Software & services that will end in 2020
Is your favourite program, app or web service due to disappear this year? Will Stapley reveals the significant dates of demise to add to your diary
All things come to an end. We mark the looming end dates for some of your favourite programs and online services
Windows 7
14 January
By the time you read this (unless you’re a subscriber, in which case you’ll receive your copy of Computeractive a few days early), one of Microsoft’s most popular products – Windows 7 – will have reached the end of its life. This means the ageing operating system won’t receive any more security updates or bug fixes from Microsoft. Over the past few issues, we’ve comprehensively covered everything from upgrading to Windows 10 through to running Windows 7 safely, so we won’t bore you by repeating everything here (grab our 2019 back issue CD from www.snipca.com/33711 if you need to catch up). What’s more, while Microsoft will no longer offer technical support to Windows 7 users, we’ll still be here for you – just email your problems to noproblem@computeractive.co.uk.
BBC Red Button
30 January
From 302 (Division 2/3 football scores) to 526 (film reviews), we all had our favourite Ceefax page numbers. In 1999, this painfully slow but beautifully simple service was overshadowed by the BBC’S Red Button service, bringing with it a sharper design and faster page loading. Ceefax went off air in 2012, and this year the Red Button follows suit. Needless to say, many of you are up in arms at yet another perfectly good service being killed off – not least Alan Turk, who asked us what he could do to replace it (see Issue 564, page 19).
Our advice to Alan still stands: you can get a similar service by downloading the BBC News app to your phone (Android www.snipca.com/33647; IOS www.snipca.com/33648), then mirroring your phone’s screen to your TV using the Chromecast streaming device (£30 www.google.com/chromecast) – see screenshot above.
Cortana app
31 January
Microsoft has had difficulty getting people to interact with Cortana, the digital assistant built into Windows 10. The company recently bowed to pressure by allowing users to summon other assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa, on the Windows lock screen.
Microsoft has decided to pull its Cortana app for Android and IOS devices at the end of January. Any to-do lists you’ve created using the Cortana app will open in Microsoft’s To Do app ( https://
todo.microsoft.com), and you can still use Cortana on your phone, but only within Microsoft’s various Office apps.
1 February
Don’t panic – Facebook isn’t about to kill off its hugely popular Whatsapp messaging service, but if you use an ageing phone, you may find that it soon stops working. Support for phones running operating systems older than Android 4.0.3 or IOS 9 will end in February (while Windows Phone users will find it’s already been axed).
If you’re not sure which version of Android you’re running, tap Settings, ‘About phone’, then look under ‘Android version’. On an iphone, tap Settings,
General, About, then look under Software Version. But if you bought your phone within the last few years, you’ll be able to fire off endless Whatsapp messages for many years to come.
Wunderlist
6 May
Two years after buying the popular Wunderlist to-do list service in 2015, Microsoft announced plans to shut it down. And in May this year, that’s exactly what it will do. As we mentioned in Issue 570 (page 20), Wunderlist’s army of fans aren’t best pleased that Microsoft decided to buy then dispose of a perfectly good service. Microsoft intends to shift Wunderlist users to its own To Do service – if you’re one of them, simply install To Do, then follow the instructions to import your various lists. You’ll need to reshare any to-do lists you’ve shared with others once you’ve moved to To Do, however.
Virtualbox 32bit
1-31 (TBC) July
We love Virtualbox. It lets you create a virtual PC that you can run in a window on your desktop, so you can test programs, try new settings or do whatever you please in a completely separate copy of Windows 7, Windows 10 or any other operating system. If you’re running Virtualbox on a 32bit PC, however, your virtual PC time is nearly up. The current version of Virtualbox (6.1) is 64bit only, and while you can still download the last 32bit version (5.2), support for this ends in July this year. The precise date hasn’t been announced yet.
A simple way to find out which type of PC you’ve got is to try installing version 6.1 of Virtualbox. If your PC is 32bit, you’ll see a message saying it’s not supported (see screenshot below). Alternatively, click Start, type about your PC, then press Enter and look under ‘System type’ on the right.
Microsoft Office 2010
13 October
Microsoft has always struggled to persuade people to upgrade to the latest versions of Office. Most home users only need a fraction of the tools available in Word, Excel, Outlook and so on, so simply adding new ones they’re unlikely to use does little to entice them. By ending support for old versions (as the company is doing with Office 2010 later this year), Microsoft can play the security card, warning you that your old version is now unsafe. However, running an unsupported version of Office is far less risky than running an unsupported operating system, and we know from your emails that many of you are still running Office 2007, 2003 and even earlier versions without any problems. We still recommend caution when opening documents or spreadsheets from unknown sources – these can contain malware that exploits vulnerabilities in older versions of Office. However, up-to-date antivirus software should spot these before you open them. Alternatively, switch to Libreoffice ( www.libreoffice.org) and you’ll get a fully supported office suite for free.
Adobe Flash
31 December
Flash was once the undisputed king of online video and animation. For many years, countless websites relied on it – including Youtube, which used it to show hundreds of thousands of free videos before switching to the faster, safer HTML5 in 2015. Flash’s star soon started to fade, however, amid criticism that it was not only buggy but also potentialy dangerous. And when Steve Jobs penned his famous ‘Thoughts on Flash’ article in 2010 ( www.snipca.com/33712), in which he announced that Apple wouldn’t allow Flash on ipods, iphones and ipads, it was clear that the end was nigh.
The fact that Flash has survived until now is testament to how widely it was used, but in 2017 its owner, Adobe, said support would finally end at the end of 2020. What does this mean for you? If you use a website that runs Flash (and you’ll know if it does, because every major browser blocks Flash by default - see screenshot above), check whether they’re developing a non-flash version. If not, look for an alternative service.
Google Cloud Print
31 December
Google’s Cloud Print service is great in principle, because it lets you turn a bog-standard Usb-connected printer into a networked device that you can send documents to from anywhere. Unlike most Google services, however, it looks unpolished and has been in beta since its launch in 2010. It wasn’t a huge surprise, therefore, when Google announced that Cloud Print will stop working on 31 December. If you still use a USB printer, our advice is to upgrade to a Wi-fi model. They’re cheap (Canon’s MG3650S is just £30 from Argos www.snipca.com/33649) and you can print to them from any computer or mobile device.