End of Life January 14, 2020
In just about three months, Windows 7 will have it’s “End of Life” event, Microsoft announced this earlier this year.
What this means is that between the time you read this newsletter/blog post and January 14, we need to have some concept of an upgrade path to Windows 10 and implement it ASAP.
For most of my clients, a new computer will be purchased.
(Many of you are already on windows 10 so you can skip this or pass this on to someone still on 7? Or EGADS, VISTA?)
Why?
Computers purchased with Windows 7 are usually over SEVEN years old. Without regular updates from Microsoft, this also leaves your system open to more vulnerabilities than you can imagine.
Recovering from these vulnerabilities can be at a high cost depending on the flaws that were exploited and the amount of time it can take can be daunting.
While many systems might stay working for a couple of more years, the lifecycle of most computers is three to five years for a home user.
For most business lifecycles, other than custom medical devices or computers running custom/specialized medical software, at three years, planning on equipment upgrades is prudent and business savvy.
There are a few computers out there that can be directly upgraded to Windows 10, but for the most part, if they are older than FIVE years, it would be wise to budget out a replacement with Windows 10.
Please take action as soon as possible since the season is just starting here in the desert and my schedule can book up rather quickly.
The changeover can take a couple of days for setup , data migration and installing the latest programs that work with Windows 10.
I advise going the Office 365 route as this seems to be the fastest and easiest setup, but this needs to be setup correctly if you have been using an older version of Outlook that still saves in a .PST file.
Some background with Windows…
We had to work through the horrors of Windows Vista, when Windows 7 seemed to be a fresh breeze of life into the Windows OS stable.
Having started with DOS 1.2 in 1985, as well as the ill-fated OS/2 in 1996, I have experienced the releases of the various Windows versions over the past 30+ years:
○ Windows 3 ○ 3.1 ○ 3.11 ○ 95 ○ NT 4.0 ○ 98 ○ 98SE ○ 2000 ○ ME ○ XP ○ Vista ○ 7 ○ 8 ○ 8.1 ○ 10
Windows 8 was by far, the worst OS to work on and as Forrest Gump says, “That’s all I have to say about that….”
Windows 9 didn’t exist. It’s in the electron pile. Next to the DEL key.
Quoting a Microsoft Developer, “…because 7, 8, 9…”
https://www.komando.com/happening-now/307566/secret-code-reveals-the-real-reason-microsoft-skipped-windows-9/all
Many of my clients stayed with Windows 7 even as Windows 8.1 sought to correct the disaster of 8, and most of my clients with specialized software in the medical and legal fields had no choice but to wait until those programs and machines were able to be updated.
Some were at great cost to move from even earlier versions of those testing machines that could not be upgraded to even the current versions still running Windows 7.
While Windows 7 was clearly a great operating system, it had some flaws and one was it’s ability to get hacked pretty easily by infections.
While Windows 10 is still “infectable”, it is more secure than the previous iterations. I still ensure that my clients have the best protection on their computers. It’s my job.
Windows 10 has been somewhat controversial regarding it’s privacy issues and when I setup a new computer, I set the privacy to ensure my clients are protected.
There are two options for Windows 10, the Microsoft account and login or the local account.
The Microsoft account when Windows 8 first came out had serious issues. At one point there was an update that disconnected the passwords from the Microsoft login on their site and the computer had to be wiped and set backup.
With Windows 10, I have setup one of my laptops as a Microsoft login account and so far, it’s been non-problematic.
Most of my other computers are just local accounts and we can discuss this when you are ready to upgrade to a new device.
While there are many other options to deal with when setting up Windows 10, I still insist on the basics: a brand new external Western Digital Passport, a new license for Antivirus (unless we can transfer the old one), and an upgrade to your office software.
Please schedule time for this ASAP!