Windows 7 Reaches End of Life

Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 have reached their end of life, as Microsoft has stopped delivering all updates for the aging operating systems.

Microsoft has been warning users about the impending end of life for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 for a long time, and the January 14, 2020 date was written in stone. Starting today, Windows 7 users no longer receive security updates for the OS, no matter how important they might be.

Companies can continue to receive patches for their Windows 7 products, for a price, with the help of the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, under an annual subscription. This program won”t be available for regular users.

There”s a time limit on Extended Security Updates (ESU) as well, and the support through this channel is scheduled to end January 2023. Microsoft will continue to support the Edge browser for the same length of time.

What doesn”t this mean, in practical terms? Users won”t notice anything out of the ordinary, as the operating system will continue to boot. The problem is that, as time goes on, Windows 7 will become more and more vulnerable.

The only course of action that regular users can employ, if they want to continue using Windows 7, is to install a security solution that still offers support for the operating system.

Despite the marketing push from Microsoft to get people to upgrade to Windows 10, the true and tried Windows 7 continues to occupy around 30% of the entire market.