Dear Museum Colleagues,

I would like to share an update with you that The Office of Museum Technology is reaching out to Museum PC users to coordinate operating system (OS) upgrades to Windows 11 Enterprise for machines that support the OS. There is nothing for you to do at this time. This announcement is just to provide everyone context for why the Help Desk is initiating these upgrades.

Microsoft released Windows 11 in October of 2021 and recently announced an end of life for Windows 10 Enterprise and Education editions in October of 2025. After this date, the operating system is officially unsupported and will not receive security, feature, or compatibility updates. UFIT System Security Policy requires that:

• All Information Systems must operate on software that is currently supported by the developer, vendor, or manufacturer with fixes for defects, flaws and security issues.
• All Information Systems must be maintained with updates and patches to address security vulnerabilities and operationally significant defects.

We understand everyone’s schedules are busy and that 2025 may seem far off, but the Florida Museum has just shy of 350 machines running Windows 10 which we must remediate. When we crunch the numbers of how long it takes to coordinate with end users, upgrade the machine, and return it to service, the runway is short. We need to process four machines a week, on average, to stay on track. So, we will begin contacting people to schedule upgrades starting this month. We are working hard to minimize disruption from the process and thank everyone in advance for their cooperation and patience as we complete these mandatory infrastructure upgrades.

For more information on what to expect with Windows 11, please check out our Introducing Windows 11 article.