Microsoft Is Killing Its Failed Chromeos Competitor, Windows 11 Se

Microsoft is ending support for its ChromeOS competitor Windows 11 SE. The institution will officially extremity providing "software updates, method assistance and information fixes" successful October 2026, according to an updated support document spotted by NeoWin.

When it was announced successful 2021, Windows 11 SE was sounded arsenic a simplified, lightweight type of Microsoft's operating strategy for nan classroom. Chromebooks and ChromeOS devices are wide utilized successful schools astir nan world, truthful it made consciousness that Microsoft would want to connection thing competitive. Windows 11 SE, and nan Surface Laptop SE that launched alongside it, were nan company's latest effort to do conscionable that.

Clearly nan scheme didn't work, arsenic evidenced by Microsoft's determination to shutdown Windows 11 SE conscionable 5 years later. The operating strategy was disposable connected different low-cost devices, but it doesn't look that it acquired astir nan same-sized assemblage arsenic ChromeOS. If it had, Microsoft apt wouldn't beryllium dumping it truthful unceremoniously.

Windows 11 SE isn't nan first clip Microsoft has tried to spin-off a much businesslike type of Windows, though it did look for illustration nan astir thought out. For example, nan institution has besides tried Windows 10 S (which lives connected arsenic "S Mode" successful Windows 11) and nan never-launched Windows 10X, a streamlined type of Windows for dual-screen devices.

While Windows 11 SE devices will activity aft Microsoft's October 2026 cut-off, nan institution recommends "transitioning to a instrumentality that supports different version of Windows 11 to guarantee continued support and security."