Microsoft Ends Windows 7 Mainstream Support Today

So, we are supposed to like Windows 8.1 for the upcoming year? Or, at least until Windows 10 comes out? (Sigh) How many companies are sticking with Windows 7 and not going with Windows 8? Will we see the same issues we had when trying to end support for Windows XP?
 
You asked if I needed any equipment before we started this thread and I said, "No, but I need material components for all my spells so I cast Summon Heatlesssun."
 
ZLoth said:
So, we are supposed to like Windows 8.1 for the upcoming year? Or, at least until Windows 10 comes out? (Sigh) How many companies are sticking with Windows 7 and not going with Windows 8? Will we see the same issues we had when trying to end support for Windows XP?
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They are still going to provide updates for the next 5 years.

Pretty sure this is talking about technical support, such as in their forums, even though most of the time that is pointless from my experience.

Any time I have brought up an obvious bug to them, they always respond with "it is working as designed".
 
I don't think it means all that much for companies, at least not for us. Extended support and security updates will still be made available until 2020.
We also have SA, so we are entitled to a few support calls for free.

I think this matters most for consumers that need immediate help.
 
ZLoth said:
So, we are supposed to like Windows 8.1 for the upcoming year? Or, at least until Windows 10 comes out? (Sigh) How many companies are sticking with Windows 7 and not going with Windows 8? Will we see the same issues we had when trying to end support for Windows XP?
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My company actaully just got most of our computers back from being re-imaged to win7, i dont see a switch happening for us anytime soon.

But I saw something like this coming. Luckily i went with my gut and bought the nasty Win 8.1 yesterday despite me hating the OS.
 
If you look at the chart, SP1 has 24 months additional support. If you are still running 7 without SP1 then no one cares about your complaints.
 
Biznatch said:
If you look at the chart, SP1 has 24 months additional support. If you are still running 7 without SP1 then no one cares about your complaints.
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Ah, reality. Much better. :)

Service Packs make a huge difference in support. Just update to the (free) SP1 and you're still supported by Microsoft.
 
Regardless of when it ends, unless Microsoft truly fixes Windows 10 in its final release form (I don't care about current builds), you will continue to see Windows 7 stay on top (51.69% of all desktop systems still run Windows 7 as of December 2014). If Windows 10 flops, Apple will most likely reap the reward of it in a greater way than it has to day (at least in the USA).
 
c0mad0r said:
Regardless of when it ends, unless Microsoft truly fixes Windows 10 in its final release form (I don't care about current builds), you will continue to see Windows 7 stay on top (51.69% of all desktop systems still run Windows 7 as of December 2014). If Windows 10 flops, Apple will most likely reap the reward of it in a greater way than it has to day (at least in the USA).
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funny/scary is that is Win8 & 8.1 are trending downward, while XP actually moved up (odd on this one)
 
cyclone3d said:
They are still going to provide updates for the next 5 years.

Pretty sure this is talking about technical support, such as in their forums, even though most of the time that is pointless from my experience.

Any time I have brought up an obvious bug to them, they always respond with "it is working as designed".
Click to expand...

Yes, this doesn't mean much of anything...as far as people using Win7 is concerned no one will even notice the difference...Windows update will continue right along for them, with bug fixes and security patches through 2020.

The Microsoft forums are generally manned by people who don't usually work for Microsoft at all...;) Always take any advice found there with a grain of salt until you can prove it out. Most of the "heavy hitters" in the TechNet forums are people trying to accumulate "points"...which makes them seem wise and all-knowing. But remarkably few of them actually work for Microsoft, I've found.
 
sfsuphysics said:
funny/scary is that is Win8 & 8.1 are trending downward, while XP actually moved up (odd on this one)
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Based on heuristics from 2013-2014, almost half of the XP systems finally retired in 2013 went to increasing Windows 7 shares. The other half are split between all others in an uneven format. Windows 8/8.1 saw "some" growth, but it is very negligible (7%-11.2% for 2014) and could easily be racked up to new system sales. This can be illustrated by looking at statcounter.com, Gartner Research, and W3C reports.
 
Correction to the above, 2013 should be 2014. Sorry, coffee hasn't activated yet. :eek:
 
This is no big deal. It just means you won't get new features added to the OS, but they will supply security updates until 2020.

This is the same point Windows XP was in back in 2009. Nothing to see here, except for IT departments in large companies (that move like slugs) have to start evaluating Windows 10 for a 2019 roll-out :)
 
ZLoth said:
So, we are supposed to like Windows 8.1 for the upcoming year? Or, at least until Windows 10 comes out? (Sigh) How many companies are sticking with Windows 7 and not going with Windows 8? Will we see the same issues we had when trying to end support for Windows XP?
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We really hoped to do this but a board of director promised surface support by end of Q1 this year. Of course it was limited to "only a few lines of business"... except they account for 50+% of our users and 75% of our applications... so basically we have to support it 100%...

