Still on Windows 11 24H2? You have one week to upgrade

How do you know if you’re still on 24H2? You can check by opening Windows Settings (use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut), clicking “System” in the left panel, scrolling all the way down to “About” in the right panel, scrolling down to the “Windows specifications” section, and spotting what it says for “Version.” If you’re on 24H2, it’ll say “24H2.” (Also make note of “Edition,” which will likely be “Windows 11 Home” or “Windows 11 Pro.”)

Microsoft explicitly states on this support page:

Windows 11, version 24H2 Home and Pro editions will reach end of updates on October 13, 2026. Devices running these editions will no longer receive fixes for known issues, time zone updates, technical support, or monthly security and preview updates containing protections from the latest security threats. Enterprise and Education editions remain supported until October 12, 2027.

In other words, the end of support will only affect PCs running Windows 11 Home or Pro editions. Windows 11 Enterprise and Education editions will get another year of support, ending on October 12th, 2027. This extra year is in line with Microsoft’s standard practice and isn’t specific to 24H2.

Windows 11 26H2 is already available, so you should upgrade to that if you can. To do so, open Windows Settings again and navigate to “Windows Update” in the left panel, then enable the “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” option in the right panel. Then, wait until the Windows Update page shows “Windows 11, version 26H2 is available.”

Even though the update has a few known issues for some users, it has some important optimizations that speed up Windows 11 performance on older hardware, so it’s worth taking the leap.

That’s one of the areas in which Microsoft is indeed improving Windows 11. We graded Microsoft’s delivery on its promises from earlier this year—see our Windows 11 26H2 report card for a deeper dive.