Microsoft has officially announced that it is dropping support of Windows 7. This comes nearly 11 years after the extremely popular operating system was first launched in New York City. The OS came as a suitable fix for the failed Windows Vista which was released before it and indeed, it turned out to be a worthy replacement bringing on board a new taskbar, Aero window management, file libraries, and much more.
Windows 7 went on to amass so much popularity that even the Windows 8 found no place near it. Even the Windows 10 had to wait for nearly 4 years before it could surpass the market share of Windows 7. Available data from Netmarketshare shows that millions of PCs worldwide are still running Windows 7 with the operating system running on 26 percent of all PCs.
EDITOR’S PICK: Xiaomi’s Aqara officially unveils its range of smart home products in the US
Microsoft even had to try to get people to upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge. While that might have helped Windows 10 gain prominence over 7, there are still tens of millions of PCs still running Windows 7. Those PCs will now be left vulnerable to exploits and security vulnerabilities. From today (Wednesday), a full-screen notification will appear for Windows 7 users warning that systems are now out of support.
Businesses and education Windows 7 users will be able to pay for extended security updates, but it could be a costly venture for some. Extended updates for Windows 7 Enterprise is approximately $25 per machine, and the cost doubles to $50 per device in 2021 and again to $100 in 2022. Windows 7 Pro users will be hit the hardest as extended security updates start at $50 per machine and will jump to $100 in 2021 and $200 in 2022. These costs will naturally vary depending on the volume of PCs in use at a business, but they’re still going to be substantial for larger firms. Windows 7 customers with active Windows 10 subscriptions will get a free year of post-retirement updates.
