Windows 11 24H2 runs out of updates on 13 October

If your home PC is running Windows 11 version 24H2, its updates stop next month. Microsoft's release-health servicing table lists 13 October 2026 as the end of updates for 24H2 on Home, Pro, Pro Education and Pro for Workstations, and the separate Windows 11 Home and Pro lifecycle listing retires the same version on 14 October 2026. Enterprise, Education and IoT Enterprise machines get another year before they face the same cliff.

What Microsoft's own tables actually say

The release-health page is the servicing table Microsoft keeps for administrators. Version 24H2, build 26100, arrived on 1 October 2024, and its final month of updates for home users is October 2026, while the commercial editions hold out until 12 October 2027. The lifecycle listing for Windows 11 Home and Pro gives the version an end date of 14 October 2026. Both dates describe one event: the last Patch Tuesday for 24H2 lands on 13 October, and support lapses as that update cycle closes.

Who is on the clock and who is not

Home, Pro, Pro Education and Pro for Workstations are the editions with a date next month. Enterprise, Education, IoT Enterprise and Enterprise multi-session are covered until October 2027, and Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC 2024 is supported until 2029. The newest release is no escape route either: version 26H1, out since February, is scoped to devices that come to market in early 2026 and Microsoft's own note says it is not offered as an in-place update from 24H2 or 25H2.

The upgrade you need is already on your PC

Version 25H2 is the version to move to, and it is not new. It shipped on 30 September 2025 and is supported for Home and Pro until October 2027, with commercial editions covered into October 2028. Microsoft has been offering it through Windows Update for a year, which means the fix for almost everyone on 24H2 is a restart and a wait, not a clean install and not a new laptop. The last 24H2 update, build 26100.9457, went out as an out-of-band release on 14 September, and it is unlikely to be the final one before October's Patch Tuesday.

Our opinion

Support dates are the least glamorous thing Microsoft publishes and the one that decides whether your machine is a liability. Windows 11 currently has three supported releases alive at once — 25H2 for everyone, 26H1 for hardware that showed up this year, and 24H2 limping to the line — and one of them cannot even be installed on a machine that already runs Windows 11. That is a version sprawl ordinary people were never asked to understand, and the practical consequence is a staleness cliff in October for anyone who has been clicking 'remind me later' on the same free upgrade since last autumn. There is no villain here, and no drama either: 24H2 keeps working, it simply stops being fixed, and it will stop being fixed quietly while everyone looks at the next shiny feature update. So do the boring thing. Check your version now, take the 25H2 upgrade while it is optional, and put the 13 October deadline in your own calendar, because nobody else will do it for you.

Photo by Adam Sondel on Pexels.