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Cyber Essentials – Windows 10 expiry information

As part of the Microsoft Operating System support lifecycle, there comes a time when certain versions of Windows 10 become end of life. When a product becomes end of life, the manufacturer, Microsoft in this case, will no longer provide regular security updates, known as patches.

Because older versions of Windows will not receive patches, they will be non-compliant against receiving regular security updates as well as being out of support. Therefore, making a failure of the assessment.

When it comes to Microsoft Windows, there are currently four versions which are available, these are Home, Professional, Enterprise and Education. Microsoft has recently mentioned that from this month (June 2023), all Windows 10 machines which are running the version of Home and Professional will only receive security updates if they are running the latest version of the Operating System, at the time of writing this is 22H2.

The versions of Enterprise and Education will only receive the latest security updates from 2024.

If you are running any type of older versions of Windows 10, you will need to ensure that you have your devices updated before you start applying or renewing your Cyber Essentials certification.

Another area to think about is that from the 14th October 2025, Windows 10 support will end and only Windows 11 will be supported and receive regular security updates.

Windows 10 21H2

Windows 10 21H2 is becoming unsupported from the 13th June 2023 and you should ensure that you are up to date and are running at least version 22H2 or above.

Updating windows

It is recommended that you ensure that all your Operating Systems are configured to automatically update and that you check to ensure that updates are being applied correctly. If you are still running Windows 10, now is the time to start thinking about making the move to Windows 11 where possible.