End of Life Policy for Business – Table of Contents

Operating system support policy and ESET applications

An important aspect of the End of Life policy is compatibility with various operating systems across different platforms. In most cases, ESET tries to align with operating system vendors’ official support policies. In certain instances, we have to consider operating system version fragmentation issues and grant an exception to the rule.

ESET applications generally support only the selected OS versions explicitly listed in each application version documentation or End of Life policy.

Backward compatibility

Each ESET application version, when it is released, declares compatibility with specified OS versions (listed in application version documentation). This (full) compatibility lasts for the entire duration of the application version support.

In special cases, the OS version's compatibility with an ESET application version can be set to Limited during the application's lifetime—typically due to technical limitations imposed by a third-party. Limited compatibility of an ESET application version with an OS version means the application version remains compatible. However, users on this OS version might not receive all updates, such as servicing or specific module updates.

In rare cases, during its lifetime, an application version might become incompatible entirely with an OS—due to technical compatibility limitations caused by a third-party. The application version may stop functioning on this OS version with immediate effect. Unfortunately, this is out of ESET control.

Forward compatibility

ESET aims to ensure compatibility with newly released OS versions by new, subsequent feature updates to the ESET application. ESET does not change the already released feature updates to be compatible with newly released OS versions. ESET application versions may function if the changes in the OS are minor, but functioning is not officially guaranteed. If an existing ESET application version operates on a newer OS version, this is reflected in the application version’s online documentation.

The only situation when ESET may change the already released application version to support new OS versions is for Windows Endpoint application versions in Full Support for Windows 10 and 11 feature updates.