I have several versions going way way back, they are needed for games.
Only the listed versions.