Windows 7 – Mfg. 09/2009, Expiry Date : 01/2020
By Nigel A. Onamade
No one will like to eat or drink products that have passed their use-by or expiry date and the same rule should apply to the devices that we use to run our lives and our businesses on a daily basis.
After its first release in October 2009, Microsoft has announced, after it’s Ten-year product support commitment, that it would be discontinuing its support for its Windows 7 Operating System on January 14, 2020. From that date Microsoft will not be providing any technical assistance and software updates from its Windows Update platform any longer.
Microsoft strongly recommends, and I agree, that you upgrade all your desktops and laptops to Windows 10 well before that date to avoid running software that is unprotected and that might have new security vulnerabilities that will not be fixed.
What should you do?
You should upgrade to a new Desktop or Laptop with Windows 10 pre-installed, or where permissible and compatible, upgrade your existing devices to run Windows 10 by purchasing and installing a full version of Windows 10. The latter option will require the specific hardware to pass the Windows 10 compatibility tests, however any Desktop or Laptop older than 4 years should be retired and replaced with newer and more efficient hardware which is available today. Your top of the line fully-supped-up Desktop or Laptop bought 5 years ago, may not even be as fast when compared with entry-level hardware on sale today. With newer Solid-State Drives (SSD) which are about 30% faster than Hard Disk Drives (HDD) due to the lack of moving parts and also Generation 8 Intel chips available in the market now, the advantages of new hardware far outweigh the disadvantages and perceived higher costs of new hardware.
When should you do it?
You should do so well before the expiry date. With just 8 weeks to go before that strict deadline, you should be speaking to your IT support staff, your IT support provider, or your MSP to plan and schedule the upgrades and replacements. As is often overlooked, this plan should also include any home or personal devices that are used to access business systems and networks. If any of these get compromised due to security breaches, they could be the weak-link and entry point into your business network.
What is PC Health Desk doing?
All our existing MSP clients would have already been contacted with details of their upgrade or replacement plans and all our other ad-hoc clients will receive a call or email from our tech team to see if they need any help or advise to plan and implement the upgrades.
