Microsoft kills Windows 11’s cut-down Chromebook rival
Remember Windows 11 Se? I didn’t do it, until I’m doing my regular press blows this morning. But it seems that the stripped and low power version of Windows, initially intended to counter chromebooks on the lucrative education market, soon makes a final arc. Microsoft says that the operating system obtains its latest update later this year and will lose full support in 2026.
It is according to a Microsoft update support page (spotted by the German site Dr. Windows), which indicates that the 24H2 version will be the last for Windows SE. All Updates of the operating system, “including software updates, technical assistance and security fixes”, will be closed in October 2026. If this date seems familiar, it is also the new end -of -life date adjusted for the consumer version which has long suffered from Windows 10.
Windows 11 was announced at the end of 2021 and launched in January 2022, explicitly designed for the education market. Although it shares the major part of the Windows 11 code base and features, it is also much more locked, with standard users unable to install 32 -bit third -party applications or even Windows Store applications without administrative assistance. Windows 11 is lacking in widgets and certain layout options to be “without distraction”, it insists even more on Microsoft applications as Office and Edge, and it must be managed via the intune system.
Windows 11 was supposed to be a Windows 10 S successor, which was not particularly large either. It is easy to imagine how school administrators, used for Windows 10/11 Standard or the configuration of Google Popular Chromobook Education, would not want to sacrifice advanced functionalities.
That said, giving Windows 11 users only one year of warning before it fully loses the support seems a bit short. One wonders if Microsoft’s workforce feels the pinch after all these recent layoffs. Microsoft always offers schools to schools via the Windows 11 system for education.
