According to a recently updated support document on Microsoft’s website, Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro will be retired on October 14th, 2025. This might come as something of a surprise after the company claimed Windows 10 would be “the last version of Windows” back in 2015, but we’re now more confident than ever that Windows 11 will make its debut this year, likely during the June 24th event where we’ll see “the next generation of Windows.”
According to Thurrott, this is the first time that Microsoft has ever publicly said anything about ending support for Windows 10. It’s unclear when the support page was updated, but the company maintains an evolving list of products reaching the end of their lifecycles, and the most recent update this March did not include Windows 10. In fact, reports only began popping up three days ago.
The speculation surrounding a new version of Windows exploded at Build 2021 when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company would soon be ready to share “one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade.” The implication certainly appeared to be that a standalone follow-up to Windows 10 would be making its debut in the weeks to come, and a short time later, Microsoft sent out invitations to a virtual event that will take place on June 24th.
We won’t know exactly what Microsoft has in store until the event begins next week, but there have been multiple hints pointing to the most obvious possible conclusion. First of all, the June 24th event begins at 11:00 a.m. ET, which could be a sly nod to the name of the upcoming version of Microsoft’s operating system. Then we saw the promotional image for the event (atop this post), which shined a light that looks like the number 11. Finally, there was a slo-fi remix video of Windows startup sounds that the company shared last week, and it was exactly 11 minutes long.
Either someone at Microsoft is having a blast trolling us, or Windows 11 is the next generation of the OS. That said, amid all of the intentional teases, the company also accidentally shared a document that mentioned “Windows Sun Valley” just last week. Last October, Windows Central reported that Sun Valley would bring “a significant design refresh to the Windows UI.” The Start menu, Action Center, and File Explorer were all expected to get modern designs and improved functionality.
While it’s possible that Microsoft had planned on moving on from Windows 10 all along, there’s also a chance that the company’s plans changed as work on Sun Valley commenced. The very same Windows Central report also suggested that Sun Valley would launch in fall 2021, and if that’s still the case, then we might get a final release date during the event at the end of the month.
