Why you need to upgrade your Windows 7 PC’s.

Why you need to replace your old Windows 7 PC’s. 

Microsoft have announced that Windows 7 will be going end of life, and you might be wondering why this is happening and what that means for your business? In this article we look at the Why, 

Why you need to upgrade? 

Microsoft have been pushing this message for a long time now, but a lot of customers are not aware of this change. The statement below from Microsoft explains why they will not be continuing to support this software. 

Microsoft made a commitment to provide 10 years of product support for Windows 7 when it was released on October 22, 2009. When this 10-year period ends, Microsoft will discontinue Windows 7 support so that we can focus our investment on supporting newer technologies and great new experiences. The specific end of support day for Windows 7 will be January 14, 2020. After that, technical assistance and software updates from Windows Update that help protect your PC will no longer be available for the product. Microsoft strongly recommends that you move to Windows 10 sometime before January 2020 to avoid a situation where you need service or support that is no longer available. 

What will change? 

The two key elements in the change is the lack of future updates and support, we rely on monthly updates to ensure our systems remain secure. Secondly there will be no support from Microsoft to resolve support issues. If it goes wrong and something stops working, then you must do the best you can to resolve the issue. 

After January 14, 2020, if your PC is running Windows 7, it will no longer receive security updates. Therefore, it’s important that you upgrade to a modern operating system such as Windows 10, which can provide the latest security updates to help keep you and your data safer. In addition, Microsoft customer service will no longer be available to provide Windows 7 technical support. 

Over time we may see many applications becoming Windows 10 compatible only, so you could be limited in the software you can run.  

What are the choices? 

We have many customers with Microsoft Windows 7.0, it was one of those versions that everyone loved to use. It followed the general rule of thumb with all Windows versions that every other version is great and in-between you should just miss it. 

Windows Version Rating 
Windows XP  Great 
Windows Vista Hate 
Windows 7 Great 
Windows 8 Hate 
Windows 10 Great 

Windows Versions with customer feedback

Option 1 – Stick with Windows 7 

You can stick with what you have, Windows 7 won’t stop working however you are taking a big risk with this approach. The lack of security updates would be the biggest risk, any new exploits would go unprotected that could invalidate any cyber insurance that you may have and cause you to fail any security standards such as Cyber Essentials or ISO27001. 

Option 2 – Upgrade to Windows 10 

For most customers the logical choice is to go to Windows 10, we know from feedback that Windows 8 follows the general rule and is very much unloved. Upgrade to Windows 10, continue getting updates and maintaining compatibility with the latest applications. 

Windows 10 will remain supported until October 2025 and will be the last version of Windows in the current model as we know it, now that Microsoft has implemented its Modern Lifecyle approach with bi-annual upgrades. (More on this in the next article) 

How can you upgrade? 

There are really two simple choices in how you should upgrade, and we would base this upon the age of the system, the license delivered with the PC and the specification of the PC. 

Upgrade Windows on existing PC’s 

Many users purchased Windows 8 and 10 PC’s with downgrade rights to Windows 7. Microsoft knew that many organizations had adopted Windows 7 for the long haul as their standard and gave the option of retaining this on new PC’s.  If you have a PC that is 3 years old or less and has a reasonable specification and has a Windows 10 license, then we can reload the operating system without replacing the hardware.  

Replace PC’s 

If you have a PC that is 3 years old or more, poor specification or license for Windows 7 or Windows 8 only, then consider just replacing it with a new PC. The table below gives some guidance on how you can easily decide on the next course of action. If you want more advice then contact us. 

System Specification Older than 3 Years  Newer than 3 Years 
 Windows 7  Replace with new Windows 10 PC Replace with new Windows 10 PC 
 Windows 8 with downgrade to 7  Replace with new Windows 10 PC  Consider Upgrade to Windows 10 
 Windows 10 with downgrade to 7  Consider Upgrade to Windows 10 Upgrade to Windows 10 
 Windows 10  Consider hardware upgrade  All Good 

Microsoft Windows 7 Statement  

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4057281/windows-7-support-will-end-on-january-14-2020