Starting tomorrow, January 13, the two currently most used iterations of Microsoft’s toweringly dominant desktop OS will officially be out of mainstream and extended support respectively. Quite a bizarre occurrence, but despite their advanced age, Windows 7 and XP keep looking down upon their 8 and 8.1 inheritors.
Over five years after hitting general availability, Windows 7 is ready to retire from active duty. This isn’t news, but we’d like to refresh your memory as to what the end of mainstream support phase actually entails. It’s far from the platform’s demise, although it’s not exactly a new beginning either.
Some things will change, mostly for the worse, starting with no further cosmetic alterations. Take a good look at your beloved operating system and user interface, and brace yourselves for another five years of the same.
Which brings us to the good news. Even if Windows 10 flops, 8 and 8.1 remain just as underwhelming, and version 11 (or 13) doesn’t roll out by January 14, 2020, you can still count on 7. Besides the no-aesthetical-makeover policy, fresh features in general won’t be offered via updates anymore, but as far as security goes, Microsoft will have your back until the end of the extended support half a decade from today.
Meanwhile, business entities with extended support contracts will also be getting the occasional stability fix. Bottom line, tomorrow mustn’t be a day of grief. It’s not like April 8, 2014, which went down in history as Windows XP’s downfall. That was the extended support wrap-up, this is merely the end of mainstream support.
Besides, PCs running 7 Professional out the box continue to be sold by virtually everyone in the business, further proving Vista’s much-lauded successor still has life in it. 56.26 percent worth of life, according to the latest usage numbers reported by Net Market Share, up from a little over 50 six months ago and down a microscopic 0.15 percent between November and December 2014.
