It's been a long time coming-- Microsoft finally closes the window on Windows 7, following the commitment to offer 10 years of support for the OS when it was released back on 22 October 2009.
But what does end of support even mean? As per Microsoft, after 14 January 2020 PCs running on Windows 7 will no longer receiver security updates. In addition, the company is also shutting down number of related services, including games such as Internet Backgammon and Internet Checkers and the Electronic Program Guide for Windows Media Centre. As such, Microsoft recommends customers still to upgrade their OS should either do that (for a fee, of course) or simply buy a Windows 10 machine. After all, older machines might not be able to run Windows 10, as it needs at least a 1GHz processor, 32GB or storage and 1GB of RAM, among other system requirements.
That said, while Windows 7 is over a decade old it remains very much use. According to NetMarketshare, Windows 7 continues to reside in around 32% of PCs, making it the second most popular OS after Windows 10. Such numbers suggest the OS has at least a year or two life left, something confirmed by Google as it commits to support the Chrome browser on Windows 7 until at least H2 2021.
As such, we can expect the migration to Windows 10 to continue for a while yet. We might even see Microsoft break tradition and release further public Windows 7 security patches, something it has already done for outdated versions of Windows 10. The same cannot be said for Windows 8, though, since it already it already runs on less than 1% of PCs.
