The end of an era? Windows 7 mainstream support ends January 13th, 2015

As happens with Microsoft, or any software company, when it released Windows 7 back in 2009, it did so with a certain shelf-life in mind. Five years were given to the operating system, as was the case with its predecessors, including the pretty, but absent-minded, Windows Vista, and the functional, but aging, Windows XP. 

It is now 2015, and those five years have, unfortunately, passed. From tomorrow, 01/13/2015, the ‘mainstream’ support phase for Windows 7 will end, meaning that significant software development on the part of the platform, from Microsoft, will cease. From this point onwards, the OS will exist in the strange limbo in which all former children of Redmond live, receiving only security updates to ensure the viability of the platform as future threats emerge, both from outside and within.

With a large subset of the Windows user-base still working from Windows 7, this is quite a significant development, though one that was telegraphed by Redmond rather a long time ago. Though day-to-day usage will most likely remain the same for the vast majority of users, the only option for those who wish to be on the cutting edge is to take the (sometimes bitter) pill and upgrade.

Will you be upgrading to a newer version of Windows? Let us know in the comments below.