Windows 7 Support - Microsoft will pull support in 6 months - JAN 13, 2015

I just read this on Yahoo business and am mortified!!! On January 13, 2014 Microsoft will end all mainstream support for all versions of Windows 7.
Article
Every operating system (OS) has a life-cycle that is in the agreement of each OS installed on a computer and generally runs for 5 years. Windows 7 General Availability (GA) date was:

October 22, 2009. Five years after that date is October 22, 2014. The next calendar quarter begins in January, 2015, and the second Tuesday of that month is January 13. So, that's when mainstream support is scheduled to end. Extended support for business all editions goes an extra five years, until January 14, 2020 (the second Tuesday of the month).

You can receive extended support if you purchase or pay by the hour for their assistance.
Further info:
Lifecycle Support Q's & A's

Windows 8 is due to expire their support on January 13, 2018.

So, are you going to upgrade to Windows 8 or find a different OS? If a different OS which one? How do you install a different OS without losing everything on your computer?

All it means is no new fluff will be added to the OS, it'll be patched and fixed up for many years to come sort of like XP was, so theres no need to buy another OS unless it has something you need

a reply to: whatnext21

Thanks for the info. I absolutely hate Windows 8. It appears we'll still get updates just not support if something goes buggy. This seems to be in-line with what they've always done though. I hope they come out with a better version than 8 by 2020.

Why would you need a new OS? Security updates will be available till 2020.

Why hate W8 you can run it in desktop mode and it's the same as 7.

a reply to: Kali74

a reply to: Maxatoria
From the link I gave...

The end of support generally means no more updated features or performance improvements, unless you are covered by extra "extended support."
UPDATED: Microsoft often does continue to provide security patches even after it ends mainstream support, however it doesn't promise to do that. A s Microsoft explains,
" Without Microsoft support, you will no longer receive security updates that can help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal your personal information."

It does not sound like they are providing that, I think XP was the exception.

The company also notes that "Extended Support is not offered for Consumer and Multimedia products."
This move will mostly affect consumers. Businesses that pay for extended support for Windows 7, as most of them do, will be get security patches and other updates for another five years, until January 14, 2020.
That's important, because many businesses are right now are in the process of upgrading their old Windows XP PCs, but they're moving to Windows 7, not Windows 8.

Businesses are the only ones who will receive extended support?

There's some speculation that, given the popularity of Windows 7, Microsoft might change its mind as the date nears and continue to support it a bit longer, like it did for Windows XP. All told, Microsoft supported XP for about 13 years.
That kind of extension doesn't seem likely at this point. Remember, Windows 8 basically includes a full version of Windows 7, called Desktop mode. With Windows 8.1, it's possible to run a Windows 8 machine in Desktop mode and almost avoid the new-and-confusing Windows 8 part of the OS.

Might change it's mind about support, probably not, this is a big money grab and so close to people upgrading from XP which I did not thank goodness, but many did.

Im getting tired of this "you will be forced to enjoy windows 8". I am a tech kind of kind and tried windows 8 and currently have 1 computer running it...I f*ing hate it. Windows 7 was the best windows in my opinion...if not then it was surely the 2nd best. Windows 8 isnt selling so they are cramming it down your throat.

I actually recently bought a chrome book and find that I use it for about 98% of what I ever did with a computer. It certainly isnt perfect nor a full replacement for most but it is rather inexpensive and for some people may be a great solution to avoid windows. If they would add more relevant apps to the chrome store that work specifically for the chrome book it could be a full replacement for me.

Id recommend linux but I have tried that and it never felt right. Errors would pop up that Id have to google how to fix....Id often be looking around online to find ways to get things to work that should already work. If you want a hobby to play around in linux it could be a great replacement.

I've considered switching over to mac as well but even that has some features that are missing.

I really wish we had something brand new that blew everything out of the water.

a reply to: whatnext21
A correction to the article you linked
"Note: The original version of this story said that security patches will end for some Windows 7 users when mainstream support ends. This was an error. Microsoft has confirmed to us that it will continue to provide security patches for all Windows 7 users through 2020. We apologize for the error."

Oh is it just Ducky! Like HP ..7 years ago I bought for $500.00 a excellent Photo Smart printer. I had widows 6 at that time . A while back got a new Computer with w7...no updates... they told me buy a new printer from them.
They just milk ! Will I buy another HP printer HELL NO!

originally posted by: nighthawk1954
Oh is it just Ducky! Like HP ..7 years ago I bought for $500.00 a excellent Photo Smart printer. I had widows 6 at that time . A while back got a new Computer with w7...no updates... they told me buy a new printer from them.
They just milk ! Will I buy another HP printer HELL NO!

By Windows 6 I assume you mean Vista. Any peripherals with Vista Drivers will work on Win7 so I'm not sure what your issue was. Did you go from 32bit to 64bit architecture?

a reply to: Kukri
Ok, that was not there when I posted this as an alert to Windows users, mods can delete as apparently the article was misleading, sorry folks...

