Microsoft Now Forcing Upgrades For Laggard Windows 10 1803 Users To May 2019 Update

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Microsoft has been doing everything in its power to ensure that its customers are running the most recent versions of Windows 10. Microsoft's motivations are understandable, as newer Windows 10 builds have all of the latest features and security updates to ward of attacks from nefarious parties.

The latest users that are under the microscope from Microsoft are those running Windows 10 1803 users, which is better known as the April 2018 Update. However, that version of the operating system has now reached end-of-life, which means that after this week's Patch Tuesday, it will no longer receive updates from Microsoft. 

As a result, these customers will soon be automatically upgraded to Windows 10 1903, aka the May 2019 Update. This applies to both Home and Pro version of Windows 10 1803, and Microsoft indicates that it will give these users a "convenient time" to schedule the install of the major feature update. The company began the training process for these forced upgrades back in June.

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"Keeping those devices supported and receiving the monthly updates that are critical to device security and ecosystem health," Microsoft writes. "If a device is out of service, it is no longer receiving quality updates from Microsoft and may become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses,” the company explained over the summer. "A single exploited device can reveal other devices on a network, revealing otherwise secure information or spreading malware to other computers in the network."

The latest version of Windows 10 is the November 2019 Update (version 1909), and it was first released to the public on Tuesday. However, it is only available to what Microsoft's describes as "seekers" that actively go to Windows Update and hit the "Check for updates" button.

Brandon Hill

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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