Windows 11 24H2 Home and Pro stopped getting updates on October 13, 2026. Version 26H2 puts them back on monthly updates until October 2028.

Monthly servicing for Windows 11 version 24H2 on Home, Pro, Pro Education and Pro for Workstations. Microsoft's term is "end of updates (also known as end of servicing)". In the Windows message center on October 13, 2026, Microsoft wrote that these editions "have reached end of updates" and that "the October 2026 monthly security update is the last update available for these editions." That update is KB5127648, which brought version 24H2 to build 26100.9711. Microsoft had already said the September 2026 non-security preview update was the final preview update for version 24H2.

The devices keep booting and the applications keep opening, so day to day work carries on. What changed is the risk position. In Microsoft's words, devices on these editions "will no longer receive monthly security and non-security preview updates containing protections from the latest security threats." When Microsoft fixes a vulnerability after October 13, the fix ships to supported versions, and a 24H2 Home or Pro device does without it. For a bank, a credit union or a mortgage company, an operating system past its servicing date is the kind of item patch management review asks about, and institutions should be ready to show remediation, a documented risk acceptance, or compensating controls for any device still on it.

Microsoft's recommendation, in the same message, is to update these devices "to Windows 11, version 26H2 or Windows 11, version 25H2 to continue receiving monthly security and quality updates." Its 90, 60 and 30-day reminders named version 25H2 alone. Version 26H2 became generally available on September 29, 2026, and it is now the first option Microsoft lists. The same message confirms that "Windows 11, version 24H2 Enterprise and Education remain supported until October 12, 2027."

October 13, 2026 was a crowded day for Microsoft lifecycle dates. Windows 10 Extended Security Updates Year 1 coverage ended the same day, and our Windows 10 ESU Year 2 page covers that decision. The October 2026 deadline page collects the rest.

Move it to a version, or an edition, that is still serviced. The table compares four routes with the outcome every undecided device is already in. Read the first and third rows together: version 26H2 changed which one reaches further.

Before September 29, the cheapest feature update and the Enterprise step-up tied. Updating a Pro device to 25H2 and licensing the same device up to Enterprise on 24H2 both reached October 12, 2027. Version 26H2 broke the tie. On Microsoft's published dates, a Pro device moved to 26H2 is serviced until October 10, 2028, which is 364 days longer than the same device stepped up to Enterprise and left on 24H2, and it needs no additional Windows licensing.

Enterprise licensing earns its place for other reasons: an application or a peripheral that has to stay on 24H2 until it is validated on a newer version, a device you need to hold on a known build through an audit or a core conversion, or the Enterprise-only capabilities themselves. If you already hold the licenses, activating them adds no further licensing cost, and the fourth row shows where the two routes stack.

Two groups of devices need individual attention. The first is any device that cannot take 26H2 yet, because of an application, a driver or a safeguard hold: Microsoft says some devices "might temporarily not be offered the update to version 26H2" when it detects an incompatibility, and holds them until the issue is resolved. The second is shared branch workstations, teller stations, kiosks and machines that sit offline for weeks, where a per-user subscription and a feature-update window both need a plan device by device.

For General Availability Channel releases, Microsoft sets the end-of-updates date by edition. On the page where Microsoft lists supported versions of Windows client, the table has two end-of-updates columns. One covers Home, Pro, Pro Education and Pro for Workstations. The other covers Enterprise, Education, IoT Enterprise and Enterprise multi-session. Each release appears once with a date in each column. Microsoft's release information states the rule behind them: feature updates "come with 24 months of support for Home, Pro, Pro for Workstations, and Pro Education editions; 36 months of support for Enterprise and Education editions."

The split runs through every version, including the ones you are moving to. A Pro device on 26H2 is on the October 10, 2028 date; an Enterprise device on 26H2 runs about a year longer.

Two caveats before you use this table as a checklist. It covers the General Availability Channel, which is what most business PCs run. A device on the Long-Term Servicing Channel follows its own dates. Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC 2024 is also OS build 26100, the same build number as 24H2, and Microsoft services it until October 9, 2029. Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024, the only LTSC 2024 edition with extended support, runs until October 10, 2034. So build 26100 by itself carries four different end dates: 24H2 on Home or Pro, 24H2 on Enterprise, Enterprise LTSC 2024, and IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024. If you run LTSC anywhere, on kiosks or dedicated single-purpose hardware for example, those machines are on a separate track and the October dates on this page leave them untouched.

The second caveat sits on the last row: Microsoft states that IoT Enterprise edition is not supported on Windows 11, version 26H1, so that March 13, 2029 date stops short of IoT Enterprise. Version 26H1 is also on its own path in the other direction. Microsoft says devices running it "won't be able to update to version 26H2", because 26H1 "is based on a different Windows core" than 24H2, 25H2 and 26H2.

The 23H2 row is the next date to watch. Its Enterprise and Education editions reach end of updates on November 10, 2026, and Microsoft's 30-day reminder for that date is already published.

Through an enablement package. In Microsoft's IT pro guide, published the day the version became generally available, "Windows 11, version 26H2 is delivered as an enablement package for eligible devices running Windows 11, versions 25H2 or 24H2." The three versions share a servicing branch and a code base. New features have been arriving on 24H2 devices through the monthly cumulative updates, and the enablement package switches on the ones that were waiting.

For the people using the PCs, that means a short interruption. Microsoft's announcement says the update "is delivered with the same technology used for monthly security updates, requiring only a small download and a quick restart." For the IT team it means the work looks like a monthly update cycle: "Because versions 26H2, 25H2, and 24H2 share a common servicing branch, many organizations might find that validating version 26H2 requires less effort than a traditional feature update." And for the servicing calendar, Microsoft states that installing 26H2 "resets the support lifecycle for supported editions": 24 months for Home and Pro, 36 months for Enterprise and Education.

Through a Microsoft feature called subscription activation. Microsoft calls it a "step-up" from Windows Pro edition to Enterprise edition, and says it "can be used with a subscription to Windows Enterprise E3 or E5 licenses". It works without a rebuild. Microsoft describes it as eliminating "the need to manually deploy Enterprise or Education edition images on each target device", and says Windows Enterprise "can be deployed in an organization without keys and reboots".

The sequence is short, and it runs on identity: a license, a user and a sign-in.

The answer comes from device data. Whether a given machine fell out of servicing on October 13 depends on the version, edition and servicing channel it is actually running, and Microsoft itself documents that the edition running is often different from the edition an organization is entitled to.

Microsoft "recommends upgrading your Windows Pro devices to Enterprise edition when you have acquired a user subscription license for Windows", and then lists why that does not always happen. The reasons include devices "not properly provisioned that don't automatically upgrade to Windows Enterprise edition", devices "acquired for a business process that was not under control of a central IT department", and devices brought in temporarily by vendors for a project and never stepped up.

Every one of those descriptions fits an ordinary financial institution. The branch machine bought on a departmental card. The laptop a core processor's implementation team left behind. The three workstations that came from a merger and were joined to the domain by somebody who has since left. They are what a real fleet looks like after a few years, and they are the machines most likely to be on 24H2 Pro today.

The inventory produces three lists. The devices on 24H2 Home or Pro, which have been out of servicing since October 13. The devices entitled to Windows Enterprise that are running Pro. And the devices held back from 26H2, with the reason for each. A build number on its own leaves the question open, because build 26100 belongs to 24H2 and to Enterprise LTSC 2024 alike, and those are years apart. Devices that are offline, unmanaged or outside central management get chased separately, and they usually carry the surprise.