Microsoft Extends Windows 10 Enterprise and Education Support, Announces Office 2019 Updates

Microsoft is expanding support for the recent and latest versions of Windows 10 today. The company announced in a blog post that it will be extending support for some Windows 10 versions by 6 months for the Enterprise and Education editions.

The extended support period will be available for Windows 10 Education and Enterprise users running version 1511, 1607, 1703, or 1709. With the additional servicing, the latest Windows 10 version (1709) will be supported until October 8 of next year — and Microsoft is expected to release at least 3 updates before the official support ends.

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Release Release date End of Support End of Additional Servicing for Enterprise, Education
Windows 10 1511 Nov 10, 2015 Oct 10, 2017 April 10, 2018
Windows 10 1607 August 2, 2016 April 10, 2018 Oct 9, 2018
Windows 10 1703 April 5, 2017 Oct 9, 2018 April 9, 2019
Windows 10 1709 Oct 17, 2017 April 9, 2019 Oct 8, 2019

Along with updated servicing for Windows 10, Microsoft announced the release date for Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2018. The company will be releasing the next Long-Term Servicing Channel release for Windows 10 this Fall, and include support for some of the latest generations of processors. “In keeping with the previous Long-Term Servicing Channel releases, this release will have the same features as the Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel release made available at the same time – with the usual exceptions (including apps that are often updated with additional functionality, including the in-box apps, Microsoft Edge, and Cortana),” Microsoft said in a blog post.

In addition to the Windows 10 updates, Microsoft’s providing some updates to Office today. For the Office 2019 release, Microsoft will also be dropping support for the MSI installer in favour of the Click-to-Run installer, with previews set to start shipping in the second quarter of 2018. With Office 2019, Microsoft is cutting the period of extended support from 5 years to 2 years as well, cutting the total support time period from 10 years to 7. But the big surprise? Office 2019 will only work in Windows 10.

Elsewhere, Microsoft is updating the system requirements for its Office ProPlus service. As part of the updated system requirements for ProPlus, Microsoft will no longer support any Windows 10 LTSC release, Windows Server 2016 or older, and Windows 8.1 or older after January 14, 2020.

The latest updates to Windows 10’s servicing is part of Microsoft’s continued Windows as a Service push. Microsoft cited “significant progress” for existing customers after upgrading to Windows as a Service with Windows 10, and the additional support of 6 months should lure in more organizations still on the verge of transitioning to Windows 10. And from the looks of things, Office 2019 isn’t too far away, though details on the new features and enhancements remain a mystery.

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Conversation 16 comments

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    01 February, 2018 - 1:53 pm

    <p>I wonder if that means they are starting to rewrite portions of Office in UWP?</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      01 February, 2018 - 3:57 pm

      <p><a href="#242169"><em>In reply to lvthunder:</em></a></p><p>Currently Office 365 has more features and is more current than Office 2016. If that continues to hold for Office 365 and Office 2019, and Office 365 continues to run under Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 (perhaps a big assumption, but I suspect MSFT would prefer not to sacrifice those revenue streams), then Office 365 couldn't have necessary or even moderately used UWP components. It'd be a bigger PITA for MSFT somehow to freeze Office 365 at Office 2016 features and functionality for Windows 7/8.1 and provide only security patches than it would be to maintain a single Office code base for all Windows versions. I figure MSFT has to wait for Windows 8.1 to reach EOS in 2023 for Office to start bringing in UWP in a big way.</p>

      • GarethB

        Premium Member
        01 February, 2018 - 8:05 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#242238"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>But the Office 365 product is essentially Office 2016 with updates. At some stage O365 will switch from a base of Office 2016 to Office 2019…. well for Windows 10 users anyway. I'd assume the Office 2016-based 365 installation will continue for some time (like 2013 did previously) which should still work for Win7 (and anyone still left on 8.1). </p><p><br></p><p>It shall be interesting how long they continue with offering 2016 (through O365 or retail)… it may depend a bit on how the gradual replacement of previous versions of Windows progresses</p>

  • MikeGalos

    01 February, 2018 - 2:06 pm

    <p>Seems reasonable since many IT managers only update once per year and have an evaluation cycle that could put them in the "By the time we roll it out it's not supported" group with the 18 month support cycle.</p>

  • pesos

    Premium Member
    02 February, 2018 - 2:01 am

    <p>Pathetic. Win10 CB/CBB are completely unusable in the enterprise. The cadence of upgrades (not updates, these are full blown OS upgrades multiple times a year) is unmanageable and leads to tons of machines getting hosed because users don't know what's happening and shut down/run off with their laptops mid-upgrade. Removing proplus support from LTSC is a huge mistake. Office 2019 non-o365-proplus better be fully featured throughout its lifetime.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      02 February, 2018 - 2:47 am

