So if you’re still on Windows 8, you’ll have to upgrade twice to get the latest and greatest from Microsoft. The tricky part here is that Windows 8.1 is required to take advantage of Microsoft’s free upgrade to Windows 10. According to Microsoft, over 200 million devices are running Windows 10, though that includes not just PCs, but smartphones, consoles, and other devices as well. Windows 10, meanwhile, has about 10 percent of the desktop market. Together, they owned 13.06 percent of the market at the end of December. Extended Support consists solely of security updates.įor an overview of other important upcoming dates for Microsoft’s desktop operating systems, check the Windows Lifecycle page, which currently lists the following days:Īccording to Net Applications, Windows 8 finished 2015 with 2.76 percent market share, while Windows 8.1 held 10.30 percent. Mainstream Support includes free incident support, warranty claims, and fixes for non-security as well as security bugs, plus design changes and feature requests. While support for Windows 8 has ended, Windows 8.1 will have Mainstream Support until Januand Extended Support until January 10, 2023. Avoiding upgrading should be an absolute last resort. For example, Office 365 takes advantage of modern web standards and runs best with the latest browser.Īlthough Microsoft offers instructions for disabling the upgrade notification, we don’t recommend it.
Although Microsoft wants its users to move to Windows 10 and the new Edge browser, it can’t just push everyone to the latest and greatest overnight. In most cases, that’s IE11, which ships with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.
Today’s move means Microsoft only supports the latest version of IE for any version of Windows. IE11, by comparison, held 25.57 percent of the pie. It doesn’t appear Microsoft has plans to push similar notifications for Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2 users, but this isn’t too surprising: They can’t upgrade to IE11 or Edge without upgrading their operating system.Īt the end of 2015, the combined market share for IE8 (8.95 percent), IE9 (6.67 percent), and IE10 (4.18 percent) was 19.80 percent, according to Net Applications.
In short, the final patch will nag Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users to upgrade to Internet Explorer: A new tab will automatically open the download IE page.
While these older IE versions will no longer receive security updates or technical support, Microsoft is going further with KB3123303. Microsoft’s support life-cycle policy treats Windows 8.1 like a service pack, even though it is branded an operating system upgrade that delivers additional features, not just improvements. Since then, Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge have, of course, been released, so they’re supported as well.įor Windows 8, users can simply upgrade to Windows 8.1. At the time, the company said it would only support the following browser-operating system combinations: IE9 on Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 IE10 on Windows Server 2012 and IE11 on Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2. Microsoft announced the old IE version cutoff date back in August 2014.