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Microsoft may extend Windows 7 end of life for some users: The pros and cons



Windows Server.The Windows Server platform is supported on certified or logoed hardware as listed in the Windows Server Catalog. Today, you can browse the catalog and find hardware that meets or exceeds our minimum server hardware requirements and has been successfully certified for supported Windows Server products. For Windows Server, the policy consists of five years of mainstream support followed by five years of extended support. This lifecycle impacts the timeframe for which new devices and systems can be certified. We allow new systems to be submitted for certification up to the point when the OS transitions to extended support.


Until April 9, 2013, Windows 7 original release included updates and technical support, after which installation of Service Pack 1 was required for users to receive support and updates. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time. Extended support ended on January 14, 2020, over ten years after the release of Windows 7, after which the operating system ceased receiving further updates. A paid support program was available for enterprises, providing security updates for Windows 7 for up to three years since the official end of life.[10]




Microsoft may extend Windows 7 end of life for some users



When released, Windows Vista was criticized for its long development time, performance issues, spotty compatibility with existing hardware and software at launch, changes affecting the compatibility of certain PC games, and unclear assurances by Microsoft that certain computers shipping with XP before launch would be "Vista Capable" (which led to a class-action lawsuit), among other critiques. As such, the adoption of Vista in comparison to XP remained somewhat low.[22][23][24] In July 2007, six months following the public release of Vista, it was reported that the next version of Windows would then be codenamed Windows 7, with plans for a final release within three years.[25][26] Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek, suggested that Windows 7 would be more "user-centric".[27] Gates later said that Windows 7 would also focus on performance improvements.[28] Steven Sinofsky later expanded on this point, explaining in the Engineering Windows 7 blog that the company was using a variety of new tracing tools to measure the performance of many areas of the operating system on an ongoing basis, to help locate inefficient code paths and to help prevent performance regressions.[29] Senior Vice President Bill Veghte stated that Windows Vista users migrating to Windows 7 would not find the kind of device compatibility issues they encountered migrating from Windows XP.[30] An estimated 1,000 developers worked on Windows 7. These were broadly divided into "core operating system" and "Windows client experience", in turn organized into 25 teams of around 40 developers on average.[31]


Window management in Windows 7 has several new features: Aero Snap maximizes a window when it is dragged to the top, left, or right of the screen.[69] Dragging windows to the left or right edges of the screen allows users to snap software windows to either side of the screen, such that the windows take up half the screen. When a user moves windows that were snapped or maximized using Snap, the system restores their previous state. Snap functions can also be triggered with keyboard shortcuts. Aero Shake hides all inactive windows when the active window's title bar is dragged back and forth rapidly.


Mainstream support for Windows 7 ended on January 13, 2015. Extended support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020.[108][109] In August 2019, Microsoft announced it will be offering a 'free' extended security updates to some business users.[110][111]


On March 18, 2016, in response to criticism from enterprise customers, Microsoft delayed the end of support and non-critical updates for Skylake systems to July 17, 2018, but stated that they would also continue to receive security updates through the end of extended support.[127][128] In August 2016, citing a "strong partnership with our OEM partners and Intel", Microsoft retracted the decision and stated that it would continue to support Windows 7 and 8.1 on Skylake hardware through the end of their extended support lifecycle. However, the restrictions on newer CPU microarchitectures remain in force.[129][130]


In October 2013, a Disk Cleanup Wizard addon was released that lets users delete outdated Windows updates on Windows 7 SP1, thus reducing the size of the WinSxS directory. This update backports some features found in Windows 8.[150]


After the short lifespan of Windows Vista, Windows 7 showed users that Microsoft could make a modern operating system that they would want to use. It first debuted in 2009 and was supported until 2015 but times have changed and so too has the direction Microsoft is taking its Windows operating system.


Sharing data from Bing and Bing-powered experiences with third parties. We share some de-identified data (data where the identity of a specific person is not known) from Bing and Bing-powered experiences with selected third parties. Before we do so, we run the data through a process designed to remove certain sensitive data that users may have included in the search terms themselves (such as social security numbers or credit card numbers). Additionally, we require these third parties to keep the data secure and to not use the data for purposes other than for which it is provided.


