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Windows and Office to be updated twice a year

By Ng Chong Seng - on 21 Apr 2017, 1:00pm

Windows and Office to be updated twice a year

For a while now, there’s this implicit understanding among Microsoft watchers that the company would be updating Windows 10 regularly on a twice-early basis. But now, Microsoft has officially put this commitment into writing. The same goes for Office 365 ProPlus.

Bernardo Caldas, General Manager, Windows Commercial Marketing:

Windows is committing to a predictable twice-per-year feature release schedule, targeting September and March of each year, aligning with Office 365 ProPlus. The next Windows 10 feature update will be targeted for September 2017.

Based on this information, I think we can safely assume that the next major update to Windows 10 (version 1709?), codenamed Redstone 3, will be ready in September this year, with its rollout starting in the same month.

Also announced is that each Windows 10 feature release and Office 365 ProPlus update will be serviced and supported for 18 months, up from the current 12 months. This gives IT pros more flexibility when deciding when to update the software.

While this change doesn’t affect non-subscription-based, “perpertual” Office apps, Microsoft is at the same time making clear to its IT customers that from October 13, 2020, staying up to date with Office 365 will require either Office 365 ProPlus or, in the case of a perpetual license, an Office app or client that’s still in mainstream support.

Source: Microsoft, Office Blogs.

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