Microsoft cuts support for Windows 7, but that鈥檚 no cause for alarm
Windows 7 was released more than five years ago, in October 2009, and on Tuesday Microsoft ended mainstream support for the operating system. Don鈥檛 panic: 鈥渕ainstream support鈥� means free phone and online help from Microsoft, as well as non-security-related software updates.
Windows 7 will continue to receive security updates until , by which point the operating system鈥檚 ubiquity will presumably have faded as more people upgrade their computers and software.
About 56 percent of PCs worldwide currently run Windows 7, from market firm Net Applications. Only 13.5 percent of PCs are running Windows 8 or 8.1. Slightly more than 18 percent are still running Windows XP, which was originally released in 2001 and which stopped receiving security updates from Microsoft in April 2014.
Microsoft鈥檚 next operating system, Windows 10, will be released sometime this year. Microsoft hasn鈥檛 given an exact date yet, nor said how much the new OS will cost, although TechRadar that Windows 8.1 users will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. Microsoft will hold a press event at its headquarters in Redmond, Calif., on January 21, where the company will probably share new details about Windows 10.
With Windows 10, Microsoft is reintroducing some popular older features from earlier Windows versions 鈥� such as legacy controls 鈥� that went missing in Windows 8, while still making sure that the OS works well on tablets and touchscreen PCs. Windows 8 was criticized for its tablet-like design, which wasn鈥檛 always easy to navigate with a mouse and keyboard. Microsoft design executive Joe Belfiore said last year that Windows 10 will suggest new ways to interact with files, but won鈥檛 force users to abandon more traditional ways.
Windows 10 may also introduce a new web browser to complement (and, eventually, replace) Internet Explorer. The new browser, reportedly code-named 鈥淪partan,鈥� would be updated with a new rendering engine to compete with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Internet Explorer, hampered by the need to maintain support for special business applications, has been steadily losing consumer market share for about 10 years now.
If you鈥檙e currently using Windows 7, there鈥檚 no need to panic about the end of mainstream support 鈥� you鈥檙e covered (at least from a security perspective) through the end of the decade. But Windows 10 is right around the corner, and Microsoft seems to be designing the OS in such a way that it will be an attractive upgrade for users of older Windows versions.
