Microsoft Finally Gave Us What We Wanted … But With Windows 10 (Premium)

Ever wonder what the opposite of continuous innovation might look like? Well, it would look an awful lot like Windows 10 version 22H2, a "scoped release focused on quality improvements" that Microsoft now says is the final version of Windows 10 and will no longer receive any feature updates.

That sounds awfully enticing, doesn't it?

That Microsoft doesn’t get that is obvious: as I detailed last week, Windows 11 has been served a steady stream of feature updates since the release of version 22H2 last September/October, and Microsoft has even rehauled its updating schedule to ensure it can keep doing so indefinitely. Only its biggest business customers can prevent his crush of updating and rebooting, and then only by opening up the corporate wallet, leaving us little people to manage this process as if it was a second (albeit unpaid) job.

"We highly encourage you to transition to Windows 11 now as there won't be any additional Windows 10 feature updates," Microsoft's Jason Leznek wrote in the firm's Windows IT Blog in what can only be described as a terrific example of the disconnect between what Microsoft and its customers want. No, Microsoft, your decision to stop providing new features in Windows 10 doesn't make that platform less viable. If anything, it will cause many customers to simply remain on Windows 10, since having a stable platform that never really changes is exactly what most of them want.

Instead of a regular stream of unwanted feature updates, Windows 10 version 22H2 will instead receive only monthly security updates between now and the platform's October 14, 2025 retirement. That's a solid two and a half years of Microsoft not triggering unnecessary reboots, unwanted training, and potential reliability issues. In fact, when you consider that the initial release of Windows 10 version 22H2 was a non-event to begin with, those that have stuck with Windows 10 will be rewarded with four straight years of minimal interruption and angst if you date things back to the release of version 21H2. Which, logically, you can. (And even that was a minor update.)

And I don’t think this will be seen as a benefit to companies alone. Surely, many individuals will be happy to hear about this change as well. Indeed, many of those now "stuck" on Windows 10 because of Windows 11's arbitrary hardware requirements can let Microsoft use the rest of us as guinea pigs for the next few years and ride out the PC they already own. Those jealous of the new Windows 11 UI can even use third-party utilities like Start11 and/or WindowBlinds to solve part of the problem.

I would be tempted to do this myself, but I need to stay up-to-date with Windows 11 for the Windows 11 Field Guide, the Windows Weekly and Hands-On Windows podcasts, and my regular work here on Thurrott.com. Which is OK, I mostly like Windows 11. But I'd love a version of Windows 11 that wasn't updated every single month. And while a two-and-a-half-year pause is a bit much...

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