Windows 7 extended support to stop in one year's time

Not planning a migration from Windows 7 this year? You should be…

Extended support for Windows 7 will stop in precisely one year, on 14 January 2020 - yet around one-third of all PCs are still running the near ten-year old operating system, while the number of enterprises still running Windows 7 could be higher still.

Mainstream support for Windows 7 stopped four years ago, in January 2015, with the operating system shifted to extended support for the next five years. Extended support means that users have continued to receive security updates and bug fixes, but no new features.

However, after 14 January 2020, support will be discontinued entirely. Microsoft's date for the end of extended support will also encourage software vendors to stop supporting Windows 7, which means applications will also stop working, too.

For organisations that have not migrated before January 2020, the only alternative will be special support from Microsoft, like it offered for Windows XP, but this will not be cheap. Prices will vary depending on volume (Microsoft charges per device), and will go up the further from the end-of-life date you go.

By January 2023, which will be the absolute stop date for all forms of support, stragglers could be paying a small fortune. Organisations such as the Metropolitan Police and the National Health Service (NHS) were both strongly criticised for failing to migrate from Windows XP in a timely fashion.

According to the latest figures from NetMarketShare, 36 per cent of PC owners are still running Windows 7, although Windows 10 has - finally - overtaken Windows 7 in terms of usage with a share of just over 39 per cent.

However, the figures for organisations running Windows 7 could be higher, with consultancy Kollective suggesting that as many as 43 per cent worldwide are still hooked on Windows 7.

Three years after the January 2020 cessation of support for Windows 7 Microsoft will also discontinue extended support for the much less popular Windows 8 operating system - in January 2023.