Does Microsoft Support Windows 7

Microsoft bids adieu to Windows seven and the millions of PCs that still run information technology

An end of the traditional Windows era

By January fourteen, 2020, 8:00am EST

Today is a big day for Windows. Microsoft is dropping support of Windows 7, nearly 11 years after first launching the operating system with a flashy New York City marketing campaign. "I'm a PC, and Windows 7 was my idea" was the message dorsum so, a articulate nod to the fact that it was designed to fix the Windows Vista failure. Windows seven certainly did fix things, with its new task bar, Aero window direction, file libraries, and much more than.

Windows seven became then pop, in fact, that information technology took Windows x well-nigh four years just to pass it in market share. Fifty-fifty today, millions of PCs are still running Windows seven, and the operating arrangement still runs on a massive 26 percent of all PCs according to information from Netmarketshare. Microsoft spent years trying to get people to upgrade to Windows 10 complimentary of charge, just tens of millions of PCs will at present be left vulnerable to exploits and security vulnerabilities.

Businesses and pedagogy Windows 7 users volition be able to pay for extended security updates, simply information technology could exist a costly venture for some. Extended updates for Windows 7 Enterprise is approximately $25 per automobile, and the cost doubles to $50 per device in 2021 and again to $100 in 2022. It's even worse for Windows 7 Pro users, which starts at $50 per motorcar and jumps to $100 in 2021 and $200 in 2022. These costs will naturally vary depending on the volume of PCs in use at a business concern, but they're all the same going to exist substantial for larger firms.

Microsoft is easing these costs with a free year of post-retirement updates to Windows 7 customers with agile Windows 10 subscriptions. That hasn't made a large dent in Windows 7 marketplace share recently, though.

Microsoft has been notifying Windows vii users throughout 2019 nigh today's end of back up, so people still stuck on the Os can't say they haven't been warned. A total-screen notification volition announced for Windows 7 users on Wednesday, warning that systems are now out of back up. Microsoft is trying to convince existing users to upgrade to machines running Windows 10, a trend that acquired the global PC market to have its first yr of growth since 2011.

Despite the end of support, Windows 7 looks like information technology has some life left in it yet. It could have another year or two to get Windows 7 firmly below 10 percentage market share, specially when Google is committing to support Chrome on Windows 7 until at least the centre of 2021. That presents Microsoft with some headaches for ongoing back up. We've already seen the software behemothic pause with tradition multiple times for Windows XP, issuing public patches for the operating organization subsequently its end of back up date. Given the increases in ransomware attacks in recent years and their devastating effects, information technology'southward likely we'll encounter public Windows vii security patches in the future.

The vast majority of these support headaches will come up from businesses that don't e'er upgrade to the very latest Windows releases. Windows Vista and Windows 8 weren't exactly solid in-between releases to which y'all could reliably upgrade, and that left nigh businesses running Windows XP or Windows 7 to avoid software issues and incompatibilities. Windows viii won't take the aforementioned issues when its support ends in 2023, as it'due south only running on less than 5 percent of all PCs.

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Windows ten has also attempted to combat this terminate of support problem with Microsoft's large "Windows as a service" push. Businesses and consumers were given xviii months before they need to motion from a major Windows 10 update to another, and Microsoft has been releasing ii big updates per year. That's led to some complaints from businesses, so Microsoft has now slowed the pace to xxx months of support for each big September update and 18 months for the March ones. This won't bear on consumers who will only exist supported for xviii months per release, simply these machines typically upgrade automatically to the latest Windows ten release and aren't the source of Microsoft's support woes.

Nosotros've already striking multiple end-of-support dates for various Windows ten releases without any major hiccups, and three versions are gear up to reach end of service this year alone. If businesses keep upgrading regularly, then Windows 10 may have truly solved some of Microsoft's support headaches for the future.

Windows as a service does nowadays interesting questions most PC sales over the next decade, though. Windows 7 finish of life has helped the PC market bounciness dorsum in 2019, simply with no "Windows 11" in sight, the PCs that businesses are purchasing now could last longer than ever earlier. Microsoft, Intel, and PC OEMs will be hoping that Surface and the constant push to amend hardware volition convince businesses and fifty-fifty consumers to upgrade. That didn't happen immediately with the "PC Does What?" marketing entrada four years ago, which aimed to get people with older Windows 7 PCs to upgrade to new hardware. There are probably still millions of consumers property on to Windows 7 machines merely because they continue to piece of work fine for the basics.

Microsoft, Intel, and others are now focused on foldable and dual-screen laptops for 2020 and across. Microsoft is edifice out its Windows 10X variant for this new hardware, and we've started to see some target devices announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last calendar week. It's still early on days for this blazon of hardware, and Windows 10X will have to exercise a lot of piece of work to make these devices smooth.

We'll likely never witness another giant release of Windows like nosotros've seen with Windows 10 or Windows 7 in the by, even for foldable devices. Microsoft'south priorities take certainly shifted under CEO Satya Nadella. "The operating system is no longer the most important layer for us," explained Nadella at the launch of new Surface devices last yr. Windows is still a significant part of Microsoft's business concern, but it'due south not the future of it. Microsoft is embracing Android, cross-platform software and services, and the cloud. Information technology's a company that increasingly embraces competitors like Amazon, Samsung, Sony, and Google to transform its own business.

That transformation is ongoing, and Microsoft is increasingly looking at the web to piece of work its style onto rival platforms. The end of Windows 7 is only another milestone in the history of Windows. It comes at the start of a new decade, and it marks the end of an era when Windows ruled everyone's calculating experiences. How Windows adapts over the next decade could be the most significant change for Microsoft in its 44-year history.