End of the Road for Windows 7

[DogNo1]

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support Windows 7 after January 13, 2015. It will continue to issue security fixes only for another six months after that: until June 13, 2015. The source was an article in CNET. Windows 9 anyone?

[piston broke]

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support Windows 7 after January 13, 2015. It will continue to issue security fixes only for another six months after that: until June 13, 2015. The source was an article in CNET. Windows 9 anyone?

Bleedin hell, i'm still trundling along with XP and was contemplating going to Win 7......oh well.....

[MKAsok]

What's your source DogNo 1? My understanding is that extended support will not be withdrawn for Win 7 until 11 April 2017. That means security updates until that date.

[NeverSure]

Microsoft can't make as much money if it doesn't make new versions, and make old versions obsolete. I could have lived a long time with 7 ult. and a few free 3rd party utilities.

We are stuck and going "forward." My new laptop won't run 7 because Toshiba never made 7 drivers for it. I won't tell my horror story about that again, but I'll just say that one should never wipe a disk so thoroughly that he deletes the "hidden" restore partition, LOL. If I want to do something that radical again I'll first run a dual boot to be sure it works.

Anyway, from now on we will eventually be forced into newer and newer version.

And the first Mac or Linux sissy who tells me to switch to a sissy OS can go jump in a lake, LOL.

[gerry123]

oops still running vista prof did i miss xp and 7 ??

[Chicog]

They are ending support for Win 7 in 2020.

They are ending *mainstream* support for Windows 7 in six months. But updates will continue until 2020.

Move along now, nothing to see here.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced that it is ending free mainstream support for all versions of Windows 7 on Jan. 13, 2015. After that time, users will need to pay for extended support to get bug fixes and feature updates. Microsoft is, however, promising to offer security updates for Windows 7 until Jan. 14, 2020, when the operating system hits its scheduled end of life.

[pmarlin]

More info here

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

[JSixpack]

Microsoft can't make as much money if it doesn't make new versions, and make old versions obsolete. I could have lived a long time with 7 ult. and a few free 3rd party utilities.

We are stuck and going "forward." My new laptop won't run 7 because Toshiba never made 7 drivers for it. I won't tell my horror story about that again, but I'll just say that one should never wipe a disk so thoroughly that he deletes the "hidden" restore partition, LOL. If I want to do something that radical again I'll first run a dual boot to be sure it works.

Anyway, from now on we will eventually be forced into newer and newer version.

And the first Mac or Linux sissy who tells me to switch to a sissy OS can go jump in a lake, LOL.

Nothing new there.

[MKAsok]

More info here

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

Ah, I was thinking of the date for Vista. Good info.

[WhizBang]

Microsoft can't make as much money if it doesn't make new versions, and make old versions obsolete. I could have lived a long time with 7 ult. and a few free 3rd party utilities.

We are stuck and going "forward." My new laptop won't run 7 because Toshiba never made 7 drivers for it. I won't tell my horror story about that again, but I'll just say that one should never wipe a disk so thoroughly that he deletes the "hidden" restore partition, LOL. If I want to do something that radical again I'll first run a dual boot to be sure it works.

Anyway, from now on we will eventually be forced into newer and newer version.

And the first Mac or Linux sissy who tells me to switch to a sissy OS can go jump in a lake, LOL.

If all you do on the computer, as many do, is surf the internet, Linux will serve you well.

When 7 came out Balmer declared Microsoft would never again allow such long intervals between OS versions. He stated MS was now on a 2 year new OS schedule.

Obviously revenue was far more important to MS than a stable OS or satisfied customers.

[WhizBang]

oops still running vista prof did i miss xp and 7 ??

If you are running Vista, you couldn"t have missed XP, could you?

Actually, did not know anybody was actually running Vista.

Edited July 11, 2014 by WhizBang

[gerry123]

did i miss xp and 7 ?? did i ??? was the question better you explain why you think i couldn't have

[DogNo1]

Here is a link to the CNET article: http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-warns-support-ending-for-popular-windows-products/

I was mistaken about the extended support period. It is indeed until January 14, 2020 although I'm not sure what the limitations of extended support will be. It seems likely that versions of programs sold after January 13, 2015 will stop working in Windows 7 at some point. Of more concern to me is the end of support for Office 10 and for versions of Server 2008 of which my Windows Home Server 2011 is one. It looks as though I'll have to transition to Office 2013 although I don't like it as well as Office 2010. Also, I'll need to transition to Server 2012 Essentials if I want to keep backing up my network to my server. I'll be watching closely for the announcement of more details concerning the transition from WHS 2011 to Server 2012 Essentials. I've read the referenced page on Microsoft explaining the reason for the changes. It looks as though I have a lot of work ahead of me. In the meantime, I am negotiating with Acronis for a ten-seat subscription for True Image 2014 which will allow me to backup to NAS if the server upgrade proves too painful. Any comments and suggestions will be appreciated.

