Microsoft warns of end of mainstream support for Windows 7

Microsoft points out that mainstream support for all Windows 7 versions will end in six months and that the OS will enter the extended support period. The same is true for Office 2010 SP1 and all Windows Server 2008 versions.

Traditionally, Microsoft lists the software for which support will end within the next six months, and the group has again done so this time for Windows 7, Server 2008, Storage Server 2008, Exchange Server 2010, Visual Studio 2012 and Office 2010 SP1. This includes mainstream support, which includes the five-year period of free updates such as security patches and new functionality.

The products are now entering the extended support period, during which only free security updates will be released but no new functionality will be added. The software giant can bring further extensions and patches to the software, but that will have to be paid for.

Mainstream support for Windows 7 Starter, Home Premium, Ultimate, Professional and Enterprise will end on January 13, 2015. This also applies to the N variants and whether Service Pack 1 is installed does not matter before the term expires. Microsoft will discontinue extended support on January 14, 2020. Although that is still far in the future, so many systems are currently still running Windows 7 that situations such as Windows XP cannot be ruled out. When support for XP ended earlier this year, it turned out that a huge number of computers, including government ones, were still running the old OS. Microsoft still supplies security patches to governments for a fee, but only if they have initiated a migration to a newer Windows version.

For Office 2010 Service Pack 1, mainstream support will end October 14, 2014, for Windows Server 2008, as for Windows 7, it will be January 13, 2015.

The next Windows version to end support completely is the unpopular Windows Vista, which will end-of-life on April 11, 2017. Support for Windows 8 will end completely on January 10, 2023.