Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 end of support: what UK public bodies' own FOI answers show
Coded from Freedom of Information answers that UK public bodies gave to requests other people made, 2021 to 2025. Aggregates only: no body is named, and any count under 5 is suppressed.
Updated 19 September 2026 · FOI responses published online; Microsoft lifecycle dates from Microsoft Learn · method and dataset below
What the answers show
Extended support for Windows Server 2016 ends on 12 Jan 2027. This study codes Freedom of Information answers that UK public bodies gave to requests other people made between 2021 and 2025, with answers published online. In the 2024-25 answers, 51 of 70 (72.9%) bodies that named their Windows Server releases listed 2016, and 15 (21.4%) named a release older than 2016. Of 223 bodies that answered or withheld the server question, 56 (25.1%) withheld it, most often citing section 31 of the Freedom of Information Act. Of 198 bodies that described their Windows 11 move, 88 (44.4%) were part-way through it. The bodies are not a random sample of UK public bodies, so the figures describe these answers only.
- Windows Server 2016: 51 of 70 (72.9%) bodies that named Windows Server releases in 2024-25 listed it, and 52 (74.3%) listed 2016 or older. Extended support for Windows Server 2016 ends on 12 Jan 2027.
- Older releases: 15 of 70 (21.4%) bodies named a release older than 2016 (Windows Server 2012 R2 or earlier), all past the end of extended support; for 2012 and 2012 R2 it ended on 10 Oct 2023. Of the bodies that gave a full list, with no part withheld, 17 of 69 (24.6%) named only Windows Server 2019 or newer.
- Withheld answers: 56 of 223 (25.1%) bodies that answered or withheld the server operating-system question withheld it in 2024-25, and 23 of 73 (31.5%) did so in answers from 2023 and early 2024. Section 31 (law enforcement: prevention or detection of crime) was cited by at least 40 of the 56 bodies that withheld it in 2024-25, counting only citations shown in the stored extracts of the replies.
- Windows 11: of 198 bodies that described their position (answers mostly from November and December 2024), 88 (44.4%) were part-way through the move, 68 (34.3%) had a plan in place and 12 (6.1%) had completed it. Windows 10 support ended on 14 Oct 2025.
- The 2021 baseline: in answers from May 2021 onwards, 78 of 172 (45.3%) bodies still reported some Windows 7, after its extended support ended on 14 Jan 2020, and 9 of 170 (5.3%) reported some Windows XP, whose support ended on 8 Apr 2014.
Which Windows Server releases bodies named
Two sets of requests asked which server operating systems a body uses: IT infrastructure requests sent mostly in November 2024 (IT2024) and IT infrastructure requests sent mostly from August to October 2023 (IT2023). Shares use as their base the bodies that named at least one Windows Server release (70 in 2024-25, 21 in 2023-24). Many other bodies answered only at family level, for example 'Windows Server, Linux', and those answers are not read as having no old releases.
| 2024-25 answers: release named | Bodies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 | fewer than 5 | — |
| Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 | 15 of 70 | 21.4% |
| older release, not named ("2016 or lower") | fewer than 5 | — |
| Windows Server 2016 | 51 of 70 | 72.9% |
| Windows Server 2019 | 57 of 70 | 81.4% |
| Windows Server 2022 | 41 of 70 | 58.6% |
| Windows Server 2025 | fewer than 5 | — |
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Base: bodies that named at least one Windows Server release (a body counts once per release it named) (70), so shares add up to more than 100%.
