Windows Client OS Roadmap

Windows generally refers to Microsoft’s family of OSs. The Windows client OS runs on devices including desktops, laptops, tablets, and all-in-one devices to allow a user to access productivity and other applications. 

Product: Windows client OS Overview

Licensing: Windows Client OS Edition Packaging 

The Windows client OS follows Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle. This Modern Lifecycle only provides support for current versions of software or online services. For the Windows client OS, Microsoft delivers one major Feature Update per year via a General Availability Channel (GAC). Supported Windows client OS versions get Quality (security) Updates are made generally available once per month on Patch Tuesday. 

As shown in Fig. 1, under the current Modern Lifecycle, Windows client OS Enterprise and Education versions qualify for 36 months (about three years). 

Despite the promised cadence of annual Feature Updates, Microsoft makes new features available and changes existing features via the GAC whenever it suits Microsoft’s purpose. Therefore, organizations need to use the Windows Insider program and review canary channel and other preview builds to reduce the amount of testing required to understand which feature changes included with Quality Updates may break the organization’s line-of-business applications, require additional training, or increase help-desk support volume.