Microsoft to stop selling Windows 10 licenses starting February 1, problems arise after upgrading to Windows 11

Microsoft plans to stop selling licenses for the Windows 10 operating system from February 1, but support for the system will continue until October 14, 2025. At the same time, after the upgrade, Windows 11 had problems with the work of standard applications, although the company acknowledges the problem, but is in no hurry to solve them.

Windows 10: will it be possible to continue using it after February 1?

The official site of Microsoft, which has a description of Windows 10 Home, Pro and Workstation, has a message saying that the sale of licenses for the operating system Windows 10 will be discontinued on February 1. Microsoft suggests switching to a newer version of Windows 11.

However, those who have already installed Windows 10 will continue to receive security updates through Oct. 14, 2025, which will help protect PCs from viruses and spyware.

What's more, if you like Windows 10 for whatever reason and don't want to upgrade to it just yet, you'll still have the option to install or reinstall it after Feb. 1, as Microsoft is only stopping the sale of licenses for the operating system on its website. But you can still buy the system from third-party retailers such as Amazon and other vendors.

Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 8.1 on Jan. 10, 2023. The company advises users to upgrade to the same Windows 11.

Windows 11: problems after the update

After installing update package KB5023152, Windows 11 22H2 users have another problem. After restoring the system, sometimes there may be problems with the launch of some built-in applications.

For example, some users get the message "Can't start application" when launching applications after system restore. In other cases, applications may open and then freeze or crash. Similar problems have been observed with applications such as Notepad, Paint, all Microsoft Office applications, Cortana, Windows Terminal, etc.

Usually, when problems are found in upgraded systems, Microsoft releases patches to fix them. However, this time, the company did not announce such a fix and advised to simply restart the problematic application, and if that does not help, reinstall it from the Microsoft Store.

This is not the first time users have encountered problems after the Windows 11 22H2 update.

After one of the updates last year, users experienced problems with computer performance, especially while playing games. In December, Microsoft released a preliminary version of update KB5020044, which was supposed to solve these problems.

Shortly thereafter, Windows 11 version 22H2 users had a problem with their Remote Desktop: Some users experienced the application starting to freeze or not connect at all.