Windows 7 is reaching the end of its life and support on January 14, 2020. It’s now time to plan your upgrade to Windows 10.
What’s happening to Windows 7?
Windows 7 (as well as Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2) will no longer be supported by Microsoft after January 14, 2020. This means there will be no more software updates or security patches. Continuing to use the operating system could make you out of compliance with industry standards. Microsoft customer service will also no longer be available for Windows 7.
Unsupported operating systems are often targeted by cyber attackers specifically because they no longer receive software updates or patches to fix flaws and vulnerabilities. By continuing to use Windows 7 past its end of support, your PC will become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses.
Your organization may also be out of compliance with industry or legal standards if you continue to run on unsupported software or operating systems.
What should you do about Windows 7’s End of Support?
It may seem like January 14, 2020 is far enough away to not worry about now, but we encourage you to start planning as early as possible to upgrade. If your organization is running any machines on Windows 7 and any servers on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2, it’s time to start planning your upgrade path and accounting for it in your budget.
There are multiple options open to you, including upgrading to Windows 10, or even taking the opportunity to move to Office 365 and Azure.
Let’s start the conversation now about what will be the best option for your organization, so that you stay secure and supported!
A note about Internet Explorer: If you use Internet Explorer as your web browser on a machine running Windows 7, support for your version of IE will also be discontinued on January 14, 2020. This is because Internet Explorer now follows the support lifecycle of the Windows operating system it is installed on.