Since January 14, Microsoft has stopped supporting Windows 7. Aν operating system that was released ten years ago but is still used by more than 35% of Windows users.
What does this mean?
Losing support in any way does not mean that computers running with Windows 7 will stop working. There will simply be no more Bugs fixes and the much needed security updates. In essence, the company leaves hundreds of millions of users in luck. With a brief visit to the Microsoft page all it says about Windows 7 users is “Buy a new computer or get Windows 10”, and do a nice presentation of the computers it offers.
Of course, users with activated automatic updates have long been informed of the termination of Windows 7 support.
The good news doesn’t stop there. According to Jared Spataro, Security Updates will continue for Office 365 ProPlus running on Windows 7 until 2023, but there will be no upgrades with new features. We should also inform Office 2010 users that their support will stop on October 13, 2020.
And What Do We Do Now?
We won’t talk about companies and organizations. We will talk about the simple average user. The solutions available are limited.
Upgrading to Windows 10 depends purely on the features of the computer. As much as Microsoft insists they are light enough and work even with a 2GB Ram we are sure to say that it does not. The system will disappoint you quickly and I am very afraid that we will have a repeat of the “Great Laptop Massacre”. I am referring, of course, to the time when the company offered the upgrade to Windows 8, resulting in many laptops being victimized by their angry owners.
Anyone who insists on switching to Windows 10 should then have a bold upgrade to their Desktop Hardware, or purchase a new Laptop. Choose High End processors with several cores and know that 4GB of RAM will barely meet your needs. Ideally select Laptop with ssd hard drive and the option to add / upgrade ram.
If we can’t upgrade our equipment right now, what do we do with our computer? Under no circumstances can we remain in Windows 7. No matter how good antivirus we have, it does not protect us from the gaps in our operating system.
Linux !!!!
The first step is to create a Backup of all the files we have on our computer in an external hard drive. Then gather all your passwords from the various services into one good Password Manager, such as LastPass.
You can then choose a version of Linux. Have a look at the Linux article Best Linux Distros for Newbies
Before you can permanently delete Windows 7, you can try “Create Bootable Live Linux USB (Persistent)”
Test and choose the Linux distribution that suits you, then go ahead and install the new operating system and delete Windows from your life.
