By: Nick Gambino
Tuesday marked the end of an era when Microsoft officially ended support for easily one of their most popular OS ever – Windows 7.
Users have received warnings and notifications for close to a year now, so nobody can really complain about being blindsided. It was coming and, frankly, it makes sense. Even though there are still millions of computers operating on Windows 7, supporting such an old OS becomes less and less feasible as time goes on.
But what does this actually mean for the millions using the Microsoft OS in both business and at home? Well, one thing it doesn’t mean is that you won’t be able to use Windows 7 anymore. You’ll still be able to continue as you’ve undoubtedly done for years – refusing to upgrade to the now superior Windows 10.
What you might run into though, and this is not unlikely, is a bug or a glitch or some security issue that Microsoft can’t or won’t help you with. They will no longer provide security updates or issue any fix for your problems.
Windows 10 spent some years trying to effectively undo the popularity of Windows 7. It didn’t help that the current OS launched with a number of problems and unpopular features. After endless patches and changes over time, Windows 10 finally secured its place at the top, but that hasn’t convinced everyone to give it a try.
NetMarketShare reports that Windows 7 users make up over 26% of all OS users. Sure, that’s behind Windows 10 (54.62%), but that’s still a staggering figure. That’s directly ahead of Max OS X 10.15 which is only at 4.23%. That just goes to show the sheer popularity of Windows 7.
So, what should you do? Well, the smart thing to do at this point is to upgrade to Windows 10. It’s. Totally. Fine. It is not the fustercluck it was when it launched. I’ve had experience with both Windows 7 and Windows 10 and at this point in time, in 2020, Windows 10 is a superior OS.
Of course, you could just stick with 7 and hope it doesn’t go belly-up and leave you stranded with no Microsoft to come to the rescue. You could also set your hair on fire. Both are options, just not very good ones.
