In a recent study conducted by Net Applications, it was revealed that Windows 7 accounts for 36.9% of the desktop OS market share as of December 2018. It used to have the highest share before being dethroned by the 39.22% of desktops running Windows 10 instead.
Sadly for its millions of users, however, Microsoft is planning to stop its support via updates for Windows 7 starting in 2020. According to the official support page on Microsoft’s website, the company is going to cease updates specifically on January 14, 2020, 10 years after Windows 7 was first released. “After that, technical assistance and software updates from Windows Update that help protect your PC will no longer be available for the product,” Microsoft says. “[We] strongly recommend that you move to Windows 10 sometime before January 2020 to avoid a situation where you need service or support that is no longer available.”
Microsoft is known to support its programs and operating systems up to 10 years from the date of launch. The first five years is the mainstream support while the last five years is the extended support. In this case, the company says that it will discontinue Windows 7 support “so that we can focus our investment on supporting newer technologies and great new experiences.”
