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

Years after it was first released, Microsoft Windows 7 still counts among the favorite 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 license every year and for each device running Windows 7. There are two options for users to join the program. Large en­ter­pris­es, or­ga­ni­za­tions, 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 au­tho­rized 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, updates, or 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 license 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. While 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 still today. 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 favorite 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 jeop­ar­dize 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 unau­tho­rized third-parties.