14 DAY TRIAL // With support for Windows 7 coming to an end in January, Microsoft is taking another step to make users aware of the approaching deadline.
Beginning today, the company is showing end-of-support notifications on Windows 7 Pro devices as well, after similar warnings have been displayed on Windows 10 Home since April.
The warning is only aimed at devices that are not domain-joined and is supposed to let users know that upgrading to supported Windows is the only way to continue receiving patches and security improvements.
Moving to Windows 10
On Windows 10 Home, the notifications were powered by update KB4493132 and also came with an option to block them from showing up once again. This makes the process overall less intrusive, albeit some users decided to block the said update altogether to make sure that warnings won’t reach their desktops.
“We are now extending the notifications discussed below to Windows 7 Pro devices to ensure our customers are aware of the end of support for Windows 7 and can take action to remain productive and secure. Devices that are domain-joined as a part of an IT-managed infrastructure will not receive the notifications,” Microsoft says in an update to its original March post when it announced the notifications.
Needless to say, Microsoft recommends everyone to move to Windows 10, and a dedicated upgrade page even provides customers with information on how to complete the transition. Furthermore, the software giant highlights some of the latest PCs that could help you make the most of Windows 10, explaining that “the average price for a great PC is considerably less than it was 5-10 years ago.”
At this point, Windows 7 is still running on approximately 30 percent of the desktop computers out there, according to NetMarketShare data, and there’s a good chance the 2009 operating system would still hold a significant market share in January when the support comes to an end.