| 2023-24 answers: release named | Bodies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 | fewer than 5 | — |
| Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 | 9 of 21 | 42.9% |
| older release, not named ("2016 or lower") | fewer than 5 | — |
| Windows Server 2016 | 13 of 21 | 61.9% |
| Windows Server 2019 | 16 of 21 | 76.2% |
| Windows Server 2022 | 6 of 21 | 28.6% |
| Windows Server 2025 | fewer than 5 | — |
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How bodies answered the server question
Withholding is itself a finding. In 2024-25, 56 of 223 (25.1%) bodies withheld their operating-system answer; in answers from 2023 and early 2024, 23 of 73 (31.5%) did. In 2024-25 the section most often cited was section 31 of the Freedom of Information Act (law enforcement, which covers the prevention or detection of crime): at least 40 of the 56 bodies that withheld the answer cited it, counting only citations shown in the stored extracts of the replies. A withheld answer says nothing about which releases a body runs.
| 2024-25 answers | Bodies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| answered without naming a release (family only, e.g. "Windows Server, Linux", or no on-premises servers) | 97 of 223 | 43.5% |
| named at least one Windows Server release | 70 of 223 | 31.4% |
| withheld | 56 of 223 | 25.1% |
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Base: bodies that answered or withheld the server operating-system question (223).
The move to Windows 11
The 2024-25 requests asked whether the body had moved, or planned to move, to Windows 11, and whether its devices were compatible. Most answers date from November and December 2024, before Windows 10 support ended on 14 Oct 2025. Of 186 bodies that described compatibility, 124 (66.7%) said their device estate was compatible.
| Windows 11 position (2024-25 answers) | Bodies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| migration in progress | 88 of 198 | 44.4% |
| plan in place, not started | 68 of 198 | 34.3% |
| 'yes' without saying whether done or planned | 24 of 198 | 12.1% |
| moved to Windows 11 | 12 of 198 | 6.1% |
| no move and no plan stated | 6 of 198 | 3.0% |
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Base: bodies that answered the Windows 11 transition question (answers dated November 2024 to October 2025, most in November and December 2024) (198).
The end-of-life requests (EOL2025) were sent in June 2025, before Windows 10 support ended on 14 Oct 2025. Of 28 bodies, 9 (32.1%) gave a Windows 10 device figure. Most of those figures were approximate, so no total or median is published.
VMware use and plans
The 2024-25 requests also asked whether the body uses VMware and whether it plans to move away. Of 173 bodies that answered, 127 (73.4%) use VMware. Of those, 78 (61.4%) stated no plan to move away, including answers that rule out a move for a stated period, and 17 (13.4%) stated a plan to move away, fully or partly.
| 2024-25 answers | Bodies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| uses VMware | 127 of 173 | 73.4% |
| does not use VMware | 39 of 173 | 22.5% |
| not applicable (fully cloud or N/A) | 7 of 173 | 4.0% |
| Of VMware users: no plan to move away | 78 of 127 | 61.4% |
| Of VMware users: plans to move away (fully or partly) | 17 of 127 | 13.4% |
| Of VMware users: uses VMware, plan not stated | 17 of 127 | 13.4% |
| Of VMware users: considering or reviewing | 15 of 127 | 11.8% |
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Bases: bodies that answered the VMware question (173); bodies that use VMware (127).
Windows 7 and XP in 2021
A 2021 batch asked councils and other bodies how many Windows 7 and Windows XP instances or devices they still ran. It shows the position after earlier ends of support: Windows 7 extended support ended on 14 Jan 2020 and Windows XP support ended on 8 Apr 2014. Only the share of bodies reporting some or none is published, because answers mix instances, devices and virtual desktops.
| 2021 answers | Bodies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Some Windows 7 still in use | 78 of 172 | 45.3% |
| No Windows 7 | 94 of 172 | 54.7% |
| Some Windows XP still in use | 9 of 170 | 5.3% |
| No Windows XP | 161 of 170 | 94.7% |
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Answers dated May to November 2021, most in May and June 2021. Windows 7 extended support ended on 14 Jan 2020 (paid ESU ran to 10 Jan 2023); Windows XP support ended on 8 Apr 2014. No median or total is published: the answers mix instances, devices and virtual desktop sessions, and some gave more than one kind of count.
