Windows 7: From January 2020, it will no longer be supported by Microsoft. What to do?

The next 14 January 2020 will be the date of farewell to support from Microsoft for Windows 7. An important date for all those who still have a PC with this version of operating system and above the professional machines that have not yet been updated. 

The Redmond house openly declared it, also through its official online support pages: ” Microsoft has committed to providing 10 years of technical support for Windows 7 when it was released on October 22nd 2009. At the end of this 10-month period years, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7 “.

Windows 7: The end of support

This means that the Redmond company will no longer release any kind of update for Windows 7 and especially not even security patches. Those who still have Windows 7 Home will no longer be able to defend themselves effectively from possible attacks by malicious hackers, and it is these users who have received warnings from Microsoft on the end of the support.

Microsoft has chosen to communicate to users the end of technical support by means of warnings that appear in the form of pop-up windows directly on the PC or Notebook with Windows 7. In the message, which will be released several times to users before the end of support date, you can read:

” After 10 years, support for Windows 7 is nearing its end. January 14, 2020 is the last day that Microsoft will offer security updates and technical support for Windows 7. We know that changing can be difficult, so we are warning you first to help you backup your files and prepare for new “.

Windows 7: What to do after the end of support?

At this point, users will need to be patient and must behave in such a way as to avoid the end of the support. Such as? The choice is clearly to upgrade your work or entertainment tool to the new version of Windows. Windows 7 will clearly continue to run without any problems but Microsoft, will no longer release any kind of updates even those of security, and this means that users will be at the mercy of hackers or other such as infiltration systems.

The solution to this problem is clearly to update your tools to the latest Windows 10, which also has new types of security and coverage against malware or other types of last-minute viruses.

What to do? The advice is then to create an image of the system with the entire configuration of Windows 7, the structure of the disk or of the SSD, and the data stored thus saving it on a shared folder in the local network.

At this point, using the Windows 10 Update Assistant, you can upgrade your machine to Windows 10 even at zero cost without even needing to manually enter a Product Key. Although the offer of free upgrade to Windows 10 (starting from copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 installed with a regular license) is terminated one year after the launch of the first version of Windows 10.

It is still possible to switch to the most-recent version of the operating system at no cost through the Insider program. Files related to Windows 7, after upgrading to Windows 10 with the Windows 10 Update Assistant or with the Media Creation Tool (both downloadable from this page), are stored in the Windows.old folder.