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Credit: Microsoft
On November 13, Microsoft released the device support dates for some of its newer Surface PCs and tablets. Prior to today, Microsoft had made public the end of device support dates for its older Surface models, but not for some of its newer devices.
For Surface devices, “device support period” means the period during which Microsoft will provide driver and firmware updates for a device. The device support period begins when a device is released. However, once the end of support date for the device is reached, Microsoft will continue to provide Windows operating system features and security updates in accordance with the Windows 10 lifecycle policy, have noted the officials.
Early Surface models, such as Surface RT and Surface Pro and Surface 2, got five years of driver and firmware support. More recently introduced devices largely get four years of support.
Microsoft officials state on the Surface Drivers and Firmware page docs.microsoft.com that Windows-based Surface devices that “Surface devices will receive driver and firmware updates for at least 4 years from the first device output ”. In some cases where the support lasts longer than four years, Microsoft says it will provide an updated maintenance end date before the last maintenance date.
On the operating system front, Surface devices follow the Windows 10 servicing convention, which means Surface devices will receive feature updates twice a year. To date, H2 feature updates get 30 months of support, and H1 updates get 18 months of support. Microsoft has announced that it will continue to provide semi-annual channel updates for Windows 10 until October 2025.
End-of-device driver / firmware support for some of the newer Surface devices:
- Surface Laptop 3: October 22, 2023
- Surface Pro 7: October 22, 2023
- Surface Pro X: November 5, 2023
- Surface Pro X SQ2: October 13, 2024
- Surface Go 2: May 6, 2024
- Surface Laptop Go: October 13, 2024
For a full list of Surface device support dates, see the Driver and Firmware Lifecycle Support page here. And to reiterate, Surface users can continue to use their devices safely even after the driver / firmware support period has expired, as they will continue to benefit from Windows 10 security updates.
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