I thought I heard something the other day to the effect that support on Windows 7 has either stopped already or is about to stop in the near future? Is that correct? If so, what date are they giving?
Also, am I correct in believing that when they drop support they will also immediately stop all updates, including security patches?
Here are all the dates:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ha=windows%207
It is good that there are no more updates. That means no more new bugs.
Has support ended on W7? Not if you count KBs for hidden telemetry tasks, pushing W10, and making W7 less secure.
Microsoft doesn't want to stop updating Windows 7. How else would they sneak in their W-10 telemetry and other W-10 B/S.
Full support for Win 7 has ended. That means no more new or improved features and no more nonsecurity related bug fixes. However, extended support, which was supposed to be for security related flaws only, will continue to 01/14/2020. Unfortunately, since last year, M$py has also been including "get Win 10" related updates and spyware (the "telemetry" updates).
No, it would not be wise to stop all updates since most are actual security updates that patch security holes. Sadly, continuing to receive updates will require extreme scrutiny from now on to avoid the telemetry and Win 10 upgrade related updates. I wait at least four days before downloading and installing an update to allow time for reports of problem updates to surface.
To give an alternate opinion, I have stopped updating and so have others here (recently discussed in another thread). All major bugs and security flaws have long since been patched. But I do use Sandboxie and not an AV, so my system is not vulnerable to (present or future) viruses that might exploit potential remaining bugs. However, even if I used an AV, AFAIC the biggest threat to my system at this time are the MS updates. So I would not update anymore, regardless (unless I ran into a specific issue and Googled/found the specific fix/patch for it). JMO, YMMV.
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