Microsoft End of Support Dates

The next Microsoft end of support dates

The next twelve months bring four sets of Microsoft deadlines that matter to businesses:

• November 10, 2026: Windows 11 Enterprise and Education, version 23H2, reaches end of servicing ². Devices need a newer Windows 11 version to keep getting updates.
• January 12, 2027: Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 reach end of support, along with Hyper-V Server 2016, IIS 10 on Windows Server 2016 and .NET Framework 4.6.2 ¹. Our Windows Server 2016 end of life guide covers the options.
• July 12, 2027: the third and last year of paid Extended Security Updates for SQL Server 2014 ends ¹.
• October 12, 2027: SQL Server 2017 reaches end of support, and Windows 11 Enterprise and Education, version 24H2, reaches end of servicing ¹. The second year of Windows 10 business ESUs ends the same day ⁶.

Further out, Windows Server 2019 reaches end of support on January 9, 2029, covered in our Windows Server 2019 end of life guide. The table above lists every date in order, with days left counted from today.

What end of support means for a business

End of support means Microsoft stops fixing a product, not that it stops working. Microsoft's wording: "Upon retirement or end of support, there will be no new security updates, non-security updates, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates" ².

Most Microsoft business software goes through two phases first. During mainstream support it gets security fixes, other fixes and new features. During extended support, "Extended Support includes security updates at no cost, and paid non-security updates and support" ². Products on Microsoft's Fixed Lifecycle Policy, such as Windows Server and SQL Server, follow that pattern. Products on its Modern Lifecycle Policy, such as Windows 11 and Office 2021, have a single retirement or end-of-servicing date instead, which is why the table's "What ends" column differs by product.

The practical risk is unpatched security flaws on systems that hold business data. Marsh lists replacing or protecting end-of-life systems among its twelve key cyber controls and notes that insurers now require certain controls as a minimum ¹¹, so an unsupported server or Office version can come up at insurance renewal; our cyber insurance requirements guide covers the rest of that list.

Microsoft products that already reached end of support

Several products many offices still run are already past end of support. In date order:

• October 10, 2023: Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 ⁶. The paid Extended Security Updates that followed ended with the October 13, 2026 update, which Microsoft calls "the final update provided through ESUs" ⁵.
• July 9, 2024: SQL Server 2014 ¹³, with paid updates running until July 12, 2027 ¹.
• October 14, 2025: Windows 10, Office 2016, Office 2019, Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019 ³. If you still run Exchange on premises, our email migration guide covers the move.
• July 14, 2026: SQL Server 2016, SharePoint Server 2016 and SharePoint Server 2019 ². Our SQL Server 2016 end of life guide covers the options.
• October 13, 2026: Office 2021, Office LTSC 2021 and Windows 11 Home and Pro, version 24H2 ².

A quick way to find these in your own office is a software inventory from your IT provider or a cybersecurity risk assessment, which lists unsupported systems as findings.

Extended Security Updates: what Microsoft sells and for how long

Extended Security Updates (ESUs) are paid security fixes for some products after end of support. Microsoft calls the program "a last resort paid option" and "a temporary bridge to stay secure while one migrates to a newer, supported platform" ⁶. ESUs do not include new features, customer-requested non-security fixes or design changes ⁶.

What is on offer as of October 2026:

By our arithmetic from Microsoft's doubling rule, Windows 10 business ESUs cost $122 a device in year two and $244 in year three, and joining late means paying for the earlier years too. Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 also keep getting security updates until October 10, 2028 ¹⁰, though the operating system under them does not unless you buy ESUs.

How to plan around these dates

Plan each upgrade a full budget cycle before its date. Server and database upgrades depend on app vendors, maintenance windows and money, and most small businesses set IT budgets once a year.

1. Match your inventory to this table. List each server, its Windows Server and SQL Server versions, and the Office version on each PC.
2. Sort by date. Anything already past end of support goes first, then anything due within the next year.
3. Choose a path for each item: upgrade, replace, move to the cloud, or buy ESUs as a short bridge.
4. Price it as a project. Upgrades are usually quoted separately from a monthly agreement. Our IT project management guide explains how those quotes work, and our managed IT price index lists published hourly rates.
5. Put the dates in your calendar. The calendar file below adds every future date, with two reminders ahead of each one.

If you have no one in house to own the list, a managed IT provider tracks this as part of IT infrastructure services, and cloud migration removes some servers from the list entirely.

How we compiled this table

Every date in the table comes from Microsoft's own lifecycle pages, linked in the Source column, and was checked on October 18, 2026. We did not use third-party summaries for any date.

Two details matter when you compare our dates with Microsoft's. First, Microsoft's lifecycle tables print end times in Coordinated Universal Time: Windows Server 2016 shows an end of "1/13/2027 6:59:59 AM" ⁴, which is the last minute of January 12 in Pacific time, and Microsoft's own end-of-support lists give the date as January 12, 2027 ¹. We use that calendar date throughout. Second, where Microsoft has not published an exact day, such as the end of SQL Server 2016 ESUs, we give the period Microsoft states instead of guessing.

We left out products few businesses run and versions whose dates are many years away, and we list only the Windows 11 versions most businesses run. The CSV and JSON files carry the same rows. If you find a date that has changed, email [email protected] and we will correct it.