Our earlier piece on Windows 11 26H2 said the update mainly moves the date your PC stops receiving security fixes, without naming that date for 24H2. This is the date, and it is close. Reports put the end of updates for Windows 11 24H2 on the Home and Pro editions at October 13, 2026, six days from now. The change since that piece is that 26H2 is now out, so a 24H2 PC has a place to go.
What the dates are
Microsoft's lifecycle page for Windows 11 Home and Pro lists these end dates:
- Version 24H2: listed as ending at 6:59 AM on October 14, 2026. Press coverage reports this as October 13, which is also the second Tuesday of the month, the usual day for monthly security updates.
- Version 25H2: October 13, 2027.
- Version 26H2: October 10, 2028.
The page applies to Home, Pro, Pro Education and Pro for Workstations. Enterprise and Education editions follow a longer window; press reports give October 12, 2027 for 24H2 there, which we have not checked against Microsoft's separate page for those editions. If your PC belongs to a school or employer, that is the page that applies to it, and the IT department decides when it moves.
What ending means for a PC that keeps running
The PC does not stop working. After the end date, Microsoft stops sending monthly security and preview updates and fixes for known issues to 24H2 Home and Pro, and stops technical support for that version. Anything found in the code after that date is not patched for you. How much that matters depends on what the PC does: a laptop used for banking and email is a larger exposure than a machine that never leaves a closed network.
How to see which version you run
Microsoft's page on which version of Windows you are running gives the route: right-click Start, choose Settings, then System > About, and read Version under Windows specifications. If it says 24H2, the date above is yours. If it says 25H2 or 26H2, nothing here applies this month.
Where 26H2 comes from
In its announcement of the 2026 Update, Microsoft says 26H2 is delivered as an enablement package for eligible PCs on 24H2 and 25H2, and that it resets the support lifecycle: 24 months for Home and Pro. To get it sooner, the post says to go to Settings > Windows Update and turn on "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available".
The same post mentions safeguard holds, meaning Microsoft withholds the update from PCs where it detects a known compatibility problem. If 26H2 does not appear, a hold is one possible reason, and the Windows Update screen is the only place that tells you. Nothing in the announcement lists which PCs are held.
What Microsoft has not said
The announcement does not say whether Microsoft will install 26H2 on its own on PCs that remain on 24H2 after the end date, and it does not give a date for it. We did not find that anywhere in the sources we checked, so we are not guessing at it.
The lifecycle page also carries a note that 26H2 is the last Windows 11 version that supports devices with Snapdragon 850 processors. An owner of one of those PCs gets one more version of support, then nothing further. Our 26H2 piece covers the Arm cases that should be checked first.
What to do if 26H2 will not install
If the update does not show or fails, the PC is still supported only until the 24H2 date. A PC that cannot take 26H2 may still be on a path to 25H2, which Microsoft lists as supported through October 2027, but we have not found a Microsoft page that says 25H2 is offered as a fallback, so check what Windows Update offers instead of assuming it. If the PC is too old for Windows 11 at all, it is on Windows 10, and the Windows 10 piece covers that situation.
If you moved to 26H2 and the next problem is a flaky connection, the Bluetooth walkthrough goes step by step. And if you rely on backups, the File History problem from the September update is worth a look before you install anything.
Last updated October 7, 2026