Home Forums Extended Windows 7 support till 2023

For us Win 7 diehards. Win 7 is still 40% of the market as of an August survey.

From MS:
Windows 7 Extended Security Updates
As previously announced, Windows 7 extended support is ending January 14, 2020. While many of you are already well on your way in deploying Windows 10, we understand that everyone is at a different point in the upgrade process.

With that in mind, today we are announcing that we will offer paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) through January 2023. The Windows 7 ESU will be sold on a per-device basis and the price will increase each year. Windows 7 ESUs will be available to all Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise customers in Volume Licensing, with a discount to customers with Windows software assurance, Windows 10 Enterprise or Windows 10 Education subscriptions. In addition, Office 365 ProPlus will be supported on devices with active Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) through January 2023. This means that customers who purchase the Windows 7 ESU will be able to continue to run Office 365 ProPlus.

The big thing to look at here is that the support is limited to businesses that have Volume Licensing. Microsoft did the same thing when XP was End-Of-Life. They extended support for people who had Volume Licenses/Software Assurance.

Volume licensing has a 5 license minimum. If you bought your computer from a store, it's most likely OEM licensed. If you bought Windows online/on its own, it's likely a retail license. If you downloaded your Windows from the Volume Licensing Service Center, then you probably have Windows 7 Volume licensed.

Oh, too bad.
I thought the way it way written the volume licensing referred back to enterprise customers only.

There is a reason why we licensed a large volume of Win7 Enterprise licenses, way back in the day.

i tried to integrate a new window 10 computer into my window 7 network.
i had problems with the network,
it would not work consistently.
i replaced the windows 10 computer with the old window 7 computer; and now i am really shy about changing to a total window 10 environment. i would like to leave it all the way it is in a window 7 environment.
so... and i plead ignorance here; what happens in year 2020. will everything stop working. what choices do i have. will i be able to continue window 7 or not.

I could not install 10.2 onto my server which was running WD7. I was instructed by tech that I needed to reinstall windows. I took my computer in so they could do that it. They were going to re-install Windows 7, but it was going to take 1-2 days because they had to also install about 300 updates. I then asked if they could just install the 10 they said they could and it would only take an hour. Afterwards I was able to install AC 10.2. The reason I mention this is that appears to me that after many years the program becomes a hodgepodge of stringed together updates that I suspect becomes problematic. But I may wrong.

Actually, usually most of the updates will install overnight, so 1-2 days adds a bit of fluff. The basic install takes about 45 minutes. Windows 10 probably had to do updates too, but was probably closer to the latest version.

Significant portions of the program have been re-written over time. There are probably parts that date back to 2001. The overall architecture has not changed that much in the ensuing years although many things have been added. This is also true of most other EMRs that are over 10 years old as well. The current program is much slower than it was in Version 6, and ever more slow than version 4 and before. Of course many things were added. Beyond version 6 much of the added bulk was meaningless use until Version 10 finally started to correct long standing issues. Add to this the changes that Windows has made and things become even more complex.

It definitely depends on the hardware. Windows 7 Updates from a fresh install can easily take a few days if updating on a traditional hard drive. It also has to be run multiple times. If your install media is too old, you'll need to install the convenience update from 2016 or it won't update at all.

If your software works on Windows 10, it's better to move there. Windows 7 has about a year left before it's EOL. Make sure you get Windows 10 Pro.

i did try the windows pro 10
the problem that i had was that it sometimes / intermittently more than two times not be recognized on the network.
very frustrating

is there an easy fix for this problem [does anyone else have this problem?]

so, when windows 7 is not supported, will i be able to use amazing charts software?
or, will it all self destruct

thanks

You should always be able to use the hostname or IP address if network discovery doesn't work. Type \\ServerName or \\IPAddress and select the XML file.

Win 7 should still work just fine after that date. I remember upgrading someone last year who was still running Windows 95. But maybe Version 11 won't work on Windows 7. The main issue with using EOL software is that it's no longer receiving security updates. This could mean any of number of attacks. UK's National Health Service kept using XP and ended up getting hacked. It's considered non-HIPAA compliant.

There's lot of procedure machines (MRI, X-Ray, etc) that are very expensive to upgrade. In those types of cases, it's better to just take them offline and keep using them.

Does your system become HIPPA non compliant if it is no longer receives security updates. Also is AC able to install onto a system that is not HIPPA compliant. Reason I mention this is that when I moved to AC I had to retire one of my Laptops because it was running XP.

Dru

In a nutshell, yes that is the reason. HIPAA doesn't mandate any specific technical requirements but it does require certain standards be met. With windows 7 no longer being patched, hackers are free to exploit any vulnerabilities and unless you know how to secure an operating system, you would be unable to address them.

Windows 7 was released in July 2009 and will receive updates until Jan. 2020.

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-profe...operating-system-requirements/index.html



AC doesn't enforce HIPAA requirements on your personal machines and networks. Their main responsibility maintaining and securing PHI in the EHR. The reason why you had to move off XP is probably because it's not compatible. For instance, XP doesn't support the newer .NET frameworks meaning you can't use new versions of AC.