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Windows 7 & Server 2008 End of Support

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Windows 7 & Server 2008 End of Support

Windows 7 & Server 2008 End of Support

Microsoft products usually see around ten years of total support – five years of Mainstream Support where they’ll implement new features, design changes, and security updates and another five of Extended Support in which they’ll only fix security issues or bugs. As of January 14, 2020, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 all reach End of Support and will no longer receive security updates.

What does this mean?

When Jan 14, 2020, rolls around, your installations will not stop working. However, Microsoft will not release fixes and patches for any newly discovered security flaws. When security professionals or black-hat groups (Hackers who only do so for malicious means) discover flaws, Microsoft will not release patches to fix them.

There’s a high likelihood that researchers and hackers will find flaws in Windows 7 after the support period ends. Windows 7 is a ten-year-old operating system, and currently unknown research methods and exploits will uncover previously undiscovered problems.

The other issue is that Windows 7 shares the Windows NT kernel with Windows 8 and 10.  The kernel is the core and fundamental part of an operating system, presenting and managing resources (Such as hard drives, RAM, and Wi-Fi adapters) to applications and Windows services. While Microsoft implements significant kernel improvements between major versions, the core architecture is similar enough that researchers can usually backport exploits found in Windows 10 to earlier versions of Windows.

What must I do?

Identify any computers that run Windows 7 and create a plan to replace them with PCs running Windows 10. If you’d like to phase in purchasing new computers over the next eleven months, itro can work with you to roll them out with minimal interruption. These new computers will come with newer hardware (Such as SSDs) which should significantly increase performance compared to PCs with standard hard drives.

Our standard workstation – suitable for most workloads – starts from $1150-ex GST + configuration ($280) + on-site ($180). If you require a PC for specialized workloads, please contact our sales team for further information.

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