Microsoft announced that it will terminate support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020. While January 2020 seems a faraway date, the clock is ticking—and security experts warn that 11 months is not a very long time to plan and implement a strategy to transition from the Windows 7 operating system.
With that announcement came a LOT of confusion about what exactly that means. Will you be able to run Windows 7 going forward? And what exactly does it mean that support is terminated?
Generally, Microsoft promises 10 years of support for business and enterprise software. This support period is split up into two periods: Mainstream Support and Extended Support.
Mainstream Support— free security updates and ‘hot fixes’. During this period, which generally runs around 5 years, Microsoft also provides incident support. If you bought an older version of a product, Microsoft limits its mainstream support to 2 years. This already passed back in 2015.
Extended Support— at this point (5 years after the release), Microsoft no longer provides a lot of critical support for the product. Extended support essential boils down to continued free security updates, but any additional support—incident support—will require a service change. For Windows 7, Microsoft will no longer support Windows 7 after January 2020!
For those of you wondering if you can get away with no upgrading and continuing with Windows 7, the clock is ticking! Windows will offer limited extended support to its customers through January 2020, so we would strongly caution you to consider an upgrade sooner than later.
How Can You Prepare?
Remember your deadlines—remember that support will end for Windows 7 on January 14. 2020. That’s less than a year away at this point. You definitely have time to prepare to make any upgrades to protect your business, but please remember the clock is ticking!
Evaluate which of your machines are running Windows 7—the very first step to resolving any issue is to define the problem. Here, you’ll want to figure out how many machines are still running Windows 7 to come up with a plan to upgrade them.
Determine if any software will be impacted by an upgrade—if you are running Windows 7, make sure that all of your software will work on an upgraded system. If not, we will need to strategize to figure out how to keep specific software working (if needed).
Identify a budget and a timeline—to upgrade your workstations, you might need to invest in new hardware (updating old machines with newer software might slow the computer down). Make sure you have a timeline that makes sense to get all of the upgrading done and anticipate a budget to get the work done.
For those of you wondering if you can get away with no upgrading and continuing with Windows 7 machines, the clock is ticking! Windows will only offer extended support to customers who pay for the additional service. We would strongly caution you to consider an upgrade sooner than later.
If you have Windows 7 machines and want to discuss your options, contact us today to start planning.