[Pib]

They are ending support for Win 7 in 2020.

They are ending *mainstream* support for Windows 7 in six months. But updates will continue until 2020.

Move along now, nothing to see here.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced that it is ending free mainstream support for all versions of Windows 7 on Jan. 13, 2015. After that time, users will need to pay for extended support to get bug fixes and feature updates. Microsoft is, however, promising to offer security updates for Windows 7 until Jan. 14, 2020, when the operating system hits its scheduled end of life.

By 2020 the latest Windows operating system will probably be Win 12 and everyone will be be saying how great Win 11, 10, and 9 were...no need to upgrade to Win 12.

[Chicog]

They are ending support for Win 7 in 2020.

They are ending *mainstream* support for Windows 7 in six months. But updates will continue until 2020.

Move along now, nothing to see here.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced that it is ending free mainstream support for all versions of Windows 7 on Jan. 13, 2015. After that time, users will need to pay for extended support to get bug fixes and feature updates. Microsoft is, however, promising to offer security updates for Windows 7 until Jan. 14, 2020, when the operating system hits its scheduled end of life.

By 2020 the latest Windows operating system will probably be Win 12 and everyone will be be saying how great Win 11, 10, and 9 were...no need to upgrade to Win 12.

I don't know, we still have 400 XP's we're stuck with for at least another year. Fortunately we found a way to get the updates free.

[ezzra]

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support Windows 7 after January 13, 2015. It will continue to issue security fixes only for another six months after that: until June 13, 2015. The source was an article in CNET. Windows 9 anyone?

Bleedin hell, i'm still trundling along with XP and was contemplating going to Win 7......oh well.....

Lucky you, I'm still on Windows 1.0 .......

[jacky54]

Does this mean the copy I bought for 150 baht and have never updated will not work any more?

[Deacon Bell]

You mean there are still Wintards using this stuff. Amazing.

[DogNo1]

One little detail about the extend support until January 14, 2020 is that security updates will be free. Updating any other features will cost you.

[Jdiddy]

People are overly paranoid about security updates, just install adblock plus, dont click on fancy big "download this!" buttons and youll be right

Anyway since 98SE its been every 2nd OS for me

98SE

skipped ME (shit)

XP

skipped Vista (shit)

7

skipping 8 (initially shit, 8.1 is ok ive heard but no real reason to stop using 7)

[harrry]

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectwin

May help people find when their support ends.

[lostinisaan]

They are ending support for Win 7 in 2020.

They are ending *mainstream* support for Windows 7 in six months. But updates will continue until 2020.

Move along now, nothing to see here.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced that it is ending free mainstream support for all versions of Windows 7 on Jan. 13, 2015. After that time, users will need to pay for extended support to get bug fixes and feature updates. Microsoft is, however, promising to offer security updates for Windows 7 until Jan. 14, 2020, when the operating system hits its scheduled end of life.

By 2020 the latest Windows operating system will probably be Win 12 and everyone will be be saying how great Win 11, 10, and 9 were...no need to upgrade to Win 12.

If we're all still alive at this time.

[NeverSure]

Microsoft can't make as much money if it doesn't make new versions, and make old versions obsolete. I could have lived a long time with 7 ult. and a few free 3rd party utilities.

We are stuck and going "forward." My new laptop won't run 7 because Toshiba never made 7 drivers for it. I won't tell my horror story about that again, but I'll just say that one should never wipe a disk so thoroughly that he deletes the "hidden" restore partition, LOL. If I want to do something that radical again I'll first run a dual boot to be sure it works.

Anyway, from now on we will eventually be forced into newer and newer version.

And the first Mac or Linux sissy who tells me to switch to a sissy OS can go jump in a lake, LOL.

If all you do on the computer, as many do, is surf the internet, Linux will serve you well.

When 7 came out Balmer declared Microsoft would never again allow such long intervals between OS versions. He stated MS was now on a 2 year new OS schedule.

Obviously revenue was far more important to MS than a stable OS or satisfied customers.

Who just surfs the internet? How are you going to get your linux/android anything to work with Server?

Do you realize how many corporate employees have bought themselves a cool notebook or tablet only to have to dump it and get one with a Microsoft OS so they could work from home?

Go into a huge Google server farm. They run Unix on the thousands and thousands of servers for the internet there, but in the office and across the corporate WAN they run Microsoft for the granularity of Microsoft Server and AD.

