Windows 7 gets a six-month extension for Microsoft support. Microsoft has had a firm date to end support for Windows 7 on the books for over a year. They’ve insisted that there was no flexibility in the date, so Windows 7 users would need to upgrade or risk not being protected by security patches.
Then the pandemic hit, and after wrestling with the decision for several months, the company decided to extend support after all.
Microsoft did this to give IT managers a bit more time to upgrade. If you’re still running one or more Windows 7 machines, you’ve got a six-month extension to upgrade, perhaps longer. A six-month extension is assured, and beyond that, the company will reevaluate based on prevailing conditions.
Microsoft isn’t the only company offering an extension to a grace period. Google has announced that Chrome support for Windows 7 will also have an extension through at least January 15th, 2022.
The six-month extension is, of course, great news for anyone still running Windows 7. There’s no denying that the sudden influx of tens of millions of people working from home forced big tech to innovate quickly to support that influx; it has hurt development in other ways.
Google’s Max Christoff, an Engineering Director for Chrome, said,
“While the past few months served as a catalyst for technology investments and digital transformation initiatives for many organizations, for others, some planned IT projects might have had to take a back seat.”
In any case, if you’re behind schedule in terms of migrating away from Windows 7, you can breathe a sigh of relief and you have a six-month extension.
