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Windows 7 Enters Its Final Year of Free Support (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Windows 7's five years of extended support will expire on January 14, 2020 -- exactly one year from today. After this date, security fixes will no longer be freely available for the operating system that's still widely used. As always, the end of free support does not mean the end of support entirely. Microsoft has long offered paid support options for its operating systems beyond their normal lifetime, and Windows 7 is no different. What is different is the way that paid support will be offered. For previous versions of Windows, companies had to enter into a support contract of some kind to continue to receive patches. For Windows 7, however, the extra patches will simply be an optional extra that can be added to an existing volume license subscription -- no separate support contract needed -- on a per-device basis. These Extended Security Updates (ESU) will be available for three years after the 2020 cut-off, with prices escalating each year.
Well, it's a non-starter. I'll probably stop using computers soon.
Of the OSes that come with any sort of support Windows has gone batshit insane with Windows 10; Mac OS has been crap since 10.7 with constant kernel memory leaks, not to mention apple doesn't actually provide support; ChromeOS is a non-starter because it is just a browser and any sort of commercially supported Linux got infested with systemd.
And I sure as hell will run systemd-free Linux or FreeBSD but will not enjoy it. The days of the computer as a creative device you had control over are over.
I'd rather take my chances with "unsupported" Windows 7 (been running with automatic updates disabled for years) then allow that MS spyware garbage on my networks and risk updates that break. Nothing will change next year except maybe more computers running Win 7 inside VMs.
Telemetry should be OPT IN, not opt in. If MS can't even respect my wishes then I can't respect their forced downgrades.
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NEVER mix business with pleasure; your business will get fucked over by someone who enjoys the pleasure
With Windows 10 not being a viable replacement to 7 due to forced updates and telemetry there is going to be an unprecedented amount of people using Windows 7 after the deadline. It will be bigger than the end of XP. There is certainly going to be more wannacry style attacks due to the amount of sitting ducks that are going to be created. Microsoft could easily prevent this but they will instead risk world security for a few billion extra dollars. In a sane world legal action would be taken to force Microsoft to make a fit for purpose successor to Windows 7, but Microsoft enjoys money too much and can bribe their way out of it.
Umm... ESCALATING? Do you mean free patches for a full decade, with a free upgrade path to the fully supported next generation of the OS, along with constant pleas to upgrade off your decade-old OS for the past several years? With *optional* extended support available for a fee for that small percentage of users who are unable or unwilling to relegate their decade-old to the dustbin of history?
Face it, OS technology moves forward, and unless you are still using Windows 1.0, this should not be a surprise to you.
If there was a better version of Windows to be purchased I would buy it and be happy about spending the money. So would a lot of other users.
The problem is Microsoft has neglected to release a viable replacement.
Gesus christ. Do you use this OS? Do you use it regularly? Is it the "Professional" version?
I can set the "Active Hours". The active hours are configured so that within any 24 hour block there will always be a period of time outside the active hours. Microsoft uses this period of time to apply forced updates, some (not all) of which will reboot the system, REGARDLESS OF WHAT IT IS DOING.
How do you not understand this?
Here are some related articles on the topic. Most interest is from users wanting to stop Windows restarting unexpectedly.
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/stop-windows-automatic-reboots
https://www.maketecheasier.com/stop-windows10-forced-updates/ [Note that Group Policy Editor was later disabled in the "Professional" version]
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-prevent-windows-10-rebooting-after-installing-updates
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/disable-forced-restarts-windows-update/
If you can be bothered to read them, notice that most of these "solutions" involve disabling updates, or, applying registry hacks that may work for the current version, but could be disabled in the next release.
I don't know about you, but I refuse to fight with my OS. I have much better things to do with my time.
[Cue the "Like Post On Slashdot" rebuttal. He he, this is rec time :)]