Microsoft is officially ending support for Windows 7 on Tuesday 14 January 2020.<\/p>\n
This means that computers and other devices running the operating system will no longer be able to receive official software updates or critical security patches.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Microsoft will no longer provide technical support to Windows 7 users.<\/p>\n
The company has recommended that users with systems running Windows 7 upgrade to Windows 10 to avoid security risks.<\/p>\n
“While you could continue to use your PC running Windows 7, without continued software and security updates, it will be at greater risk for viruses and malware,” Microsoft stated.<\/p>\n
Businesses that rely on Windows 7 Professional or Enterprise for legacy systems can opt for Extended Security Updates (ESU)<\/strong><\/a>, which provides supplemental Windows 7 support until January 2023 for an additional cost.<\/p>\n Users who choose to remain on Windows 7 could be exposed to hackers and malicious attackers once security updates cease.<\/p>\n A report<\/strong><\/a> published by researchers at Webroot in October 2019 revealed a huge increase of infections on machines running Windows 7 in 2019.<\/p>\n In its mid-year update of the Webroot Threat Report, it said that Windows 7 exploits had climbed 71% from 2018.<\/p>\n The report also found that Windows 10 systems were less likely to be exploited.<\/p>\n \u201cIn general, computers using the Windows 7 operating system are twice as likely to become infected as those running Windows 10, with approximately 0.12 infections per Windows 7 device so far in 2019, and 0.05 infections per Windows 10 device,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n There is good news for users who are still running older versions of Windows.<\/p>\n Back in 2015, Microsoft announced a free upgrade to Windows 10 for legitimate copies of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1.<\/p>\n Although this offer officially expired in July 2016, various users have reported<\/strong><\/a> that they were still able to upgrade free of charge as of January 2020.<\/p>\n To make use of the upgrade tool, users must go to the Windows 10 download page<\/strong><\/a> and select “Download tool now”. This will download the Media Creation Tool executable.<\/p>\n Users can then open the file and follow the instructions to install Windows 10.<\/p>\n Microsoft is officially ending support for Windows 7 on Tuesday 14 January 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":322910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[123,26970,5214],"class_list":["post-335032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-microsoft","tag-windows-10","tag-windows-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335040,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335032\/revisions\/335040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Wave of Windows 7 attacks<\/h3>\n
Free upgrade<\/h3>\n
Now read: The huge Windows piracy problem in South Africa<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"