Microsoft has been trying to get users to upgrade from Windows 7 for years, and with Windows 10 now available the company appears ready to really pull the plug. As BetaNews reports, an announcement on the official German website for Microsoft says that in 2020, the company will put a permanent halt to all Windows 7 support.
The company’s rationale revolves around security, with Microsoft asserting that increases in malware attacks and support requests are resulting in higher operating costs. The OS simply can’t defend itself – and its users’ data – in the current digital environment, given the sophistication of today’s digital threats. Nevertheless, while Windows 10 already has over 24 percent of the global OS marketshare, Windows 7 maintains over 48 percent, according to NetMarkShare data cited by BetaNews. That suggests a considerable percentage of the world’s population using dangerously vulnerable operating system software.
Windows 10, meanwhile, offers some of the most sophisticated security on the market, thanks in large part to Windows Hello, a security platform enabling biometric authentication. And there’s a growing ecosystem of devices supporting that technology, with the company having recently celebrated that at the end of 2016 there were nearly a hundred devices taking advantage of fingerprint scanning, facial recognition, and more via Windows Hello.
Not everyone is going to understand why they need such defences in today’s digital environment, but they’re certainly going to get a push in that direction as Microsoft phases out for its most archaic software.
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January 16, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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