Windows 7 End of Support is getting closer
The Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System was one of the most popular computer platforms of all time. It is still in heavy use today, but its days are numbered! All software products have a life cycle and nothing lasts forever.
With ever changing hardware and increasingly complex software, operating systems need to be regularly updated to keep pace with these developments. As time goes on weaknesses and vulnerabilities
are discovered that require security patches to prevent malicious software from breaching these systems.
The Microsoft Support Cycle?
The table below shows the history of Micosoft Operating Systems (OS) and their life cycles. Each OS has a mainstream support termination date and an extended support termination date.
The mainstream date shows when an operating system will stop receiving new features and the extended support date shows when there will be no more security patches and fixes available.
What does this mean?
Currently as long as your Windows 7 computers have Windows 7 Service Pack 1 installed on them they will continue to get security patches and fixes until January 13th 2020.
These computers will function as normal and Windows Updates will be available to patch any vulnerabilities.
What happens after January 13th 2020?
Any computer running Windows 7 will continue to work. However, there will be no further patches or security fixes. This means as soon as a vulnerability is identified, malicious software will be
created that takes advantage of it. Whilst you can continue to use your Windows 7 computers after this date the risk of infection/spyware/malware and other malicious software is greatly increased.
What can we do?
January 2020 may seem like a long way off, but we know how tight school budgets are and how important future financial planning is. These are the options you have:
- Depending on the age of your computers you may already have a Windows 10 COA sticker on the unit. If so then that computer is already licenced for Windows 10 and can be upgraded.
- Older computers may have Windows 7 or Windows 8 COA stickers. These will need upgrade licences to legally use Windows 10. You can either buy these as one time upgrades or the school could opt for a Microsoft licencing agreement (OVS-ES) which would entitle you to upgrade rights for any version of Windows as well as licences for Office 2016.
- Finally, if the computers are very old or performing poorly you could opt to replace them with modern hardware which would include Windows 10.
Please note that in most cases you will require Windows 10 Pro (Professional), Education or Enterprise to use any computer on the school’s network (Active Directory Domain). The standard version of
Windows 10, sometimes referred to as Windows 10 Home is unable to join a Domain.
If you decide to move to Windows 10 our team are here to help. Other points to consider are software compatibility and licences. As a rule of thumb most software
programs that work on Windows 7 will run on Windows 10. It is worth checking that mission critical software is supported prior to any upgrades. It is also a good time
to move to a current version of Microsoft Office. Most Windows 7 computers will have Office 2010 installed on them. This product goes end of extended support in
October 2020.
Our Beebug Security software suite (which is FREE of charge with any of our support packages) is of course fully compatible with Windows 10.
Contact us for more information.