The tech news world is abuzz with dire warnings to IT managers and consumers alike. The blogosphere and technology news sites, ever hungry for more page views (more readers) love to sensationalize by publishing information, while true, is misleading.
You may have read that support for Windows 7 ends on January 13, 2015. This has caused panic from users of Windows 7 who have felt blindsided by Microsoft. Some of these bloggers and so-called journalists continue to fan the fire by continually comparing the end of support for Windows 7 to the end of support for Windows XP.
It’s true that Microsoft will end support for Windows 7 in January 2015, however the word that journalists and bloggers omit is “mainstream”. Microsoft will end mainstream support for Windows 7 in January 2015 just like they ended “mainstream support” for Windows XP on April 14, 2009. And here all you XP users thought that support ended on April 8, 2014, right?
The end of mainstream support of a Microsoft operating system does not mean the end of support. It does not mean the end of updates or security fixes or operating system security updates and patches. Windows XP extended support ended on April 8, 2014 – that was the day that Microsoft stopped updating Windows XP and stopped offering security updates, patches, fixes and other Windows updates.
Mainstream support, ironically, isn’t something most consumers need be concerned about. It’s the end of extended support that matters. Extended support for Windows 7 ends on January 14, 2020. That’s the date Windows 7 users need to be focused on, not the end of mainstream support coming in January 2015. Relax, all you Windows 7 users, you can use Windows 7 safely until 2020. For those of you still using Windows Vista, extended support for that operating system ends on April 11, 2017.
So what’s the difference between mainstream support and extended support? According to Microsoft:
Mainstream support—Microsoft will offer mainstream support for a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product’s general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product is released, whichever is longer. For example, if you buy a new version of Windows and five years later another version is released, you will still have two years of support left for the previous version.
Extended support—Microsoft will offer extended support for either a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product’s general availability, or for 2 years after the second successor product (two versions later) is released, whichever is longer.
Learn more at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=204452
Confused? Don’t worry about it. So are most bloggers and technology writers. The only thing you, as a Windows user, need to worry about is the end of extended support. After the end of extended support for any version of Windows, you cannot use that version of Windows safely.
Need more information? See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle .
I use Vista… have 2 laptops (one is about 7 yrs. old and is still running GREAT) with that OS and love them…. it stinks that the support will end for it in less than 3 yrs. I HATE window 8… we have a desktop with that OS. I may just get a Chromebook when the support ends to avoid all this nonsense. *sigh*
I really need advice!
I’m plagued by emails from one person that is nothing but first class hate mail concerning our president, government and every other idiotic thing in this universe. I get about 15 to 20 emails a day from this person and I can’t seem to get him to stop sending this garbage every day. Is there a program available that can stop his flooding these irritating emails from getting into my mailbox every day? Nothing in Microsoft or gmail seems to work or maybe I don’t know the correct procedure to block or return all his garbage. HELP!
Have you contacted this person and requested that they stop sending you these emails? Most times, this will work. I’ve had one or two email friends that asked me to stop sending certain emails to them and I did. I didn’t take it personally as the emails just happened to contain information that they were not interested in.
Go the the configuration settings in your e-mail client and block the e-mail address of the offending party. It works quite nicely.