Microsoft plans to end support for Windows 7 and 8.1 on January 10, 2022. After support ends, devices using these two Windows versions will no longer receive updates, and some programs, such as Chrome or Microsoft Edge, will not receive version updates.

Windows 7 and 8.1 have a considerable share of the Windows market share.According to statisticscompany Statcounter records that as of November 2022, Windows 7 has a market share of 10.25%, and Windows 8.1 has a market share of 2.53%. And Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 operating system has only 16.13% market share. That is to say,Twelve percent of the entire Windows user base faces end-of-support for the system in January 2023.

After end of support, Windows 7 / 8.1 users have the following options:

• Users can choose to continue to use Windows 7 or 8.1, and there will be no problems in the short term, but because they cannot accept system patches and application patches, it will be more dangerous when some serious vulnerabilities appear.
• In addition, users can choose to upgrade to Windows 10 and do not need to purchase a Windows 10 license, because the old product key allows users to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. Windows 10 was released in 2015 and will be supported until 2025. Microsoft is likely to extend support in 2025 because many devices running Windows 10 are not compatible with Windows 11.
• Users can also choose to upgrade to Windows 11, but Windows 11 is relatively new, and older devices running Windows 7 or 8.1 may have some compatibility issues, and upgrading to Windows 11 requires purchasing a new license, which is not recommended.

Of course, there is another option, which is to enter the Linux world! Some modern Linux distributions have a very friendly graphical desktop environment, which can be easily used without Linux knowledge, such as Zorin OS, whose interface and various operating habits are very similar to Windows systems…

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