Windows as a service: Connecting the dots

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Since we’ve started talking about Windows as a service (almost three years ago now), we’ve published a lot of good information.  And while most people know about the main set of documentation (https://aka.ms/waas) and the Microsoft Mechanics video (https://aka.ms/waasvideo), there are some other sources of information that are also useful to help connect the dots between the theory and the current state.  Here’s an overview of some key resources:

  • The Windows lifecycle fact sheet.  This page includes an “Updates and Service Packs” section that provides the expected end of servicing dates for each Windows 10 feature update, so you’re never surprised by one of the dates.  For example, here you can see that Windows 10 1511 end of servicing date is October 10, 2017 (this week), the Windows 10 1607 end of servicing date is tentatively March 2018 (effectively no earlier than that, although it could shift a little later), etc.  And of course the "End of support” table contains a good reminder of the Windows 7 end of support date, January 14, 2020.
  • The Windows 10 release info page, https://aka.ms/win10releaseinfo.  This page shows the status of each release, the date of release, and all of the cumulative updates that have been released.  This is a good reference site.  (It doesn’t include the end of servicing dates yet, but we expect this page to be reworked sometime next year to include this information.)
  • The Windows 10 release notes page, https://aka.ms/win10releasenotes.  This page provides details on significant fixes included in each cumulative update.
  • The Configuration Manager team publishes details to tell you which releases of Windows 10 and the Windows 10 ADK are supported by each Configuration Manager current branch release on their Support for Windows 10 for System Center Configuration Manager page.
  • We publish an overview of new features in each Windows 10 feature update at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/.
  • We publish (and recently updated) the Windows Roadmap page to talk about features recently delivered, ones in preview, ones in development, etc.
  • For information about the processor generations supported by each Windows release (per the silicon support policy), see the Windows Processor Requirements page.
  • For long-term servicing releases, the end of support dates can be found via the Support Lifecycle search page.