Just had a screen message saying that support for Windows 7 will stop at the end of the year What are we supposed to do now....seems like only yesterday they did the same for XP. Will it be dangerous to contine using 7
Neetie
Upgrade to Windows 10, at no cost, if your intention is to remain within the Windows ecosystem. The upgrade path is still available (even though Microsoft stated they were closing it in 2016).
Since XP went out of support in 2008, even though it may seem like yesterday it isn't. Eleven years plus is a long time.
Microsoft will end official support for Windows 7 in January 2020, but that doesn't mean you need to immediately stop using it.
Unofficial/extended support supposedly will continue for another 21 - 36 months, which is something that I will start testing in February 2020.
I like Windows 7 and am in no hurry yet to switch all of my 5 full-time computers to Windows 10.
You didn't say if your computer is running Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional or Ultimate.
If it's running Windows 7 Home Premium, you can upgrade it to Windows 10 Home.
If it's running Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, you can upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro.
The upgrade process should accept your Windows 7 product key and allow you to upgrade it for free.
We don't know how computer knowledgeable you are, so the switch to Windows 10 may be an easy transition for you, or it may be an intimidating learning curve.
I have windows 7 professional,I acquired the pc with it onfrom my son in law when XP support finishedand he happened to be upgrading. I am not all that computer savvy but perhaps with your help I might be able to install the upgrade to 10. That is if you have the patience to tell me what to do.
Thanks for your input
Upgrading your computer to Windows 10 is not something that we can walk you through from here because it would be very time-consuming and difficult to do.
We would need to have a "hands on" with your computer to make the upgrade and set it up to your liking.
There are a lot of on-line pictorial guides available that show you how to do it, but it's my guess you will still need "hands on" help.
If this is a machine that was originally an XP machine, I would strongly suggest that the time to acquire new hardware is past having arrived.
Computers currently at the "low end" of the performance spectrum are virtually all higher performing machines than even high end machines of the XP era were. I would also be surprised if you could upgrade to 8GB of memory in a machine of that age, which is the bare minimum I recommend on any box where you intend to use Windows 10 as the primary operating system.
Even if it's still functioning, computer hardware has a finite shelf life because software has changed so much since XP era machines first hit the street. XP went out of support 11 1/2 years ago, which is several eons in computer terms.
It will be much less expensive in both the short and long runs to upgrade your hardware, have someone install the software you routinely use or install it yourself, and transfer your user data over to the new machine.
Bear in mind that support ended for XP in 2014** so XP may have been sold on computers about a year or two prior with a free upgrade so a computer could be as old as 6 years old... having said that, if it's any older than 8-9 years, I would agree with britekguy and I would suggest looking for a new computer. If you are in the United States, Black Friday is happening soon and Dell usually has great deals.
Official support for Windows XP SP3 ended in April 2014.
Unofficial support didn't end until April 2019.
Official support for Windows Vista SP2 ended in April 2017.
Unofficial support ends in January 2020.
Official support for Windows 7 SP1 ends in January 2020.
Unofficial support isn't scheduled to end until October 2021.
Paid extended support isn't scheduled to end until January 2023.
I'll be updating their install and update guides within the next few months.
Supposedly:
. . . But there has been some chatter that Microsoft was giving this out to their top clients and not offering it to anyone else... but this is hearsay.
I have never read anything whatsoever that suggests that Microsoft intends to offer this to anything other than large corporate (or, I'd presume, educational) entities. Extended support for individual computers (as in owned by individuals) has never, to my knowledge, been on the table.
Microsoft has clearly stated, not merely telegraphed, the drop dead date for Windows 7 for years, and the same is true in regard to Windows 8. They almost certainly have no intention of providing extended support except to entities prepared to pay through the nose for it (and at those rates times thousands of computers, it's big bucks).
I'd be firing the head of IT at any major corporation that had not planned, long before now, to have completed the transition to Windows 10, phased in over the four plus years since the release of Windows 10. Anyone in IT knows that if one is intending to stay within the Windows ecosystem it is going to be with Windows 10, just like it was with all the other major releases of Windows as prior releases were dropped from extended support. There's just no excuse for a 4-year window to be insufficient to phase in Windows 10 in entities with large, dedicated IT departments (or pretty much anywhere, for that matter). Acting like this is all a surprise (and that seems to be what some IT managers are doing) is gross incompetence.
Ron:
I will begin testing in February 2020 the "unofficial" free updates and fixes for Windows 7 SP1.
If they work (like they did for Windows XP SP3 and like they have been for Windows Vista SP2), Windows 7 SP1 should stay up-to-date until October 2021.
I will be updating my Windows 7 install and update guide, as needed.
Frank
I have absolutely no desire to go to windows 10, just saying. I am very very happy with windows 7 home premium and I plan on staying there. Now that doesn't mean that others in the house don't have windows 10 on their rigs lol. Not this guy though
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