Windows Extended Support and Extended Security Upgrades (ESU) – Bitsight Knowledge Base

Microsoft products have a general support life cycle (often 10 years). The life cycle is cut into two periods – the first half with “mainstream support,” followed by the second half of “extended support.”^[1]

Within mainstream support, design changes are released and warranty claims with any bugs are provided security updates.
The extended support period provides bug fixes and patches, no new features are added, and complimentary support ends.
After the extended support period, Microsoft also offers “extended security update” (ESU) programs for certain versions.

These programs only include critical and important security updates since it is the last resort option for customers who need to run certain legacy Microsoft products past the end of support^[2].

ESU programs are taken into consideration for versions where these are available when determining if software is supported. This is reflected by the Desktop Software and Mobile Software risk vectors.

Microsoft is the first product with ESU to be considered within the Bitsight platform.

We recommend updating to the latest available version (Windows 10).

Windows ESU Schedules

Windows 7

Change	Description	Effective Date
FAIR ➔ BAD	Windows 7 is evaluated as BAD.	10-JAN-2023

Windows Extended Support Schedules

Windows 8

Change	Description	Effective Date
GOOD ➔ FAIR	Windows 8 is evaluated as FAIR.	10-OCT-2023
FAIR ➔ WARN	Windows 8 is evaluated as WARN.	07-NOV-2023
WARN ➔ BAD	Windows 8 is evaluated as BAD.	10-OCT-2024

Windows 8.1

Change	Description	Effective Date
GOOD ➔ FAIR	Windows 8.1 is evaluated as FAIR.	10-JAN-2023
FAIR ➔ WARN	Windows 8.1 is evaluated as WARN.	07-FEB-2023
WARN ➔ BAD	Windows 8.1 is evaluated as BAD.	10-JAN-2024

Windows 10

Latest version available. Scheduling under development.

Resources

July 9, 2020: Clarification on the differences between “extended support” and “extended security updates (ESU).”
June 8, 2020: Published.