Windows 7 was, is, and will remain the top operating system worldwide for many years from now, no matter if Microsoft actually makes Windows 9 a hit or not. Windows 7 has grown so much in the last couple of years that it's now installed on more than 50 percent of the desktop computers worldwide.
Needless to say, news that Microsoft is ending mainstream support for Windows 7 made many have the Windows XP nightmare once again.
As we've reported to you yesterday, Windows 7 is indeed exiting mainstream support on January 13, 2015, so Microsoft has already started issuing warnings to remind users that it's critical to move to a newer operating system as soon as possible for better protection and stability.
And although it's indeed true that Windows 7 will be entering extended support in early 2015, consumers like you have absolutely no reason to worry about.
It all comes down to what mainstream and extended support actually mean. Here are the official descriptions offered by Microsoft for the two support periods:
“Mainstream support—Microsoft will offer mainstream support for a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product is released, whichever is longer. For example, if you buy a new version of Windows and five years later another version is released, you will still have two years of support left for theprevious version.
“Extended support—Microsoft will offer extended support for either a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the second successor product (two versions later) is released, whichever is longer.”
Basically, the difference is being made by the updates that your computers get during these two different periods. In mainstream support, Windows is receiving not only security patches and fixes, but also new features and optimizations that are supposed to make the operating system a bit more stable and reliable.
Extended support, on the other hand, brings security fixes exclusively, which are clearly the most important for each and every customer out there.
In other words, as of January 2015, Windows 7 won't be getting any new features, but will continue to be updated to make sure that no vulnerabilities could allow hackers to break into your system.
Obviously, companies whose apps need better compatibility with the operating system are the most affected by mainstream support's demise, but consumers shouldn't actually see any difference.
And, just to remind you, by the time Windows 7 reaches end of mainstream support, we should already receive the first beta of Windows 9, so there's no doubt that many might actually decide to switch to this new OS version when it's released. Especially if it's going to be offered free of charge to Windows 7 SP1 users.
source:-softpedia.com
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