No batch asked about Extended Security Updates. Fewer than 5 bodies in each batch mentioned them without being asked, so no ESU figures are published, and this is not evidence about other bodies' ESU arrangements.
What this means for public-sector IT teams
- Windows Server 2016: extended support ends on 12 Jan 2027 (mainstream support ended on 11 Jan 2022). In the 2024-25 answers, 51 of 70 (72.9%) bodies that named Windows Server releases listed 2016. Teams in a similar position can confirm which workloads still run on 2016 and schedule their upgrade or replacement before that date.
- Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2: extended support ended on 10 Oct 2023. Microsoft Learn lists Extended Security Updates Year 3, ending on 13 Oct 2026, as the last ESU year for these releases; no further ESU year is listed after that date. In the 2024-25 answers, 15 of 70 (21.4%) bodies that named releases named 2012 R2 or an earlier release.
- Choosing a target release: Windows Server 2019 extended support ends on 9 Jan 2029; Windows Server 2022 mainstream support ends on 13 Oct 2026 and extended support ends on 14 Oct 2031; Windows Server 2025 mainstream support ends on 13 Nov 2029 and extended support ends on 14 Nov 2034. Comparing these dates with the planned life of the hardware and the applications shows how long each target release stays in support.
- Windows 10: support ended on 14 Oct 2025. Microsoft Learn describes a paid Extended Security Updates subscription for organisations, for a maximum of three years, and gives no calendar end date for it, so the terms that apply to each organisation are worth confirming before relying on it.
- Hypervisors: 127 of 173 (73.4%) bodies that answered the VMware question use VMware, and 78 of those 127 stated no plan to move away. When planning a Windows Server 2016 exit, check host (hypervisor) and guest operating-system support dates together.
- Evidence: keep a dated inventory of server and client operating-system versions, record where Extended Security Updates are in place and when they end, and compare it with the vendor's published end-of-support dates.
Source, method and limits
Source: Freedom of Information responses from UK public bodies, published online. The requests were made by other people, not by Servnet; Servnet read the published requests and the bodies' replies. Four sets of requests were used, identified here by topic and period, with the code used in the data download: IT infrastructure requests, November 2024 onwards (270 bodies): 270 requests sent from November 2024 to July 2025, most in November 2024 (code IT2024); IT infrastructure requests, January 2023 to January 2024 (84 bodies): 87 requests, most sent from August to October 2023 (code IT2023); end-of-life software and hardware requests, June 2025 (28 bodies): 28 requests, with replies from June to August 2025 (code EOL2025); and Windows 7 and Windows XP requests, May 2021 (231 bodies): 231 requests sent on 19 May 2021 (code W7XP2021). Each body's reply was coded against a written codebook, counting each body once per set; where a body received two requests in the same set, the most complete and most recent reply is used. Response status (answered, partly answered, refused, information not held, referred elsewhere, no substantive response published, or other) is judged on the study questions only and is published for each set. This is not a random sample: it covers the bodies that happened to receive these requests and reply, so the results describe these answers and cannot be scaled up to all UK public bodies. Some bodies share one IT estate, for example councils in a shared ICT partnership, and gave the same answer; figures count bodies, not estates. Answers are self-reported and dated, and estates may have changed since. Only aggregate counts are published: no body is named and no reply is quoted. Any count or base below 5 bodies is suppressed, and small groups are merged so that a suppressed value cannot be worked out by subtraction. Two independent verification passes re-checked random samples of records against the source pages; where they found problems, the coding was corrected or the affected figure was withdrawn. Exemption figures are limited to codings that can be verified from the stored quotes: a section is counted only where the stored extract of the reply shows the body applying it to a study question, so the published section 31 count for 2024-25 is a lower bound, and section counts whose codings could not all be verified this way are not published. End-of-support dates are as displayed on Microsoft's lifecycle pages on Microsoft Learn, checked on 19 Sep 2026.
