End of Support

October 2026 for Microsoft admins: what changed on the 1st, and what ends on Patch Tuesday

Patch Tuesday was on 13 October, and this one was more than a batch of fixes. Several products got their last update on the same day, three things had already changed on 1 October, and a Secure Boot certificate expires six days later. Here is the month as a list, with what to check for each.

Windows 11 24H2 gets its last update on 13 October, and Windows 10 gets another year

Two Windows dates have been mixed together in a lot of headlines this autumn, so here they are, separated.

• Windows 11, version 24H2, Home and Pro: the last update comes on Tuesday 13 October 2026 [1].
• Windows 10: nothing ends this month. The extended security updates for home users, which were supposed to stop now, run until 12 October 2027 [2].

Windows 11 24H2: update to a newer version

Each yearly version of Windows 11 is only maintained for a limited time. For Home and Pro that is two years, and 24H2 came out on 1 October 2024 [1]. After 13 October, a PC that is still on 24H2 gets no more security fixes.

Office 2021 support ends on 13 October: what are your options?

On Tuesday 13 October 2026, Office 2021 gets its last update. That goes for the version you bought in a shop and for Office LTSC 2021, the version organisations buy through volume licensing [1] [2]. Microsoft leaves no opening: “there will be no extension and no extended security updates” [1].

What end of support means

Word and Excel will start on 14 October exactly as they did the day before. “All of your Office 2021 apps may continue to function. However, you could expose yourself to serious and potentially harmful security risks.” [1]