Windows and Office Releases and Retirements

Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus customers will receive multiple new versions in 2017, and customers will have to deploy some of them to keep getting security patches. The accompanying illustration projects version releases and retirements in 2017 for the Office 365 ProPlus Deferred Channel and Windows 10 Current Branch for Business (CBB). These are the servicing channels that Microsoft recommends for most business PCs running Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Office 365 ProPlus. For comparison, the diagram also shows the corresponding Office and Windows versions subject to Microsoft’s traditional support policy, which offers five years of Mainstream support and five years of Extended support for each version.

The illustration assumes that Microsoft will ship new versions two to three times a year to Deferred Channel and CBB customers, and that new versions will arrive on “Patch Tuesdays” (the second Tuesday of each month). Microsoft supports only the two most recent versions in these channels, so for example, the release of Office 365 ProPlus 1609 to Deferred Channel customers, likely on Feb. 14, 2017, will trigger end of support for version 1602. For Windows 10, the release of the Creators Update (version 1703), probably in July 2017, will trigger end of support for version 1511. Windows 10 customers continue to receive security updates for a version for up to 60 days after support ends for the version, so the last batch of security updates for version 1511 will probably arrive in Sept. 2017.