Prepare to receive notifications about Windows 8.1 reaching end of support

If you still haven’t upgraded to Windows 11, or Windows 10 for that matter, you should know that Microsoft will start bombarding you with notifications.

You should know that the company is soon going to start sending notifications to Windows 8.1 users about the upcoming end of extended support.

Remember that this outdated OS is set to reach the end of its support period on January 10th, 2023, and the warning messages will appear starting with July 2022.

Windows 8.1 end-of-service notifications are incoming

As the Redmond giant stated, the above-mentioned notifications will resemble the ones Microsoft used in the past to remind Windows 7 users about the upcoming end of support.

If you are a Windows 8.1 user, you surely know that Microsoft originally retired all Windows 8 support in 2016, but the updates will completely stop starting with January 2023.

Furthermore, the company will not be offering an Extended Security Update (ESU) program for Windows 8.1, just in case you were wondering.

That being said, businesses won’t be able to pay for additional security patches and will have to upgrade or accept the risk of running software without security updates.

Many will not consider this a big loss, as Windows 8.1 was never very popular, to begin with. The original Windows 8 version was heavily criticized for things such as its over-reliance on touch-based interaction.

Now, Windows 8.1 users will now need to decide whether to upgrade to Windows 10 or buy a new rig that can support the latest OS.

As you know, Microsoft was adamant about the new system requirements for Windows 11, so an upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 11 is pretty much out of the question.

However, you can also go for Windows 10, operating system which will continue to be supported until October 14th, 2025.

Just to clarify things, Windows 8.1 devices won’t simply go blank starting with the end of support that comes on January 10th, 2023.

However, everything you do after will be at your own risk, as without software updates and security fixes you will be exposed. 

That’s something to keep in mind when dealing with software that the manufacturer deems as obsolete and no longer worthy of any effort.

But, as you might have observed, even old and obsolete versions of Windows still receive some updates during Patch Tuesday rollouts, only for major problems.

For anything else, you are pretty much on your own. Remember that when considering what OS to switch to before January 2023.

Have you also started receiving these EOS notifications on your Windows 8.1 device? Share your experience with us in the comments section below.