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Windows 7 Enters Its Final Year of Free Support (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the public-service-announcement dept.

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.

2 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Still better than that Spyware Win 10 by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    NEVER mix business with pleasure; your business will get fucked over by someone who enjoys the pleasure

  2. Re: Why are they doing it this way, do they hate u by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.