General information on Windows 10

Windows 10 from Microsoft was officially launched in July 2015 and still has an estimated market share of more than 60%; Windows 10 is therefore still very popular and very stable. Windows 10 was offered free of charge to all users of Windows 7, Windows 8 or 8.1 (no volume licenses). Windows 10 was essentially offered for 32bit and 64bit, in different language and country versions and editions (Windows 10 Home, Pro, Enterprise and Education as well as IoT & LTSC).

Support for the last release (Windows 10 22H2) will officially end on October 14, 2025:

• Windows 10, Home ⇾ 14. October 2025 Microsoft

• Windows 10, Professional ⇾ 14. October 2025 Microsoft

• Windows 10, Enterprise ⇾ 14. October 2025 Microsoft

• Windows 10, Education ⇾ 14. October 2025 Microsoft

• Windows 10, IoT Enterprise ⇾ 14. October 2025 Microsoft

Specifications & System requirements for Windows 10

• Processor: up Intel Atom/Celeron (1GHz, SoC, ..)
• RAM: min. 1GB (32bit) or 2GB RAM (64bit)
• HDD: min. 16GB (32bit), 32GB (64bit)
• Firmware: Legacy or UEFI (TPM 1.2 with SecureBoot, Bitlocker)
• Graphic: WDDM 1.0, compatible with DirectX 9
• Monitor: 800x600
• Account: Local, Microsoft-account, AD-account, Azure-account

General information on Windows 11

Windows 11 from Microsoft was officially launched in October 2021 and has a market share of around 35% to date. Windows 11 was offered free of charge to all Windows 10 users (no volume licenses). Windows 11 is offered exclusively for 64bit, in different language and country versions and editions (Windows 11 Home, Pro, Enterprise and Education as well as IoT & LTSC).

The latest release: Windows 11 24H2; on average 10 years of support, so the end of support for Windows 11 could be in 2031, assuming there is a successor (Windows 12).

Specifications & System requirements for Windows 11

• Processor: Intel/AMD 1GHz, 2 Cores, Soc, ..)
• RAM: minimum 4GB RAM
• HDD: minimum 64GB
• Firmware: only with UEFI + SecureBoot (TPM 2.0)
• Graphic: WDDM 2.0, compatible with DirectX 12
• Monitor: 1280x720 (720p)
• Account: Microsoft-/AD-/Azure-account mandatory for setup; possible locally with tricks

General information on Windows 12

Work on Windows 12 from Microsoft has already begun; it can therefore be assumed that Windows 12 will be released. The release date could be 2025 (together with the end of support for Windows 10). Windows 12 will certainly attach great importance to the topics of AI & cloud.

Like Windows 11, Windows 12 will only be available in 64bit. Updates from Windows 10 or Windows 11 are very likely.

Expected Specifications & System requirements for Windows 12

• Processor: Intel 8. Generations or AMD (1GHz, 2 Cores, Soc, ..)
• RAM: minimum 8GB or 16 GB RAM
• HDD: minimum 128GB, possibly even exclusively SSD
• Firmware: only with UEFI + SecureBoot (TPM 2.0)
• Graphic: WDDM 2.0, compatible with DirectX 12
• Monitor: 1280x720 (720p)
• Account: Microsoft-/AD-/Azure-account mandatory for setup