Microsoft to push warnings to Windows 7 users about the imminent end of security updates

Microsoft says it will stop patching Windows 7 on 14th January 2020 - unless users pay an annual fee

Microsoft is to start pushing notifications on Windows 7 users to warn them about the upcoming end of security updates for the popular operating system.

Microsoft has already announced that it will stop supporting Windows 7 on 14th January 2020, which means the operating system will no longer receive security updates from the company.

Organisations, though, will be able to pay a per-PC charge for Extended Security Updates from 2020 in a scheme running for no more than three years.

Beginning next month, if you are a Windows 7 customer, you can expect to see a notification appear on your Windows 7 PC

The software giant has indicated that it would prefer Windows 7 and Office 2010 users, both corporate and consumer, to upgrade their products to Windows 10 and Office 365, respectively.

"Beginning next month, if you are a Windows 7 customer, you can expect to see a notification appear on your Windows 7 PC," Matt Barlow, CVP of Windows, said in a blog post.

Notifications will be sent to all versions of Windows 7, including enterprise customers.

Barlow said that users who don't want to receive reminders again will be able to select an option 'do not notify me again' and those users won't be sent any more notifications.

He also stated that a new webpage on the company's website will explain to Windows 7 customers what "end of support" means and what they need to do to move to Windows 10. The webpage will also guide users to visit the Microsoft Store to purchase a new PC running Windows 10.

Windows 7 users will continue to receive security updates until January 2020. After that, their operating system will receive no more security patches and could be prone to vulnerabilities. The company won't provide any patches for those vulnerabilities, unless users are paying for Extended Security Support.

Since 2014, Microsoft has been informing users that it would end support for Windows 7 in 2020, and sought to persuade users to upgrade.

Windows 10 now runs on more than 800 million machines, according to Microsoft, but Windows 7 isn't far behind.

Microsoft had planned to have Windows 10 running on one billion machines two years after its July 2015 launch, and the push to shift Windows 7 users to Windows 10, especially in the enterprise, might just help the company achieve its target three years late.

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