Windows Updates & Compliance
Windows 11 24H2 Just Stopped Getting Updates — Will Anyone Notice?
Nothing visible happens when a laptop stops receiving updates. That's exactly why it gets missed — and why it can quietly take your Cyber Essentials compliance with it.
Today, Not Tomorrow
Microsoft has stopped updating Windows 11 version 24H2 on Home and Pro laptops. It won't throw an error. It won't slow down. It will keep opening your email exactly as it did yesterday.
From November there's no security update for it — but it's still the machine reading your invoices, holding your client files, and logging into your systems.
What Cyber Essentials Requires
Cyber Essentials asks for software that is licensed and supported, with critical and high-risk updates installed within 14 days of release. A laptop that no longer receives updates cannot meet that — no matter how well it's otherwise looked after.
The Ten-Second Check
Settings, System, About. Read the Version line.
Updates until 12 October 2027. Nothing to do.
Updates have just ended. Update it this week.
Or older — already out of updates.
The Fix Is Small
Going from 24H2 to 25H2 is an enablement package: one download, one restart, no rebuild. On a laptop that is being looked after, it has usually happened already.
Two Laptops to Check First in Your Own Business
- The laptop that is rarely in the office — easy to miss when it doesn't pass through the network on patch day.
- The personal laptop someone uses for work email — if it reaches your business data, it counts.
When did your IT last tell you which version every laptop is on?
If you're not sure, that's worth finding out before it becomes a Cyber Essentials gap.
Last updated: 13 October 2026