[Jdiddy]

Win XP onwards was/is pretty stable, things have come along way since the 90s

The guy with the Toshiba laptop, unless Toshiba engineered their own components and didnt use Intel/AMD and nvidia or ATI ect ect then i assure you there are Windows 7 drivers for it, mate of mine bought a brand new laptop with 8 installed last year, wanted 7, I annihilated every single bloody partition on the hard drive and put 7 on it, looked up the model number to get a list of what display adapter, network adapter ect it uses, DLed and loaded the drivers with a usb stick, its running great

[JetsetBkk]

People are overly paranoid about security updates, just install adblock plus, dont click on fancy big "download this!" buttons and youll be right

Anyway since 98SE its been every 2nd OS for me

98SE

skipped ME (shit)

XP

skipped Vista (shit)

7

skipping 8 (initially shit, 8.1 is ok ive heard but no real reason to stop using 7)

I've got to your 3rd line above. Then...

Vista (shit)

7 (even bigger shit)

etc

etc

[NeverSure]

Win XP onwards was/is pretty stable, things have come along way since the 90s

The guy with the Toshiba laptop, unless Toshiba engineered their own components and didnt use Intel/AMD and nvidia or ATI ect ect then i assure you there are Windows 7 drivers for it, mate of mine bought a brand new laptop with 8 installed last year, wanted 7, I annihilated every single bloody partition on the hard drive and put 7 on it, looked up the model number to get a list of what display adapter, network adapter ect it uses, DLed and loaded the drivers with a usb stick, its running great

Oh, I wish you were right about drivers. Toshiba has its own motherboards made, and the bios is made by a company called Insyde. I have version 1.30. This bios has the product ID and the product key hard coded into it and there are no stop screens to enter them. They install automatically from the bios when you install Windows. They are encrypted in the registry and there's no hope of changing them. So validation using a disk other than the Toshiba recovery is impossible, even when using a Win 8 Pro disk which is what the laptop shipped with.

That's not about drivers, it's just another unsolvable issue.

Assure me all you'd like, but Toshiba specs out and has made many of the things on its motherboard and has the mobos made. You are right that I did find drivers for most of the individual items but there isn't one available for the wifi nic or the video. Something else was missing too. There were only Win 8 drivers listed and I tried them and they didn't work with 7. Both versions are 64 bit if that matters.

What is understandable is that when new hardware is made for a captive manufacturer who is only going forward with 8, there's no need for a 7 driver. Using programs that list the hardware in a computer, much of it is branded Toshiba regardless of who made it.

In the end I wound up ordering a restore disk from Toshiba which came as a bootable USB stick. It is unique to my laptop based on model and serial #.

[happysanook]

Very strange. Final support for XP was not pulled but just a couple months ago.

[Chicog]

Very strange. Final support for XP was not pulled but just a couple months ago.

They are still providing updates to those who pay (one way or the other).

[NeverSure]

Win XP onwards was/is pretty stable, things have come along way since the 90s

The guy with the Toshiba laptop, unless Toshiba engineered their own components and didnt use Intel/AMD and nvidia or ATI ect ect then i assure you there are Windows 7 drivers for it, mate of mine bought a brand new laptop with 8 installed last year, wanted 7, I annihilated every single bloody partition on the hard drive and put 7 on it, looked up the model number to get a list of what display adapter, network adapter ect it uses, DLed and loaded the drivers with a usb stick, its running great

Oh, I wish you were right about drivers. Toshiba has its own motherboards made, and the bios is made by a company called Insyde. I have version 1.30. This bios has the product ID and the product key hard coded into it and there are no stop screens to enter them. They install automatically from the bios when you install Windows. They are encrypted in the registry and there's no hope of changing them. So validation using a disk other than the Toshiba recovery is impossible, even when using a Win 8 Pro disk which is what the laptop shipped with.

That's not about drivers, it's just another unsolvable issue.

Assure me all you'd like, but Toshiba specs out and has made many of the things on its motherboard and has the mobos made. You are right that I did find drivers for most of the individual items but there isn't one available for the wifi nic or the video. Something else was missing too. There were only Win 8 drivers listed and I tried them and they didn't work with 7. Both versions are 64 bit if that matters.

What is understandable is that when new hardware is made for a captive manufacturer who is only going forward with 8, there's no need for a 7 driver. Using programs that list the hardware in a computer, much of it is branded Toshiba regardless of who made it.

In the end I wound up ordering a restore disk from Toshiba which came as a bootable USB stick. It is unique to my laptop based on model and serial #.

Let me add that I have no doubt that if you built your own computer using off the shelf parts as we do, that there would be a normal bios and 7 drivers available. I'm talking about a purpose made motherboard with built in nic, video, sound etc. that might be made to Toshiba specs and branded Toshiba, and made with a Toshiba spec'd bios which isn't the same thing.

[Jdiddy]

Ok, sounds like the sort of computer i'd just end up destroying with an axe

Im sure there is someone out there running 7 on it with full hardware functioning, computers and software are like that, there is always a way around things