14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier today, it has emerged that German automaker Porsche would upgrade all of its systems from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and now it looks like another organization plans a similar switch in the coming months.
Public Health England (PHE), an agency that’s part of the Department of Health in the United Kingdom, will switch from Windows 7 to Windows 10, only that this time the transition wouldn’t come down just to software.
Instead, PHE will receive 6,200 Toshiba and Lenovo devices running Windows 10, all of which will be deployed to 5,500 employees in the coming months. This way, the organization prepares for the end of support that Windows 7 is projected to reach in January 2020, after which point security patches would no longer be released.
The upgrade will be handled by Stone Group, which promises a smooth transition process based on Microsoft System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM). All data and required apps and drivers will be automatically deployed on the new devices.
Windows 7 end of support
Right now, Windows 7 is the world’s number one desktop operating system, but with end-of-support planned for January 2020, organizations still running it should already begin planning the transition to Windows 10.
Given how popular it is today, however, Windows 7 is very likely to become the new Windows XP and remain a widely-used operating system even after its end of support. This means millions of systems will probably become exposed to attacks after January 2020, just like it happened with Windows XP when Microsoft pulled the plug on it in April 2014.
For what it’s worth, Windows XP continues to be one surprisingly popular choice these days, as it’s installed on more than 4 percent of the PCs worldwide, according to third-party data. This makes it even more successful than Windows 8, which was launched in 2012, but also discontinued by Microsoft in the meantime.