Don't fear IT staff: OneDrive for Business will support Windows 7 and 8.1 for several more years

We reported yesterday that the OneDrive desktop app for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 will stop working on March 1st, 2022. This may have alarmed some IT staff who also are the ones most likely to be still supporting such old installations.

This may explain why Microsoft pushed out an advisory reassuring them that OneDrive for Business will support Windows 7 and 8.1 for several more years.

Microsoft notes that beginning January 1, 2022, they will be aligning the OneDrive Desktop application (sync app) support lifecycle with the Windows support lifecycle.

This means that Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will be supported until January 10, 2023, while Windows 8 will exit support, with support for that operating system having already ended on January 12, 2016.

This does not mean IT staff can just ignore the coming January 1, 2022 deadline.

Following this date, if you are using Windows 8.1, you will no longer receive feature updates but will receive security fixes until January 10, 2023.

If you are using Windows 7 and participate in the Extended Security Update (ESU) program, you will continue to receive critical and important security updates (as defined by the Microsoft Security Response Center) until January 10, 2023.

As noted earlier, those on Windows 8 is completely out of support and will no longer receive updates or fixes.

Microsoft recommends that to ensure a smooth transition IT staff upgrade machines appropriately and that machines running on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 should be upgraded to Windows 10 or Windows 11 for the best experience.