With all of our clients upgraded to Windows 10, we wanted to address some common questions about the Operating System and the new ways in which Microsoft is supporting the product. Gone are the days of the past where Microsoft would release a new version of an operating system every 5 years, opting instead to make incremental improvements to Windows 10 indefinitely.

What this has meant in practice is that Microsoft will be releasing two major upgrades for Windows 10 in both the Spring and the Fall of each year. However, each of these upgrades are only supported for a period of time until Microsoft will no longer release security patches for that version. Without receiving patches from Microsoft, this can leave your firm at risk of many types of security issues including viruses, malware, crypto-lockers and other threats on the web.

The duration of support for each Windows 10 upgrade depends on two factors:

1. Whether you have Professional or Enterprise licensing, and
2. Whether you have a Spring or a Fall version of Windows 10 installed

Customers with Windows 10 Professional will only receive 18 months of patches from Microsoft from the date of release for a particular version of Windows 10.

If you have purchased Enterprise licensing and have a Fall upgrade installed, Microsoft has committed to supporting that version for 30 months from release.

Windows 10 Enterprise customers still receive the standard 18 months of support if on a Spring release.

For these reasons, Innovative Computing Systems, Inc. has standardized on the Fall releases and highly recommends using Enterprise licensing at your firm.

Please contact an Innovative Account Executive at 1-800-541-0450 or sales@innovativecomp.com if you have any questions regarding the Windows 10 upgrade process, lifecycle or would like more information about how we can help you upgrade to a supported version of Windows 10. You can find references to the current supported Windows 10 versions and lifecycle dates for each licensing type at this link.