      <blockquote><a href="#242313"><em>In reply to pesos:</em></a></blockquote><p>But, if you aren't in a position to regularly update Windows 10 to the current release, you probably also aren't in a position to regularly update Office with new features either.</p>

      • pesos

        Premium Member
        02 February, 2018 - 12:59 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#242315"><em>In reply to wright_is:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>There's no comparison whatsoever, and your statement makes it clear you aren't supporting these products in deployments of significant size. It's not a question of wanting or not wanting the current release, as either product can be deferred for a period of time to guard against MS screwups (although there are other benefits to LTSC such as not dealing with thousands of pointless store apps). The point is getting from A to B. With Windows, it's a full blown OS upgrade that has a ton of potential to hose the machine, especially with mobile machines and non-savvy users (which is to say, most). For Office proplus, the updating mechanism is smooth, silent, and fast.</p><p><br></p><p>There are dozens of reasons why a stable OS platform paired with o365 proplus is desirable.</p>

      • pesos

        Premium Member
        02 February, 2018 - 1:02 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#242315"><em>In reply to wright_is:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>And to be clear, I have no problem whatsoever with MS removing support for Win 7/8/8.1 from o365 proplus. I think it is sensible to minimize the number of supported platforms and given how easy it is to make the transition from 7/8 to 10 I see no problem with it, especially this far along. But ltsc IS win10, and it's the only truly enterprise-ready option available. Here's hoping the twice-yearly OS upgrade process being foisted on the enterprise gets streamlined considerably before 2020…</p>

    • colin79666

      Premium Member
      02 February, 2018 - 3:53 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#242313"><em>In reply to pesos:</em></a></blockquote><p>FWIW I 100% agree with what you have said. It isn't so much business wanting to stick to the past but it simply isn't possible to deploy a full blown OS update at least yearly. Microsoft might have a nice big Gigabit network with everyone docking their laptops daily to get updates but in the rest of the world we have mobile workers on 3G connections, schools on the end of wet bits of string and production environments where machines simply cannot go down for hours to install a huge update that might completely hose the system. Don't even get me started on the fact that all the junk comes back that you spend time removing from the original build.</p><p><br></p><p>A bi annual "feature" update with 5 years support (can just be security updates for years 4 &amp; 5) would enable businesses to keep up as it would fit in with the hardware refresh cycles.</p>

  • Hassan Timité

    02 February, 2018 - 10:40 am

    <p>Cool, then Office 2016 will be the last version of Office i will ever pay.</p><p>Time to start my migration to another platform &gt;:-)</p>

  • jamJAR

    02 February, 2018 - 5:25 pm

    <p>With Windows 10 EDU account bleed issues, it's still not ready for schools to use. And I've been informed that version 1709 still has these issues. The most obvious one is when a users turns on High Contrast on their account and it's then on for <em>every </em>account that logs onto that computer.</p><p><br></p><p>I'd rather they released a Windows upgrade once a year and actually fix issues like this… instead of focusing on app features that should be independent of Windows.</p><p><br></p><p>In contrast, the only time I see our Chromebooks at work is when they have a hardware fault, and the Chrome OS updates <em>all the time.</em></p>

    • WinLou

      03 February, 2018 - 9:26 am

      <blockquote><a href="#242558"><em>In reply to jamJAR:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>What are the "Windows 10 EDU account bleed issues" you speak of?</p>

  • tedroche

    08 February, 2018 - 12:13 pm

    <p>Does Click-To-Run preclude software that's using Win32 COM to automate Office apps to generate Word docs or Excel spreadsheets? This will be a showstopper for small- and large businesses using many 3rd party apps.</p>

  • vanskeys

    06 March, 2018 - 2:54 am

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  • alfredjohnson

    28 March, 2019 - 9:30 pm

    <p>Microsoft 10 has been the most popular among the Microsoft operating system version that they released ever. And the new initiative will lead it to a new milestone, I believe. Basically, the students will be more benefited. Microsoft 10 is very popular among students. As I work as a mentor on an online platform I know what they like. <a href="https://essayontime.com.au/blog/au-edubirdie-com&quot; target="_blank">click for more info</a> about me. By the way, I think the new update will boost up Microsoft users.</p>

  • Sharon

    04 March, 2023 - 6:51 am

    Nice Post! Thanks for sharing.

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