Microsoft Ends Mainstream Support For Windows 7

[escrow4]

If it does what the user needs it to do reliably and on acceptable terms to the user in question, how is it not in good working order? What percentage of XP users do you suppose would disagree with you about whether their systems are working acceptably?

If I saw something in real world terms (e.g. Windows 7 typically has 12 critical security vulnerabilities patched by month whereas Windows 8x typically only has 6) that clearly demonstrates Win8x's superiority in this regard, I might be inclined to agree. However, AFAIK, pretty much every vulnerability that affects Win7 also affects Win8x to the same degree. I just took a look at MS's vuln list published in January 2015 and what I said agrees with that, with one further point that there was one Win8x specific vulnerability that Win7 wasn't affected by.

Otherwise "out of date" is as pointless a term as "obsolete", you may as well say "it's not the latest version", which carries as much implication as "black is not white". If we're going to use specific terms, they've got to mean something useful.

For desktop computer builds, I give my customers the choice between Windows 7 and 8.1. The cost is just the same, and even though I prefer Win7, I recommend Win81 because its expiry date is 2023 as opposed to 2020. I then reassure any potentially jittery customers on the topic of whether they'll go on with Win8x that I can make it look and work very much like it does on older versions of Windows.

They are not working acceptably. It may be fine to you but XP is a security black hole to everyone else. Junk been holding everything back too. MS should have executed it back in 2007.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Depends what software you're running. Lot of stuff works fine on XP and the whole point of an OS is to run programs.

Security is a moot point. I'm sure 7 and 8 and 10 have security issues too and when they're fixed there will be more. It's a never ending game. No OS is secure, you need to practice better security yourself as the user, such as not putting it directly on the internet, or being careful what sites you go to, etc.

 

[Mem]

Depends what software you're running. Lot of stuff works fine on XP and the whole point of an OS is to run programs.

Security is a moot point. I'm sure 7 and 8 and 10 have security issues too and when they're fixed there will be more. It's a never ending game. No OS is secure, you need to practice better security yourself as the user, such as not putting it directly on the internet, or being careful what sites you go to, etc.

You could argue this all day,but how many users spreading viruses via XP?...Microsoft by design improve each OS on security for a reason,older Operating Systems are phased out for a reason,sure you can carry on using it,would I like to carry on using WinME or XP even with old software sorry don't think so,as to software well most companies offer newer versions for newer/later Operating Systems and most times it's not an issue.

I have yet to find any issue with modern software on latest OS.

Personally better security practice with improved security on each new generation of Operating Systems is the way to go(with security layers).

You can never have too much security IMHO.

 

[ultimatebob]

Now that it's no longer in Mainstream Support, I don't think that you can get it installed on a new PC from the factory anymore.

Most IT departments won't care, since they should really be reimaging the systems before giving them to users anyway.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Depends what software you're running. Lot of stuff works fine on XP and the whole point of an OS is to run programs.

Security is a moot point. I'm sure 7 and 8 and 10 have security issues too and when they're fixed there will be more. It's a never ending game. No OS is secure, you need to practice better security yourself as the user, such as not putting it directly on the internet, or being careful what sites you go to, etc.

Except on 7, 8, 8.1 and eventually 10, those holes are found, not publicly released for a while (unless you're Google) and fixed by MS usually before they become public knowledge. For XP, any security holes found simply won't be fixed.

 

[TheRyuu]

Security is a moot point. I'm sure 7 and 8 and 10 have security issues too and when they're fixed there will be more. It's a never ending game. No OS is secure, you need to practice better security yourself as the user, such as not putting it directly on the internet, or being careful what sites you go to, etc.

There's a difference between just patching software to fix bugs and having mitigations to make exploiting bugs harder and in this respect every version of Windows has improved upon the previous (e.g. XP with DEP, Vista adding ASLR and SEHOP, etc).

Sometimes mitigations can render entire classes of exploits useless.