Windows 10 1709 (Fall Creators) for Enterprise ENT and Education EDU is having an extended lifecycle until 13 October 2020. No word yet on Microsoft Office policy.
That’s to give those organizations some welcome stability at this time. The last thing customers need at the moment is a forced revamp of Windows.
Home, Pro, Pro Education releases of Windows 10 1709 ended their support life in April last year.
It’s a good move and hopefully Microsoft will do more along the same lines.
Microsoft Office?
No word yet on Microsoft Office but hopefully we’ll hear sensible news from that team. The focus now should be on stability and reliability, not the usual relentless drive to ‘improve’.
Office 365 should suspend feature updates. Let Office customers know there won’t be any changes for the moment, no matter how ‘good’ Microsoft thinks they are.
Office 2010 ends support in October this year. Those customers should get an extra year or six months of security patches. Will Microsoft do the right thing or will they prefer to push for more sales?
Windows 10 20H1 update?
We hope that Microsoft will call a halt to the deployment of the next Windows 10 major update. That’s the 20H1 or 19041 release.
At this time, people need a stable system will as few ‘surprises’ as possible. Microsoft might like to pretend otherwise but Windows updates can cause trouble for some customers. Computer trouble is bad at the best of times, now it could be catastrophic.
With a lockdown, people can’t take their Windows computer to a IT expert. A major crash means that even remote support options are unavailable.
That means no major updates to Windows. Just the minimum necessary changes like security patches.
But that’s a hard concept for ‘softies to understand. The Microsoft corporate mentality is that updates are always a good thing. Updating problems are dismissed as ‘one offs’ and exceptions.
We suggest NOT accepting any major update to Windows. Stay with the ‘devil you know’.
Our usual advice is to wait on updates until its stability has been confirmed. In the current situation, we feel greater caution is the wise course.
Google Chrome paused
Microsoft should copy Google’s policy change for the Chrome browser and Chomre OS
Chrome won’t have any major updates until further notice. Security and bug fixes continue but users will be able to rely on a stable product.
Office 2010 – how long before it ‘dies’?
Two ways to stop Office automatic updates
The realistic guide to fixing Office 365/Office 2019 update problems
