Windows 7 extended support ends on January 14, 2020

ooh joy something else I probably cannot afford... >_< >_>

You mentioned earlier that there are still updates for Vista until 2020. The only updates I'm aware of are a few for 2008 R2 that can be applied to Vista.

From Lehnerus2000- "Remember to install Macrium Reflect (or other Imaging software) and make regular Backup Images, just in case some devastating malware does get released."

Also remember to create a boot disc from Macrium Reflect.

I'm running Vista on this system and have had no problems since it was dumped by Microsoft. I also use Norton Security and it has stopped anything that has tried to insert itself for the purposes of causing problems. The last thing I read said that less than 1% of computer users are using Vista. Not sure why anybody would want to go to the trouble of writing malware/viruses, etc. for it. The biggest problem is getting a workable browser (there's a big thread on that in the Vista forum) and, so far, both Firefox and Opera seem to do everything I want. IE 9 is not usable at some websites.

I plan to go the same route with the two Win 7 systems I have. Those have all the updates and I'll continue to update them.

Honestly, I don't think it would bother me that much to go to Win 10 but I would customize the hell out of it. I'll probably do that when this desktop finally dies (It turned eleven years old last week) and I need to buy a new system.

I had a look at the link lehnerus2000 posted above. It makes interesting reading. It shows W10 consistently worse than W7 for vulnerabilities. There should be a law preventing the sale of products that are clearly so unfit for purpose.

wither 2 said:

You mentioned earlier that there are still updates for Vista until 2020. The only updates I'm aware of are a few for 2008 R2 that can be applied to Vista.

Yes, they're just the server updates for 2008 R2 so not "official" Vista updates, but still applicable.

My mistake, was just replying to Wither who mentioned R2 in his post. Anyway, whichever version it is, they're easily available online. Googling "Post EOL updates for Vista" and they're all available in one mega link, so very easy to find.
Haven't used Vista myself since 7 came out, although never had any issues with it when I did use it.

Although I'm aware 7 and its Server equivalent both have the same dates for EOL, if businesses are getting paid updates I wouldn't be surprised if some repository crops up somewhere to download them. Again, I have no idea how those updates are being delivered so I can't comment on it until it happens in 2020.

If I'm not able to get the updates post 2020, I'm still not concerned about it, but if they're available I'll happily install them.

I'm glad we had this discussion. I was going to ask about where to get the updates. Thanks for that link. Man, do I have the updating to do.

Thanks townsbg for the correction. Somewhere I had gotten the impression that the later updates to Vista were the same as R2.

For anyone who wants to know the price for extended enterprise support, here's some info from ONMSFT:

Year 1 (January 2020 through January 2021): Windows 7 Pro is $50 per device, Windows Enterprise (add-on) is $25 per device.

Year 2 (January 2021 through January 2022): Windows 7 Pro is $100 per device, Windows Enterprise (add-on) is $50 per device.

Year 3 (January 2022 through January 2023): Windows 7 Pro is $200 per device, Windows Enterprise (add-on) is $100 per device.

Want to stay on Windows 7 past next year with extended support? Here’s what it will cost OnMSFT.com OnMSFT.com