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Alert

Microsoft will end free mainstream support for Windows 7 on

Jul 8, 2014 3:51AM PDT

Microsoft will end free mainstream support for Windows 7 on January 13, 2015.

This just in. Add links about this later but given no one I know has used this support for years here, is it any real loss? Or is it just there to rattle everyone?
Bob

PS. Yes, I know another angle on this. Something about money.

Discussion is locked

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This on Cnet news.
Jul 8, 2014 8:03AM PDT
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And to clatify
Jul 8, 2014 9:44AM PDT

And to clarify for those too lazy to RTFA, this is just for Windows 7 without SP1 installed. Why anyone would still be running that today is really beyond me, but I'm sure they all think they have a good reason. But if you have Windows 7 SP1, you're good until like 2020.

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article says different?
Jul 9, 2014 8:40AM PDT

seems to say it's the same for with or without SP1.

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This from MS James.
Jul 9, 2014 8:50AM PDT
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Busted link try this.
Jul 9, 2014 8:53AM PDT
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mainstream end and security end
Jul 9, 2014 9:02AM PDT

is the same for W7 with our without SP1 added to it.

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Except for RTM.
Jul 9, 2014 9:07AM PDT

Dafydd.

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The article is poorly written
Jul 9, 2014 10:09AM PDT

The article is poorly written, as shown by Dafydd's link straight from MS, but I'll cop to skimming the article a little too quickly and not picking up on the fact that Windows 7 RTM/Gold is already into extended support and the article is talking about Win 7 SP1.

Not even really sure why this is news, except that the end of XP support is still fairly fresh in a lot of people's memories and now all of a sudden tech "journalists" have "discovered" the product lifecycle info MS has been publishing for decades. No offense to Bob, but this entire article is nothing but click-bait. For home users it means basically nothing, not that the author of the article can even be bothered to figure out that Windows 7 RTM is already into the extended support phase. Anyone who manages a couple Windows Server boxes and relies on Cnet for this kind of information doesn't deserve their job. Not to mention they make a big deal about another non-issue regarding how it can take 200 days to migrate a Windows Server box. That might actually be relevant if there wasn't still another roughly 5.5 years worth of security updates. I'm no mathematician, but last I checked there's around 365 days in any given year, so 5.5x365 seems like it's more than 200. Not to mention any server admin who waits until the last minute to start the migration process should probably find a new career. A good server admin would already have a migration plan in place or at least be working on one and make sure that it has a comfortable margin for error.