Caveats (9)
- Not a random sample. These are the bodies that happened to receive these particular requests from other people and answered them; results cannot be scaled up to all UK public bodies.
- Answers are self-reported and dated: May to November 2021 (W7XP2021 figures), 2023 and early 2024 (IT2023), November 2024 to October 2025, mostly November and December 2024 (IT2024), and June to August 2025 (EOL2025). Estates may have changed since.
- Many bodies answered only at family level ("Windows Server, Linux") or withheld the answer. Version shares describe only the bodies that named releases, which may differ from the rest.
- Withholding is common, and in 2024-25 section 31 (law enforcement: prevention or detection of crime) was the section most often cited for operating-system and version details. Exemption figures count only citations shown in the stored extracts of the replies. Withheld answers are not evidence of old or new versions.
- Shared IT services mean some bodies gave identical answers about one estate (for example district councils sharing an ICT partnership). Figures count bodies, not estates, so shared-service answers are correlated.
- Presence of a release means it was named somewhere in the estate, not how many servers run it; a body naming Windows Server 2016 may run it on one server or many.
- The 2021 Windows 7/XP questions asked for instances and devices; answers mix instances, devices and virtual desktop sessions, so only the share of bodies reporting some or none is published. An answer of 'fewer than 5' is counted as neither.
- Windows 10 figures from 2025 are mostly approximate and predate the 14 Oct 2025 end of support; only the number of bodies that gave a figure is published.
- Answers held only on a body's own website or portal were not read and count as "referred elsewhere".
Licence: the derived aggregate tables in this study and its CSV download are published under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The underlying Freedom of Information responses remain the public bodies' information: copyright in each response stays with the body that sent it (or the Crown), and none is republished here. Downloads: CSV (aggregates) · README · JSON.
Questions
When does Windows Server 2016 reach end of support?
Extended support for Windows Server 2016 ends on 12 Jan 2027, according to Microsoft's lifecycle page on Microsoft Learn. Mainstream support ended on 11 Jan 2022.
How many public bodies still ran Windows Server 2016?
In the 2024-25 Freedom of Information answers, 51 of 70 (72.9%) bodies that named their Windows Server releases listed 2016. These bodies are not a random sample, and many others answered only at family level or withheld the answer, so the figure cannot be scaled up to all UK public bodies.
Why do some public bodies refuse to say which operating systems they run?
Most bodies that withheld the answer cited section 31 of the Freedom of Information Act (law enforcement, which covers the prevention or detection of crime): at least 40 of 56 in 2024-25, counting only citations shown in the stored extracts of the replies. Some cited other sections, such as section 43 (commercial interests). A withheld answer does not show whether a body runs old or new releases.
What happens to Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 after 13 Oct 2026?
Extended support ended on 10 Oct 2023. Extended Security Updates Year 3 ends on 13 Oct 2026, and Microsoft Learn lists no further ESU year after that date. In the 2024-25 answers, 15 of 70 (21.4%) bodies that named releases named 2012 R2 or an earlier release.
When did Windows 10 support end, and is there an extension?
Windows 10 (Home, Pro, Enterprise and Education, version 22H2) reached end of support on 14 Oct 2025. Microsoft Learn describes a paid Extended Security Updates subscription for organisations, for a maximum of three years, and gives no calendar end date for it. In the June 2025 requests, 9 of 28 (32.1%) bodies gave a Windows 10 device figure.
Where does the data come from, and why are no bodies named?
From Freedom of Information responses from UK public bodies, published online. Servnet did not make these requests; other people made them, in four sets between 2021 and 2025: IT infrastructure requests, November 2024 onwards (270 bodies); IT infrastructure requests, January 2023 to January 2024 (84 bodies); end-of-life software and hardware requests, June 2025 (28 bodies); Windows 7 and Windows XP requests, May 2021 (231 bodies). Only aggregate counts are published, any count or base below 5 is suppressed, and no body is named, because a list of which body runs which release could help attackers choose targets.
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