Windows 7 RTM Support Ending Soon

jones_supa writes with this news from Ars Technica: "Windows 7 users will have to install Service Pack 1 if they want to continue to receive security fixes and other support beyond April 9th. With the release of a Service Pack, Microsoft's policy is to support the old version for two years. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 was released on 22nd February, 2011, so the phasing out of support is happening more or less on schedule. In spite of a growing number of post-Service Pack 1 fixes and updates, Microsoft has shown no signs of shipping a second Service Pack. Should Service Pack 1 be the sole major update for Windows 7, it will continue to receive mainstream support — which encompasses both security updates, non-security bugfixes, and free phone support — until 13th January 2015. Extended support — security fixes and paid incidents only — will continue until 14th January 2020."

Comments

you are an idiot

[arbiter1]

If you don't have service pack 1 installed you are an idiot anyway to run a non-updated system.

Re:you are an idiot

[UltraZelda64]

And I always thought "service pack" was just Microsoft slang for "patch roll-up." Apparently I was wrong. In this case, I don't see why Microsoft continues to develop two separate lines of what is basically the exact same OS, patch by patch. Sure, help the businesses that want time to test... fine, but it's still stupid to maintain two bases for so long, when they are essentially the same damn thing. It's more likely that third party programs are going to fuck up on you, and in my experience that does seem to be where the problems often lie.

Re:you are an idiot

[hairyfeet]

Why is this flamebait? Do you know how many security patches are in the average Windows SP? I'm sorry but anybody who has waited this long and not applied SP1 is indeed an idiot because every script kiddie on the planet uses those patches and SPs to reverse engineer new exploits specifically targeting fools that don't update the thing.

That said just because you need to apply an SP or a shitload of patches doesn't mean you have to do it the stupid way, not when there is WSUS Offline which will let you download and unattended install the service pack AND all the patches AND all the .NET updates AND any MS Office SPs and updates from 2K3-2K10 AND update DirectX AND Silverlight AND Windows media player AND Ineternet explorer, all at once and unattended. Granted if you are doing a clean install of RTM you'll probably have to run it twice of be sure to turn off UAC until you are done as it can't reboot and re-run itself with UAC on but for all the benefits of having everything done automatically while you go have lunch its well worth that tiny bit of effort.

So there really is no excuse as between WSUS and Ninite for all your third party stuff unattended, like flash, hulu, your choice of several browsers and AVs, etc you can take a bare drive and have a fully loaded fully patched Win 7 system in less than an hour and a half with you only being required for maybe 5 clicks all told, everything is taken care of.

So I'm sorry but the parent is right, anybody that doesn't install SP1 is an idiot, they might as well turn off their firewall and take their unpatched IE and start surfing dodgy websites because they are frankly asking for it.

I think I can make it

[tsotha]

I think I can make it to the next bearable version of Windows, assuming they keep following the "every other version is crap" strategy. There's no way I'm every going to buy the mobile operating system they've released for my desktop.

Re:What exactly is a Service Pack?

[slashdot_commentator]

A service pack is a form of configuration management. Think of every binary in the Windows operating system as a program with a version. Microsoft wants to encourage developers to support the latest version of their patched OS. That is, of course, feasibly impossible, especially when some developers are confronted with major behavioral change in one OS program update that their application is dependent upon. So having a "blessed" minimal collection of binary versions makes Microsoft only responsible for those versions. It then becomes incumbent for the developers to make sure their application works to SP1 versions of all those OS programs, and the developers cease to be responsible for making their app work with the original OS binary/daemon that was released with the Windows 7 rollout. (And yes, this is a descriptive simplification of the issue.)

There is more going on with a service pack than just throwing together the latest version of each OS binary. Yes, I wish Microsoft would put out an SP2 already, even if they want to commit corporate suicide by abandoning Windows 7 to get customers to move to Windows 8.

Re:(groan)

[hairyfeet]

But you and everyone else is ignoring the elephant in the room, the same one that causes me to this very day to have infected system cross my desk that are still running XP SP2, and that is piracy.

The reason why so many unpatched Windows systems exists is because the pirates kill Windows Updates for fear that their pirated system will get flagged for WGA. Now this is a case where I can't blame MSFT, you can buy an OEM copy of Win 7 Home for around $100 which equals just $14 a year for the life of the OS, so there really is no excuse but being a little shop owner you'd be surprised how many systems you find in yard sales or being sold on CL has Windows Ultimate with updates turned off. Its kinda sad how obvious these pirates are, when you see a system with some old cheap hardware like a Pentium D running an OS that costs 4 times what the system did? Yeah you can be pretty sure its the "Razr1911 Edition" they are using.

But considering the only systems I don't see patched after SP1 was released nearly 3 years ago is pirate systems I just can't blame MSFT for dropping support as pretty much all that is left without SP1 is the pirates it seems.

Re:looks like

[crutchy]

lucky for them much of the cloud is powered by linux

Re:5 hours

[mcgrew]

I recently installed Windows 7 on two machines. It took 5 hours on both machines to download, setup all patches. It restarted itself about 15 times.

I recently reinstalled kubuntu 10.04 because 12 sucked. It took half an hour, only one reboot. Strange that a free OS is so superior to an expensive one.