Unlike Windows 7, Microsoft will not be offering Extended Support Updates to its Enterprise customers for Windows 8 or 8.1. Windows 8.1 is seen by Microsoft as a service pack for Windows 8. This means that Windows 8 is obsolete as of 12th January 2016.
Windows lifecycle
Microsoft has decided that Windows 8.1 users will have to upgrade to Windows 10 since support will run out officially on 10th January 2023.
In Windows 7, Enterprise users could purchase yearly extensions to buy more time before they had to replace their copy of Windows, but Microsoft decided that this won’t be possible going forward.
The only option to anyone using Windows 8.1 is to either install Windows 10 or buy a new computer running Windows 11.
