Microsoft is recommending 400 milion users buy new PCs by next month

Microsoft has been under attack by Windows 7 fans ever since the company announced the End-of-Support for the Operating System. Now that we are just two days away from the deadline, Microsoft has published a full-page article advising users to switch to Surface.

Buried inside the FAQ section of the article is the recommendation from Microsoft to the Windows 7 users. The FAQ section states that it’s better for users to buy a new PC and not upgrade their existing devices.

For most Windows 7 users, moving to a new device with Windows 10 Pro is the recommended path forward. Surface devices are faster and lightweight, and more powerful and more secure, with an average price that’s considerably less than that of the average PC eight years ago.

– Microsoft

Microsoft also noted that it’s not recommended to upgrade Windows 7 machines to Windows 10 as certain components and drivers might not work properly. This is something I faced myself recently as I tried upgrading my 8-year-old Dell Inspiron laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 10. The good thing is that Windows 10 comes with basic drivers so there’s a good chance you will be able to boot into Windows but won’t be able to use exclusive hardware or other features like SD Card Readers or Fingerprint scanners. These components are serviced by OEMs and they won’t be releasing new drivers for old Windows 7 laptops/PCs.

We recommend that you don’t install Windows 10 on an older device, as some Windows 7 devices are not compatible with Windows 10 or could experience reduced feature availability.

– Microsoft

Microsoft also noted that customers can ideally use Windows 7 after the End-of-Support but they won’t be protected against new security vulnerabilities.

You can continue to use Windows 7, but after support has ended, your PC will become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses. Windows will continue to start and run, but you will no longer receive software updates, including security updates, from Microsoft. Devices that run unsupported software are not protected.

– Microsoft

At the time of writing, almost 400 million users are still on Windows 7. So ideally they will need to either buy new Windows 10 devices or upgrade their devices to Windows 10 in two days. Microsoft won’t be servicing Windows 7 after 14th January 2020.