'What the hell, Microsoft?' Users hit with incorrect ESU and LTSC Win10 out-of-support messages

Microsoft accidentally tells supported users that they aren't

Microsoft says a broken update left some Windows 10 users staring at an out-of-support message despite having an activated Extended Security Updates (ESU) license or a version of Windows 10 that is still officially supported.

A user on a sysadmin forum was already commenting some weeks back: "End of life? What the hell, Microsoft?" User "JoeyFromMoonway" added: "This is a sick joke, right? Last time I looked, we have got a few years still - also it didn't report any updates for last patchday."

Another complained: "Hey you got the wrong guy" – sharing the error message alongside a screenshot of their LTSC services agreement.

And yesterday the Windows giant confirmed there was a problem. It said some devices running Windows 10 22H2 Pro, Education, or Enterprise that are correctly enrolled in the ESU program – as well as Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 and IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 – were displaying the warning: "Your version of Windows has reached the end of support" in the Windows Update Settings page after the October 14 update.

Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 support is supposed to run until January 12, 2027, and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 support goes to January 13, 2032. The dates can be found in Microsoft's own product and services lifecycle documentation.

Microsoft would obviously prefer users make the move to Windows 11, and pulled the plug on free updates for many versions of Windows 10 on October 14. The error message suggests that support has ended, even for customers who would have expected the lights to remain on for a little longer.

The good news is that affected devices are continuing to receive security updates, despite the worrying message. The bad news is that unless affected devices were able to receive Microsoft's pushed-out cloud configuration fix, admins will have to make some necessary adjustments to group policies.

Administrators fielding calls from users wondering why the warning is appearing can resolve it by using Known Issue Rollback (KIR). A device restart will also be needed.

As for a more permanent solution, Microsoft said, "We are working to include the resolution in a future Windows update. Once the update with the resolution is released, organizations will not need to install and configure this Group Policy to address this issue."

Microsoft did not explain how it managed to display an out-of-support message on supported versions of Windows 10. We asked Microsoft's Copilot assistant for some code to check if the version of Windows 10 running on a device was still supported, and the resulting source was somewhat nonsensical.

We hope Redmond is not using the same AI-infused approach when it comes to Windows Updates. ®