#windows-11-ltsc

#windows-11-ltsc

What started in 2019 as a couple of utilities for things like window and shortcut management has gradually expanded to nearly 30 useful tools, including a keyboard shortcut creator, an image-to-text extractor, and a better search bar than the one that's built into Windows proper. PowerToys has become wildly popular among Windows power users, with more than 70 million downloads to date, but it's also completely free, with no ads, Office upsells, or ham-fisted Copilot integrations.

After that date, Microsoft will no longer provide security patches, bug fixes, or technical support for ASP.NET Core 2.3. Users are advised to upgrade to modern ASP.NET on .NET 10.

I don't think any organization wants to pay for ESU licenses. Many organizations will migrate, but a non-trivial subset will rely on ESU as a safety net because their constraints are less about 'deciding to upgrade' and more about validating dependencies and coordinating operational downtime.

Microsoft PC Manager, which first appeared in beta form in 2022, and is now available for free to anyone who wants to give it a try. Microsoft promises it "effortlessly enhances PC performance with just one click," and will "keep your PC running smoothly." In other words, it's intended to clean up some of the clutter and baggage that your PC may have accumulated over the years.

Releasing a new version of Windows that just covers new Arm PCs is another signal of Microsoft's commitment to Arm processors and the Arm version of Windows, after decades of near-exclusive focus on the x86 version of the OS that ran on Intel and AMD's chips. Microsoft offered multiple versions of both Windows 10 and Windows 11 in both x86 and Arm editions, but the 24H2 update was a major milestone for Arm PCs.

January 13 marked another milestone for legacy systems, as support for the software - codenamed Longhorn Server - expired for customers that bought Microsoft Premium Assurance (PA). Extended support ended for Windows Server 2008 on January 14, 2020. It was possible to keep the lights on until January 10, 2023, via Extended Security Updates. A fourth year came courtesy of Azure, which took the code to January 9, 2024, but that was it for anyone without PA.

Microsoft is warning organizations about the impending end of support for several Windows products from 2016. These include Windows Server 2016, Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB, and Windows IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016. According to Microsoft, these products are approaching the final stage of their lifecycle, which has direct consequences for organizations that still depend on this software. The lifecycle documentation on Microsoft Learn shows that Windows Server 2016 has not received regular support since January 2022 and is now fully in the extended support phase.