Microsoft is ending support for Windows 11 SE, its latest attempt to turn its operating system into a ChromeOS competitor.

Launched in 2021, Windows 11 SE was Microsoft’s answer to Chromebooks—a simplified, cloud-first OS tailored for students and low-cost laptops.

Windows 11 SE debuted in 2021 as a stripped down version of Windows that was designed for low-cost laptops meant to be used in K-8 classrooms. It was basically Microsoft’s answer to ChromeOS, which has become popular in the education market. But it never really caught on in the same way as Google’s operating system.

If you're using a device with Windows 11 SE, it will still work after October 2026, but Microsoft is recommending that you transition to a device with a different edition of Windo

Back in 2021, Microsoft announced Windows 11 SE as a lightweight platform to rival Google’s ChromeOS, but now, the

Budget educational computing is now Google's game to lose Microsoft is discontinuing support for its Windows 11 SE variant meant to compete with ChromeOS in the education space, leaving schools that chose Microsoft over Google in the lurch just four years after the cloud-based Windows variant was released.

Remember Windows 11 SE? I didn’t, until I made my regular news rounds this morning. But it looks like the stripped-down, low-power version of Windows, originally intended to counter Chromebooks in the lucrative education market,