NOTE: This article was released on January 11th 2023, and re-released on Thursday, February 27th 2024 with no additional changes.
NEW ROCHELLE, NY (THE WORLD TELEGRAM NEWS) – Support for Windows 8.1 ended today, ending nearly ten years of security updates and tech assistance from Microsoft.
Notifications began appearing on computers running 8.1 back in August, notifying users of what could happen once their computers go out of support. Mainstream support ended in January 2018.
Windows 8.1 released in 2013 as an incremental minor update to Windows 8 following the severe backlash Microsoft got for updating certain elements of the Windows UI — including it’s new design system, colloquially known as “Metro”. Under the new design system, elements of the Windows UI were made to be more “touch-friendly”, which some users say sacrificed its usability on desktops. This included the scrapping of the “start menu”, a staple on Windows desktops since Windows 95, in favour of the “Start Screen”.
Nearly 10 years later, now Microsoft is urging its users to upgrade to it’s latest release, Windows 11. Saying quote:
“If you have devices running Windows 8.1, we recommend upgrading them to a more current, in-service, and supported Windows release. If devices do not meet the technical requirements to run a more current release of Windows, we recommend that you replace the device with one that supports Windows 11.”
What does this mean for consumers running Windows 8.1?
- Security Updates for Windows 8.1 will no longer be provided by Microsoft. With that said however, Microsoft has been known to occasionally provide updates to out-of-support software, like in 2019 when Microsoft created an update to protect Windows XP for the Wannacry Ransomware Attack.
This however does NOT mean that users cannot continue using Windows 8.1. If users so choose, they may continue to use Windows 10 without issue.
Next on the Microsoft chopping block are Windows 10 Home and Professional, which both have a slated end-of-support date of October 14th 2025.