Frantically testing our deployments against 8.1 now...
 
WaltC said:
The Microsoft forums are generally manned by people who don't usually work for Microsoft at all...;) Always take any advice found there with a grain of salt until you can prove it out. Most of the "heavy hitters" in the TechNet forums are people trying to accumulate "points"...which makes them seem wise and all-knowing. But remarkably few of them actually work for Microsoft, I've found.
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Accumulate points? Nah. Just wanting to help. Technet & Microsoft Answers communities for me. As far as wise and all-knowing? Some of them are pretty damn smart. Others... not so much. Either way, we're doing a lot of the research and Google work for those asking questions. Sometimes, it's just a single Google search away to find the answer. Other times, it's getting what little information they give you and offer suggestions. Sometimes they work, others they don't. But, we're not in front of their PC. We don't know what they aren't telling us. We get an error code and find out what might be causing it. We get symptoms and give a list of things that might be causing it. It's not 100% fool proof. For all we know, it's not an OS issue, it's that their PC is filled with dirt and rat feces (although, we do recommend cleaning PC if we think it's heat related).

I've found those of us that are more willing to help out are a bit more helpful and have less "cookie cutter" responses. Even then, they rarely come to a solution (even if it's marked as one).

There are some other somewhat 'official' Microsoft support options that aren't really Microsoft, either. ;)
 
Still won't give my clients Windows 8.1. I aint gonna support that complaining and griping.
 
defaultluser said:
This is no big deal. It just means you won't get new features added to the OS, but they will supply security updates until 2020.

This is the same point Windows XP was in back in 2009. Nothing to see here, except for IT departments in large companies (that move like slugs) have to start evaluating Windows 10 for a 2019 roll-out :)
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Now i'm actually glad that most of my clients use Mac laptops....
 
Arct1c0n said:
Now i'm actually glad that most of my clients use Mac laptops....
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What, so they have to upgrade in a couple years instead of a decade?

Apple has a poor history of long-term product support. They've officially abandoned OS X Lion, which was released in 2011.

They give away the updates "free," but you are still responsible for dealing with the fallout (OS upgrades can break your apps, so it is not always desirable to be forced to upgrade). You are also impacted by them deciding your hardware is no-longer supported, which can leave you hanging with no officially patched OS after only a few years.

I know people around here bitch about Windows, but for those of us doing something more complex and more toolchain-dependent than web/DB programming, you'll absolutely adore not having to upgrade your OS every 2 years.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
You asked if I needed any equipment before we started this thread and I said, "No, but I need material components for all my spells so I cast Summon Heatlesssun."
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All three of us love getting a taste of late 2012 all over again! :D

4A9OKVO.gif


The ingredients are all present: Microsoft, cats, anime... heatlesssun, we summon thee!!!1

(us and heat...)
tumblr_m94z3bzPLI1r0o7vno1_500.gif
 
BTW - How many people used Microsoft's free help that is being stopped today? OEM & VL doesn't count, as support if via someone else. Actually calling Microsoft for help, not through forums or whatever?

I have met ONE person that has done that, and it was only after exhausting the help from forums and elsewhere first.

I really think it's an overblown reaction. Not the end of the world. Patches and updates are still coming for another 5 years. Most people's support options (forums, etc.) are still going to be around for a long time... We still have people that will take on Windows 98 issues...
 
defaultluser said:
What, so they have to upgrade in a couple years instead of a decade?

Apple has a poor history of long-term product support. They've officially abandoned OS X Lion, which was released in 2011.

They give away the updates "free," but you are still responsible for dealing with the fallout (OS upgrades can break your apps, so it is not always desirable to be forced to upgrade). You are also impacted by them deciding your hardware is no-longer supported, which can leave you hanging with no officially patched OS after only a few years.

I know people around here bitch about Windows, but for those of us doing something more complex and more toolchain-dependent than web/DB programming, you'll absolutely adore not having to upgrade your OS every 2 years.
Click to expand...


Uh, a lot of them were running Snow Leopard OS X on old Pro's and first gen Air books for many years without issue. They are professors, not tech heads, they just want computer to work and most of them are hard wired to only wanna use Mac OSX as thats what they are used too, I sure as hell don't have the time or resources to retrain them for Windows, so we give them new Macs as needed. Not to mention they are always on the go, rarely in the building.
 
Ur_Mom said:
BTW - How many people used Microsoft's free help that is being stopped today? OEM & VL doesn't count, as support if via someone else. Actually calling Microsoft for help, not through forums or whatever?

I have met ONE person that has done that, and it was only after exhausting the help from forums and elsewhere first.

I really think it's an overblown reaction. Not the end of the world. Patches and updates are still coming for another 5 years. Most people's support options (forums, etc.) are still going to be around for a long time... We still have people that will take on Windows 98 issues...
Click to expand...

