Windows 7 - January 2020, No Longer Supported

Windows 7 - January 2020, No Longer Supported

If you have found this article, it will most likely be due to a new notice displayed on your Windows 7 computer system.

What You Will See

If you see this screenshot below, you may continue using Windows 7.
Click this "Don't remind me again" writing as shown in red box.


How Does This Affect Me?

Windows 7 computer systems will continue to run, however, like Windows XP the popular applications will choose exclude Windows 7 from their supported installation list in due course.

If you are to continue using Windows 7, please ensure you have a reputable Antivirus/Malware software installed as the Microsoft Windows Defender item for Windows 7 will no longer be updated with the latest security definitions. (we choose ESET at the time of this article writing, https://help.supportu.nz/portal/kb/articles/eset-antivirus-software)

Windows updates will be discontinued, if there is a security flaw found it is unlikely to be patched by Microsoft when running Windows 7 systems.

Other applications, things like Google Chrome, Firefox Browser, accounting software packages are all critical to business and home users, the latest versions of software will not be supported in Windows 7 systems and will fail to install which is the primary reason to upgrade sooner than last minute.


Can I upgrade without purchasing a new computer?

If your computer is still running Windows 7, potentially the computer hardware itself is near its usable end of life so this might be a good time to review replacing the computer. However, you can upgrade by purchasing a full retail copy of Windows 10 (see link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/store/b/windows?) or use the Windows 10 upgrade tool.

The differences is the upgrade tool method has no cost implied but has a limited digital license that expires within 3 years (we haven't seen any deactivation events as yet, to early) and the retail Windows 10 license (or a new computer purchase) is for the life of the computer hardware.


You may download the copy of the upgrade tool we have on file as of January 2020, this is attached to the bottom of this article. (Windows10Upgrade_Jan2020.zip file)

If your computer is quite slow to start today, please review a new computer as doing this upgrade will not improve the speed of your computer.

With a healthy computer that performs acceptably while using fiber internet UFB or vDSL internet connections, expect to complete the task in under two hours.
There is the Windows 10 update item that consumes approximately 5GB of internet download data during this process.


A small selection of computers fails to update, about one in ten computers fail with the screenshot below (or similar message) - The only solution to this item is to re-install Windows 7 clean and then upgrade to Windows 10 using the update tool.
After following Windows 10 upgrade prompts and rebooting, you may see Windows 7 produce this message. (Your computer did not upgrade and remains on Windows 7)


Final Note

It is the computer user's responsibility to always backup their documents. The choice to upgrade or have a computer replacement is a user choice.

The applications you use is ultimately what pushes the computer user to choose a new computer system (For this article, referring to Windows 10).




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