Coffee with Kampas - Episode 16: Goodbye, Windows 7

Hi, this is John Kampas, Founder and CEO of EMPIST. On today’s “Coffee with Kampas”, I want to talk to you about life after Windows 7. As of today, January 15th, 2020, Windows 7 is officially end-of-life. After 10-and-a-half years and 450 million copies sold, it sure was a good run. I hope you have already migrated to a supported operating system, however it is estimated that nearly 30% of computers are still running Windows 7.

If you are included in this percentage, you 00:31 - need to do something about it asap. Your system will still run, but it will become less and less secure every day. And if you follow Coffee with Kampas, you can’t say you weren’t warned. Included in the first patch Tuesday of 2020, Microsoft released 49 security patches, eight of which were classified as critical patches. Some of these affect all versions of Windows, including Windows 7. I am certain this will continue to happen, and hackers will be ready to attack. Keep in mind that Windows 7 and older operating systems will not be patched by Microsoft anymore. You also need to be aware of potential compliance issues. If you haven’t upgraded to Windows 10 yet, you could be in violation of regulatory and industry compliances, such as HIPAA, because you cannot guarantee updated patches on all your systems. You could also be in violation of your cybersecurity policy and client agreements.

If you still need to run 01:26 - Windows 7, you need to purchase Extended Security Updates, or ESU, asap. This support runs for a maximum of three years. With ESU, you will continue to receive security updates from Microsoft. Without it, you will no longer receive security updates. For those of you who have upgraded, hopefully the process wasn’t too painful. Whether you performed an in-place upgrade or purchased a new system with Windows 10 pre-installed, there are a lot of enhancements, including cloud integrations. Some customers have also used this as an opportunity to introduce more apple systems into their business. With many applications being SaaS or cloud-based, desktop computing is becoming more device agnostic because there is less dependency on the device type or operating system. You might be thinking, “okay, I have upgraded, so I’m safe, right?” Not exactly. Even though you upgraded to a new operating system, you will still need to make sure your systems are current and up-to-date.

This is especially true as it relates to 02:27 - security. As I mentioned earlier, 49 new security patches were released this month. Manufacturers and developers cannot predict the future in order to release patches and fixes. If you don’t keep your systems and devices up-to-date, they might only be patched up to the time of installation. If you need any help managing your technology, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly. Thank you. .