I honestly have not called Microsofts "support" in any form since my old IT days back when XP was king in the 2003-2005 and it mostly in regards to XP's retarded "Phone in to activate for issues with internet connection" problems.
 
Wolfkin said:
And that ended 4/9/2013.
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Again, not according to the table. It says support ends 24 months after the NEXT service pack releases or at the end of the products support lifecycle, which ever ends first. Since there was no SP2 to get that 24 month timer started, it starts today with the end of the regular product support lifecycle.
 
c0mad0r said:
Regardless of when it ends, unless Microsoft truly fixes Windows 10 in its final release form (I don't care about current builds), you will continue to see Windows 7 stay on top (51.69% of all desktop systems still run Windows 7 as of December 2014). If Windows 10 flops, Apple will most likely reap the reward of it in a greater way than it has to day (at least in the USA).
Click to expand...

You will likely see 7 on top until 2020. The only reason companies left XP was because they had to leave to get support. The only reason they went to XP was because 2000 support ended. Companies hate change, because change means more support and it may mean vertical apps no longer work.

Apple isn't going to reap any rewards. If all the companies switched to apple, the security issues would be horrific (especially given how infrequently Apple releases fixes). They're a consumer business, not an enterprise business (with the exception of the music, photo and film businesses).
 
Biznatch said:
Again, not according to the table. It says support ends 24 months after the NEXT service pack releases or at the end of the products support lifecycle, which ever ends first. Since there was no SP2 to get that 24 month timer started, it starts today with the end of the regular product support lifecycle.
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No. It starts 24 months after SP2 or at the end of the 7 life cycle, which ever comes first. If SP2 isn't released, then the end of the 7 life cycle comes first.
 
Arct1c0n said:
Uh, a lot of them were running Snow Leopard OS X on old Pro's and first gen Air books for many years without issue. They are professors, not tech heads, they just want computer to work and most of them are hard wired to only wanna use Mac OSX as thats what they are used too, I sure as hell don't have the time or resources to retrain them for Windows, so we give them new Macs as needed. Not to mention they are always on the go, rarely in the building.
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And how do you know they're running without issue? Malware and their ilk have learned to hide themselves well, and it you made it even easier for hackers by running ancient operating systems with gaping security holes.

How do you know you can trust those machines for work, where private/proprietary information is handled frequently? Further, if they are owned, YOU are contributing to the problem by not fixing these things. You do know that one owned computer can be used to find and hack their way into several others, right (this goes double if someone brings in a laptop from home, getting behind your DMZ)?
 
nilepez said:
No. It starts 24 months after SP2 or at the end of the 7 life cycle, which ever comes first. If SP2 isn't released, then the end of the 7 life cycle comes first.
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Thanks for repeating what I said and putting 'No' in font. Very helpful.... Yes, no SP2 was released, so win7SP1 support continues for 24 months after the end of life cycle for non SP1. Since today is the end of life cycle for regular 7, that 24 months starts now and continues until 1/13/17.
 
...and no one downgraded to Windows 8 from Windows 7 based on that milestone.
 
Biznatch said:
Thanks for repeating what I said and putting 'No' in font. Very helpful.... Yes, no SP2 was released, so win7SP1 support continues for 24 months after the end of life cycle for non SP1. Since today is the end of life cycle for regular 7, that 24 months starts now and continues until 1/13/17.
Click to expand...

What i am saying is it has exactly the same support as Windows 7 without SP1, which ends in 2020 (unless they actually release an SP2, which is unlikely). In that case, it'd be extended by 24 months and SP2 would have support (extended support, no doubt) until 2020.
 
The chart is misleading by having SP1 listed separately. When it shows Windows 7 versions, they assume the SP is installed.

Both the Mainstream Support and the Extended Support phases require that the product’s supported service pack level be installed to continue to receive and install security updates.
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So when it shows Windows 7 mainstream support ends 2015, that means Windows 7 SP1 mainstream support ends. No more non-security updates or SP's.

Windows 7 non-SP1 mainstream support ended 2 years after the release of SP1.

When a new service pack is released, Microsoft will provide either 12 or 24 months of support for the previous service pack, varying according to the product family (for example, Windows, Office, Servers, or Developer tools)
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Source
 
defaultluser said:
And how do you know they're running without issue? Malware and their ilk have learned to hide themselves well, and it you made it even easier for hackers by running ancient operating systems with gaping security holes.

How do you know you can trust those machines for work, where private/proprietary information is handled frequently? Further, if they are owned, YOU are contributing to the problem by not fixing these things. You do know that one owned computer can be used to find and hack their way into several others, right (this goes double if someone brings in a laptop from home, getting behind your DMZ)?
Click to expand...


I just keep the staff and faculty happy with working machines of their choose and put out basic IT fires. The rest is a problem for the network and security administration teams on campus who get paid more then I do.
 
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