Optional diagnostic data includes more detailed information about your device and its settings, capabilities, and device health. Optional diagnostic data also includes data about the websites you browse, device activity (also sometimes referred to as usage), and enhanced error reporting that helps Microsoft to fix and improve products and services for all users. When you choose to send Optional diagnostic data, Required diagnostic data will always be included, and we collect the following additional information:


Find my device. The Find my device feature allows an administrator of a Windows device to find the location of that device from account.microsoft.com/devices. To enable Find my device, an administrator needs to be signed in with a Microsoft account and have the location setting enabled. This feature will work even if other users have denied access to location for all their apps. When the administrator attempts to locate the device, users will see a notification in the notification area. Learn more about Find my device in Windows.


Windows 7 was released in October 2009, so its 10-year life cycle has come to a close. Windows 10 was released in 2015, and extended support for the latest version of the OS is slated to end in 2025.


Glossary AMI (Amazon Machine Image): Is a template for the root volume for the instance (for example, an operating system, an application server, and applications), manages launch permissions that control which AWS accounts can use the AMI to launch instances. Contains a block device mapping that specifies the volumes to attach to the instance when it's launched. AWS (Amazon Web Services): offers a broad set of global compute, storage, database, analytics, application, and deployment services that help organizations move faster, lower IT costs, and scale applications. AWS Management Console: access and manage Amazon Web Services through a simple and intuitive web-based user interface. BYOL (Bring Your Own License): is a process you can use to deploy software that you have previously licensed on physically dedicated AWS hardware. If you BYOL, you do not pay for instances with licensing included in the cost. Instead, you pay the same rate as EC2 instances with Amazon Linux pricing. When you BYOL, you are responsible for managing your own licenses. CloudEndure: offers reliable business continuity solutions that minimize data loss and downtime due to human errors, network failures, external threats, or any other disruptions. Our Disaster Recovery and Migration solutions are powered by innovative workload mobility technology, which continuously replicates applications from any physical, virtual, or cloud-based infrastructure into Amazon Web Services (AWS). As such, CloudEndure is uniquely qualified to support large-scale, heterogeneous environments with diverse applications and infrastructure. Custom AMI: is an AMI created in your account either built from an imported image or captured from an existing instance. For example, you can launch an instance from an existing AMI, customize the instance, and then save this updated configuration as a custom AMI. Instances launched from this new custom AMI include the customizations that you made when you created the AMI. EC2 (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud): provides scalable computing capacity in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. EMP (End-of-Support Migration Program) for Windows Server: program that helps customers with migration of their legacy Windows Server applications to the latest, supported versions of Windows Server on AWS, without any code changes. EOS (End of Support): is a term used to reference Microsoft ending support for a product, in accordance with their Product Lifecycle policy. Hyperscale: refers to the facilities and provisioning required in distributed computing environments to efficiently scale from a few servers to thousands of servers. Hyperscale computing is usually used in environments such as big data and cloud computing. In-Place Upgrade: upgrades the operating system files while your personal settings and files are intact. Instance (EC2 Instance): is a virtual server in the AWS cloud. Its configuration at launch is a copy of the AMI that you specified when you launched the instance. LI (License Included): refers to the use of Amazon's Microsoft Licensing Agreement for Windows Server and SQL Server. LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel): is a release channel of Windows Server released once per 2-3 years with stability and long term support in mind. LTSC releases provide a predictable OS experience and provide 5 years of traditional support starting from initial release, plus an additional 5 years of extended support for security updates. VMIE (AWS VM Import/Export): is an AWS Service used to import Operating System Images to AWS EC2 in an offline mode. RDS (Amazon Relational Database Service): is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-efficient, resizable capacity for an industry-standard relational database and manages common database administration tasks. SA (Software Assurance): is a comprehensive program offered by Microsoft to help deploy, manage, and use Microsoft products efficiently. SAC (Semi-Annual Channel): is release channel of Windows Server released twice per year with a limited support life cycle, ending 18 months from initial release. SAC releases allow customers to pilot the latest OS features quickly, but are not intended for long term use. SMS (AWS Server Migration Service): is an AWS Service used to import Operating System Images to AWS EC2 in an online mode. WorkSpaces (Amazon Workspaces): is a managed, secure cloud desktop service. You can use Amazon WorkSpaces to provision either Windows or Linux desktops in just a few minutes and quickly scale to provide thousands of desktops to workers across the globe. 2ff7e9595c


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