Windows 10

This article is about the operating system series developed since 2014. For the original operating system release called "Windows 10", see Windows 10 (original release).
Windows 10
Version of Microsoft Windows
Logo
Screenshot
Initial releaseWindows 10
(29 July 2015)
Latest releaseWindows 10 2022 Update
(18 October 2022)
Supported platformsx86, AMD64, ARM64[a]
Preceded byWindows 8.1
Succeeded byWindows 11

Windows 10 is a series of Microsoft Windows operating systems, first introduced in July 2015 after being announced in September 2014. It is the tenth overall major release in the Windows NT operating system line. It succeeded Windows 8.1 and was ultimately superseded by Windows 11 in October 2021. As of February 2024, operating systems from the series run on 67.23% of Windows devices.[1] In April 2023, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 2022 Update would be the last version of Windows 10 as the series will reach end of support on 14 October 2025.[2]

A new release model called Windows as a service was introduced with smaller and regular feature updates, as opposed to releasing a major version of Windows every few years. Usually, these updates are a new build of the operating system, although in a few cases Microsoft released feature updates consisting of a limited set of new functionality using the regular cumulative update infrastructure. From 2017 to 2021, feature updates were released twice in a year, with the first feature update being released in spring and the other in fall. The schedule was realigned in 2021 in that feature updates for Windows 10 would be released annually in order to be consistent with Windows 11's new release cadence.[3]

The Windows Insider Program was also introduced with Windows 10, which boosted the company's engagement with beta testers as well as distributed new pre-release builds more frequently than the prior beta testing initiatives. This also greatly cut down the number of leaks from within the company, which in the past bothered the company due to legal complications of contracted features becoming available earlier than anticipated. However, while early Insider builds often contained some clearly unfinished features and did not attempt to hide them, the Windows team has gradually moved towards locking such features down using systems such as Velocity and only unlocking them in an almost finished state.

The Windows 10 series is the last to run on 32-bit x86 systems, as support for these has been ultimately removed with the original release of Windows 11. It is also the last to support the legacy PC/AT BIOS firmware even on 64-bit systems as Windows 11 now requires UEFI firmware with Secure Boot support, which has been a part of Microsoft requirements for newly designed devices since Windows 8.

List of feature updates[edit | edit source]

Name Version Based on Build no. Release date Support end date Notes
Consumer Enterprise LTSC IoT LTSC
Windows 10 1507 Threshold 10240 2015-07-29 2017-05-09 2025-10-14 Only numbered as version 1507 retroactively in documentation.
Windows 10 November Update 1511 Threshold 2 10586 2015-11-10 2017-10-10
Windows 10 Anniversary Update 1607 Redstone 1 14393 2016-08-02 2018-04-10 2019-04-09 2026-10-13
Windows 10 Creators Update 1703 Redstone 2 15063 2017-04-11 2018-10-09 2019-10-08
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update 1709 Redstone 3 16299 2017-10-17 2019-04-09 2020-10-13 Introduced ARM64 support.
Windows 10 April 2018 Update 1803 Redstone 4 17134 2018-04-30 2019-11-12 2021-05-11
Windows 10 October 2018 Update 1809 Redstone 5 17763 2018-11-13 2020-11-10 2029-01-09
Windows 10 May 2019 Update 1903 Titanium 18362 2019-05-21 2020-12-08 First release under the Azure development scheme.
Windows 10 November 2019 Update 1909 Vanadium[4][b] 18363 2019-11-12 2021-05-11 2022-05-10 Based on May 2019 Update codebase; enabled via an enablement package.
Windows 10 May 2020 Update 2004 Vibranium[4][5] 19041 2020-05-27 2021-12-14
Windows 10 October 2020 Update 20H2 19042 2020-10-20 2022-05-10 2023-05-09 Based on May 2020 Update codebase; enabled via enablement packages.
Windows 10 May 2021 Update 21H1 19043 2021-05-18 2022-12-13
Windows 10 November 2021 Update 21H2 19044 2021-11-16 2023-06-13 2024-06-11 2027-01-12 2032-01-13
Windows 10 2022 Update 22H2 19045 2022-10-18 2025-10-14
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still supported
Current stable version
Latest preview version
Future release

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. Support for ARM64 was added in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. An ARM32 port is also maintained internally.
  2. Vanadium is a cumulative update for version 1903 (Titanium), although it is considered a distinct development semester by Microsoft.

References[edit | edit source]