We've mentioned informally that Microsoft's plan has been to offer feature update to Windows 10 every six months or so, but now it's officially official.

Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus will both have synchronized releases, with the intent being to make those releases every six months or so. The next such update is planned for September.

Those releases will each be supported for 18 months. This was already approximately the case, but now it's standard policy. This means that if you want your Windows 10 or Office ProPlus installation supported long-term, you'll have to update it from time to time.

System Center Configuration Manager will also receive updates aligned with Windows and Office, so deployment and management should always be able to properly handle the latest iteration of the software.

The company is also making a change to Office 365. From October 13, 2020, using Office 365 will require the use of either Office 365 ProPlus, or, for organizations that are using perpetual licenses, a version that's still in mainstream support. That is to say, the use of older Office versions that have dropped into extended support will no longer be possible. This is contrast to the situation today; Office 2010 is now in extended support, but is still supported as an Office 365 client, and it will continue to be supported until 2020.

Listing image by Image courtesy of Microsoft