GAME OVER FOR WIN 7

No more security updates

WINDOWS 7 has now entered the twilight world of “legacy” computing. Support from Microsoft officially ended on January 14. It is still possible to get security updates, if you’re a business and prepared to pay. Initially, ESU, Extended Security Updates, were only to be available for Professional and Enterprise versions, but Microsoft has backtracked, and now promises to support “all business customers,” as long as they have an Office 365 Business subscription. It’s a yearly fee, and is planned to last three years. It costs $25 or $50 for the first year, depending on your business subscription. This doubles per year, so could be as much as $350 per machine for the full deal. After the third year, you really are on your own. One organization that wasn’t ready was the German government, which still has thousands of Win 7 boxes, and has paid out $887,000 so far for extended support.

How many Win 7 systems are out there? More than you’d think. Most estimates are around the 25 percent mark. This is a lot of PCs, many millions, which makes it a tempting target for malicious types. It is possible that Microsoft will issue a security patch if something properly nasty happens; it did this for XP, five years after official support ended, when a worrying vulnerability was discovered.

The problem is that Windows 7 was so popular. It took Win 10 over four years to match its numbers, despite Microsoft’s free update offer. This officially ended in 2016, but it didn’t actually stop it, merely stopped publicizing it. You can still update your system from the “Download Win 10” section of the Microsoft site, as long as you have a valid license for Win 7 or later. Win 7 machines are going to be around for a long time, and while Microsoft would like you to upgrade, and doom-mongers will worry about being hacked, it looks as if it’ll soldier on for years. This isn’t a problem we’ll have when Windows 8’s time is up— it’s used on under 4 percent of PCs.