Windows 7 End of Life: What’s Next?
Microsoft recently announced that it will officially begin the Windows 7 end of life phase on 14 January 2020. That might sound a long way off to some, but since your Windows 7 operating system sits between hardware and applications, you may need to act sooner than you think; inevitably since some compatibility testing will be required.
To clear up any confusion: ‘end of life’ doesn’t mean that Windows 7 will cease to exist or work on 14 Jan. However, it does mean that anyone using this particular operating system will no longer be able to contact Microsoft directly for customer support. It also means that Microsoft will move on from Windows 7 and no longer patch security holes in the operating system; in effect, they will no longer fix issues that may occur.
As a result, any company computers, laptops or tablets using Windows 7 will be more vulnerable to security risks and viruses – and therefore at a higher risk of being targeted by hackers, who will likely take advantage of this.
Something else worth noting is that Microsoft may well use the deadline to cull Internet Explorer; encouraging users to use their Windows 10 Edge browser. While this won’t kill IE completely, it too will become vulnerable in a similar way to Windows 7.
What Can My Company Do?
The sooner you can move away from Windows 7 and upgrade to Windows 10, the better. There are numerous ways you can do this – but you’ll need to make sure you have a full Windows 10 license and a PC that meets all of the operating system’s requirements.
At Enterprise Solutions we can give customers the advice they need to upgrade to Windows 10.
Will No-One Offer Support?
While it’s possible that some third-party developers and application vendors will stop offering Windows 7 support after the deadline, Microsoft won’t force them to do so, so some may continue. But over time, as users increasingly turn to other platforms, developers will almost certainly stop supporting Windows 7 updates in their apps. All things considered, while upgrading sooner rather than later makes sense, the fact is Windows 7 still accounts for a sizable market share. Hundreds of millions of people are going to be affected by this end of life deadline.
Be Prepared
We know change can be difficult, so Enterprise Solutions are here to help you with recommendations for what to do next and to answer questions about end of support.
Get in touch today for further information on 01 213 5702 or support@enterprise-solutions.ie
Enterprise Solutions is an award winning trusted advisor for IT solutions and Managed Services, specialising in the End-User Compute space. We are in our 25th year and I’m pleased to say that we have added real business value to our customers in this period. Our aim is to help customers achieve their business goals, but since business goals are ever changing, IT needs to be too; so we assist clients remain as IT agile as they need to be!
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