A day or two ago one of my colleagues told me (or rather us) that Windows support for their version 7 of the operating system ended this week. And yesterday I told the same to a friend who’s also in IT (in a manager position even), and his reaction was a bit like:
“What? We just rolled out version 7! Cannot be – I’m sure you’re talking about Windows XP?”
Well yes and no. For XP, even the “extended” support ended last year, that is correct. But if you look at Microsoft’s “Lifecycle” page, their so-called “mainstream” support for version 7 ended this week indeed. But the “extended” one will continue for another 5 years, time enough for most enterprises to upgrade to some newer client operating systems.
Should you have any questions about this, the page lists 3 commonly asked ones, and have a look at the “what does it mean?” page as well.
Basically, for Win7 that means that you have to install Service Pack 1, and/or to enable automatic updates. That way, your Win7 will still be supported until its “end of life” in about 5 years from now.
Vista? Oh well – two more years if you’re on Service Pack 2 (see my first link above).
Hope that clears any questions.