Windows 7 end of support: What you need to do?

Years after it was first released, Microsoft Windows 7 still counts among the favourite operating systems worldwide. But the time has come to say goodbye. Windows 7 has reached its final end-of-life stadium (EOL). Microsoft will no longer be pub­lish­ing updates or provide any form of support for the operating system. What are the con­sequences?

Support for private users of Windows 7 has already finished. As of January 14, 2020, Microsoft is no longer de­liv­er­ing updates for Windows 7, including any security updates. The tech­no­logy company ter­min­ated general support for the popular operating system back in 2015. Ever since, no updates or ad­di­tion­al features have been released. 2020 marks the end for Windows 7: Windows will no longer provide security patches via its Extended Support for the operating system.

However, Microsoft has created a few ex­cep­tions. En­ter­prise clients will have the option to join a fee-based Extended Security Update Program (ESU). Only users of the pro­fes­sion­al or en­ter­prise editions will be able to join ESU. The program extends the period during which security updates will be provided by another three years. Users will need to renew their ESU licence every year and for each device running Windows 7. There are two options for users to join the program. Large en­ter­prises, or­gan­isa­tions or au­thor­it­ies that already have a license, can book support via the Volume Licensing Service Center.

Smaller companies that are using the pro­fes­sion­al or en­ter­prise edition of Windows 7 will need to contact a Cloud Solutions Provider. The latter is an official Microsoft partner au­thor­ised to dis­trib­ute the software maker’s products. If you don’t have access to the Volume Licensing Service Center, you won’t be able to purchase the extended support directly via Microsoft.

The end of support for Windows 7 doesn’t ne­ces­sar­ily spell the end of Windows 7. The operating system and many installed programs can still be used. The ter­min­a­tion of any extended support for the operating system means just that: Microsoft no longer helps users of Windows 7. This includes any as­sist­ance services, as well as updates and patches. Most im­port­antly, the company will no longer close security gaps.

But just because you can continue to use Windows 7 doesn’t mean you should. Usage of the operating system could be risky because Microsoft will continue to provide security updates via the ESU program. In this way, security gaps can be deduced for un­sup­por­ted versions of Windows 7. Cyber criminals may then be able to detect existing weak­nesses in the operating system. In fact, something similar happened with Windows XP. The software was con­sidered safe and stable, but once it was no longer supported, fraud­sters were able to detect and abuse security gaps.

Over time, however, Windows 7 will become unusable. The end of support is already taken as an op­por­tun­ity by software de­velopers to no longer make their products com­pat­ible with Windows 7. For example, Google announced that Chrome would only continue to support Windows 7 until July 15, 2021. Other software de­velopers are likely to follow suit.

To avoid security and com­pat­ib­il­ity issues, users should upgrade to a newer version of Windows (prefer­ably Windows 10). Clients of the ESU program can take a bit more time, but are not advised to wait the full three years before upgrading. For one, that could become very costly because the price for the ESU licence increases year by year. Secondly, it’s advisable to upgrade to a higher version of Windows because Microsoft offers more com­pre­hens­ive support.

What’s more, Windows 7 users can currently upgrade to Windows 10 for free – albeit un­of­fi­cially. Microsoft ori­gin­ally suspended the free upgrade on July 29, 2016, but according to reports from multiple websites, the upgrade can still be down­loaded via the official software Windows Media Creation Tool. During in­stall­a­tion, you’ll just need to enter the licensing key for your Windows 7 version and Windows 10 should work as expected. A valid product key will be necessary for the free upgrade to work – without one, the free upgrade will not be suc­cess­ful.

But should you continue to use Windows at all? Some users are taking the Windows 7 EOL as an op­por­tun­ity to consider al­tern­at­ives to Windows. Whilst Apple’s macOS requires users to purchase new hardware, Linux and af­fil­i­ated dis­tri­bu­tions allow for older PCs and notebooks to be used. Potential users should note that Windows and Linux do differ quite sig­ni­fic­antly though.

The days of Windows 7 are numbered. Microsoft announced its end of support for the software back in 2012, but many users either weren’t aware of the an­nounce­ment or forgot about it. Either way, Windows 7 continues to run on many desktop PCs today still. Net­Mar­ket­Share reports that as of 2020, 26.6% of Microsoft users worldwide were still using the outdated Windows version.

The reasons are manifold. In com­par­is­on to other Windows versions, Windows 7 was a favourite among many users. Whilst its pre­de­cessor (Windows Vista) and successor (Windows 8.1) left the community feeling dis­ap­poin­ted, pro­fes­sion­al users were par­tic­u­larly fond of Windows 7.

And it’s the pro­fes­sion­al user group for whom a trans­ition to Windows 10 is difficult. A business that has equipped its entire office with hundreds of PCs all running a par­tic­u­lar operating system faces the hugely complex task of upgrading all its systems. In some cases, an upgrade may require the ac­quis­i­tion of new hardware, upgrades of other software and a good amount of time spent on con­fig­ur­a­tion.

But the al­tern­at­ive is just not viable. Following the end of support for Windows 7, it would be ir­re­spons­ible for a company to continue to work with the instable version. This does not only jeop­ard­ise a company’s data and processes, but may also endanger any customer data a business stores. In that case, busi­nesses may violate data privacy reg­u­la­tions. The EU reg­u­la­tions obligate companies to secure client and user data from access of un­au­thor­ised third-parties.