Microsoft has begun preparing users for the wind down of Windows 7, just three months after terminating support for XP.
According to IT News, Microsoft has begun to wean customers off the Windows 7 era of products as each approaches end of mainstream support. The software giant last week issued an advisory warning customers that the end of mainstream support – a five-year period where Microsoft offers free patches and fixes – was nearing for the OS, as well as for Windows Server 2008, Windows Phone 7.8, and Exchange Server 2010, among others.
Mainstream support will cease for the majority of those products on January 13, 2015, at which point they enter ‘extended support’. Mainstream support for Windows Phone 7.8 ends earlier on September 9th, 2014.
According to Business Technology, 74 per cent of businesses are still using XP. The survey by Bit9 found that only 29 per cent of those running XP had plans to install new operating systems on their computers, even though 64 per cent of firms expect to be hit by a cyber attack within the next year.
