Microsoft Will No Longer Support Windows 7

Parvati Divakar - Jan 16, 2019

If you're still sticking to Windows 7, it's time for some shakeup and moving on to newer Windows versions.

There's bad news for those who are still using the old Windows 7 operating system. Reportedly, Microsoft will officially end support for this OS on January 14, 2020. This also means that the operating system will continue to work but won't be updated or get security fixed by the company.

Back in April 2014, Microsoft ended support for the 12-year-old operating system Windows XP. And now, it will do the same with Windows 7. Officially, support for Windows 7 will come to an end a year away from now.

The computer giant also announced that certain business users of the OS will have an option to pay for 3 more years of security updates. However, this policy will not be applied to home versions or individuals.

Windows 7

The executive who leads the Microsoft 365 group Brad Anderson said in a blog that technology is an ongoing process in a rapidly changing society and upgrades are unavoidable. Anderson also added:

Originally launched in 2009, Windows 7 was a major success for Microsoft. The operating system has sold over 100 million licenses worldwide in just 6 months and reached 630 million licenses sold by 2012 which at that time estimated to have run on 50 percent of enterprise desktops.

Although it has been around for nearly 10 years, Windows 7 to date is still one of the company's most popular PC OS used. And it's only until quite recently that Windows 10 can overtake Windows 7 in the desktop OS market. As per ZDNet data, Windows 10 has finally surpassed its precedent to become the most widely used desktop platform. According to a report published by NetMarketShare at the end of last year, Windows 10 has pulled ahead of its older version with 39.2% of the desktop OS market share compared to 36.9% for Windows 7.