Three ways to finally move on from Windows 7

27.11.2019

Rob

In tips & advice,Business

Ten years ago, in 2009, Microsoft released Windows 7 and to many it was the long-awaited replacement to the less well received Windows Vista. Consequently, Windows 7 has become one of the most popular operating systems Microsoft has released.

However, 10 years in the tech world is a very long time, so Microsoft has decided to no longer support Windows 7. As of 14 January 2020, Windows 7 will be out in the world on its own with no further assistance from Microsoft.

With the date quickly approaching, the risks of continuing to run an unsupported version of Windows are hard to ignore. Like Windows XP and Vista before it, Windows 7 will soon stop receiving security updates and vulnerabilities and bugs will no longer be fixed.

As software developers also drop support for Windows 7, updates to favourite games and applications will also become incompatible.

So, what should you do? Thankfully there are several ways to upgrade your computer to Windows 10 (which is a wonderful operating system)…

Purchase a license from a retailer

A quick and easy way to upgrade to Windows 10 is to purchase a licence off the shelf or from your favourite online reseller. After following the instructions, downloading Windows 10 and popping in the licence key, you are done. You can upgrade to keep all your original programs installed, or you can do a clean install to start from scratch. You can also transfer the licence to another computer later.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise

Microsoft 365 Enterprise is a relatively new offering that combines Office 365, Windows 10 and EMS (Enterprise Mobility + Security) as a monthly subscription. There are two editions of Enterprise 365 that both include Windows 10.

Buy a new laptop

Let’s face it, if your computer is still running Windows 7 it’s probably a few years old, out of warranty and not as quick as it used to be. Purchasing a new computer not only gets you the latest hardware and a warranty should something go wrong, it will also come with Windows 10.