Windows 7 RTM End Of Support

Lum

bod1467 wrote: »

Doesn't seem too much to get excited about?

Direct2D and Direct3D improvements are of particular interest to gamers, but also of minor interest to everybody else since these are used simply for displaying application windows. Some utility/productivity type apps also use Direct2D and DirectWrite just for displaying fonts.

H.264 improvements are of interest to anyone who watches hi-def video, or indeed most internet video, though some browsers and media players will bundle their own H.264 codec.

Sure it's not a major change that's going to revolutionise the world, but it's a bunch of small improvements that you can have for free.

Oblivion

Lum wrote: »

Should probably also add that there is a platform update for Windows 7 which is almost but not quite SP2.

Microsoft have been keeping it quiet outside of the business world, as they want home users to go to Windows 8 instead

I've just checked my updates in Control Panel - Programs and it seems this platform update No. 2670838 downloaded automatically to my Win 7 SP1 machine on 26th March.

Lum

Oh, they finally pushed it out to windows update. (It came out early February)

Never mind then.

Oblivion

Lum wrote: »

Oh, they finally pushed it out to windows update. (It came out early February)

Never mind then.

... and did it fairly quickly. When I quoted 26th March 2013 it was for my very new workstation that I commissioned on that date.

Just checked my older laptop running Win7 and it received the update on 26th February.

Lum

Ok nevermind, not sure where I read that it wasn't being pushed via windows update from, though I do remember having to install it manually on my one remaining Windows 7 machine last month.

Maybe they pulled after that problem with the ATI cards and have since put it back?

macman

paddyrg wrote: »

Although of course the clock is ticking on the 13 year old XP, in under 12 months it will be completely unsupported in any form!

And millions of users will continue to use it in blissful ignorance...

bod1467

paddyrg wrote: »

Although of course the clock is ticking on the 13 year old XP, in under 12 months it will be completely unsupported in any form!

This is generating quite a bit of upgrade business for the company I work for, as the control consoles are based on Windows PCs and many of the older systems are XP.

DatabaseError

paddyrg wrote: »

Although of course the clock is ticking on the 13 year old XP, in under 12 months it will be completely unsupported in any form!

Not quite true, support packages will still be available from Microsoft, but quite expensive (el reg suggested $200k-$500k for the 1st year, with a possibility to increase exponentially

molerat

Imagine if a car manufacturer did that to something they were selling 2 years ago .... "Sorry we are not going to sell brake pads for your car after next year so you are going to have to buy a new one" ...... think of the uproar it would cause. They should support it for 10 years after they stop supplying it. Typical M$ attitude.

Lum

molerat wrote: »

Imagine if a car manufacturer did that to something they were selling 2 years ago .... "Sorry we are not going to sell brake pads for your car after next year so you are going to have to buy a new one" ...... think of the uproar it would cause. They should support it for 10 years after they stop supplying it. Typical M$ attitude.

Windows XP came out in 2002 and was replaced by Windows Vista in 2006, 7 years ago, support is ending next year for a total of 8 years.

Windows 7 came out in 2009, was replaced by Windows 8 in 2013 and spport is ending in 2020.

They are currently only dropping support for people who haven't bothered to install the free service pack. If you want to use a car analogy this is like saying "hey, we've had this product recall going on for a couple of years now, we're still happy to do the recall work for you for free at any time, but until you get it done we're not going to fix any other, smaller, design flaws that the car has"