Windows 7 mainstream support ends

Microsoft will end mainstream support for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 on January 13. Find out what that means for you.

by Tuong Nguyen 

What end of mainstream support means

For corporate users, it's business as usual.

For home users, free online and phone support are disappearing. Microsoft stopped distributing new licenses to manufacturers and vendors in October 2014, so don't expect to see many more new PCs preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, or Ultimate.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 now enters its extended support phase. Microsoft will continue torelease security patches until January 14, 2020. Business PCs with Windows 7 Pro will still be available for sale, and so will OEM keys of the Pro version. Paid support will still be available.Downgrades will be honored for the business edition of Windows. For example, if you purchase a PC with Windows 8.1 Pro, you can still downgrade to Windows 7 Pro.

How the end of support affects you

Regular users will still get security fixes. You can still get Windows 7 Pro licenses if you're planning on purchasing a new system or if you're finally upgrading from Windows XP.

There's no news yet of Windows 7 Pro going off the market. Microsoft has promised to give at least a year of advance warning before cutting off sales.

Source: ZDNet