My computer will probably die before support ends, so I will make sure I get the most recent OS when/if it does...

originally posted by: whatnext21
I just read this on Yahoo business and am mortified!!! On January 13, 2014 Microsoft will end all mainstream support for all versions of Windows 7.
Article
Every operating system (OS) has a life-cycle that is in the agreement of each OS installed on a computer and generally runs for 5 years. Windows 7 General Availability (GA) date was:

October 22, 2009. Five years after that date is October 22, 2014. The next calendar quarter begins in January, 2015, and the second Tuesday of that month is January 13. So, that's when mainstream support is scheduled to end. Extended support for business all editions goes an extra five years, until January 14, 2020 (the second Tuesday of the month).

You can receive extended support if you purchase or pay by the hour for their assistance.
Further info:
Lifecycle Support Q's & A's

Windows 8 is due to expire their support on January 13, 2018.

So, are you going to upgrade to Windows 8 or find a different OS? If a different OS which one? How do you install a different OS without losing everything on your computer?

If you only have one hard disk drive, you should be able to split the contents of your disk drive into multiple partitions. Then you have separate partition for each OS, applications, your home directory, projects, archives and downloads.

If your PC is just set up with one partition and hard disk drive for everything, you can use various built in applications to first defragment the partition, shrink it down to a smaller size, create new partitions, and then move files around.
I like to have 64 to 128 Gigabytes for each OS, then split the remaining space into 256 Gigabyte partitions for user directories and archives. Any spare partitions can be used to store backups of OS partitions and multiple data copies.

Then installing a new OS simply involves telling the installer application which partition to use and not use.

You keep your old OS and you have a brand new OS. This works for both Linux and Windows.

Some PC cases have a dual boot feature (Silencio 650) where you have a little switch at the front which tells the PC which hard disk drive to use. So you can keep different OS's on separate disk drives without each needing to know about the other.

originally posted by: rockpaperhammock

Id recommend linux but I have tried that and it never felt right. Errors would pop up that Id have to google how to fix....Id often be looking around online to find ways to get things to work that should already work. If you want a hobby to play around in linux it could be a great replacement.

Which distro ? Did you try a few different ones. I have PCLInux OS 64 bit and my laptop rarely gets switched off. Runs like a dream month after month. I even have windows 7 running virtualised which I only use to help folks with their windows questions.

So linux plus libreoffice, gimp , firefox , clementine , VLC (all installable under windows !!!) and everything is peachy.

My computer will probably die before support ends, so I will make sure I get the most recent OS when/if it does...a reply to: whatnext21

From my understanding, (and I am a legendary computer genius, (not)), the way to play this game is to continue to use Windows 7 until Windows 9 comes out. Our company will continue to run Windows 7, they'll skip Windows 8, and then adopt Windows 9.

a reply to: yorkshirelad

whatnext21!!!!
See this (yorkshirelad) guys post. You can run dual systems. Most of my computer savvy friends have been using Linux as their prime and have windows only for gaming and certain other applications. I don't know anyone that's had problems with Linux and from what I hear, in Europe, the computers come with Linux installed out the box as the primary OS. If the customer wants Windows, they buy that as an additional option.

There are hundreds of Linux forums out there to get you started. We have an old netbook, Windows 7, we don't use anymore and I'm going to experiment with a Linux load just to learn something and see if I like it.

a reply to: yorkshirelad

I dont remember the first one I tried back in the day but then I did Ubuntu many times...the main issues I was having was with music recording which is more of a software problem...but then many of the accessories like mics and keyboards and stuff were having trouble in linux...it just wasnt recognizing it...when I went online, I forget who it was, but one of the main contributors to linux had a message saying there is just nothing I can do as of yet with the music production issues. Its great though for a free operating system...also great for turning old slow computers into a decent little computer with linux. I still someday would like to really get into it when I have the time. Do you recommend any distro over another?

And just to stay on topic....Windows 8 sucks...hopefully by the time the full support stops for 7 they will have windows 9 or 10 and it will be amazing!

a reply to: stormcell. I checked out Linux and am not sure that is for me. It seems so much more complicated than Windows. I am a little less comfy trying new things than I used to be. Linux mint or matte, that was the option.

a reply to: whatnext21

I have Windows 8... and it SUCKS

a reply to: whatnext21

It does take a little getting used to but *I have found it worth it. Guess it just depends on the person, but I wouldn't willingly fork over hundreds of $ every few years when I can get something (far better IMHO) for free. Sure it might come with some work, but many distros are about as time consuming to maintain as Wind. is.

a reply to: rockpaperhammock

sounds like an issue with the drivers
thats not a problem with linux
there are less people using linux so companies dont usually release drivers for linux
if it was more widespread it wouldnt even be an issue

try using a microsoft brand keyboard or mouse on a computer running os x and youll probably run into the same issue