As is so often the case: a deadline that a few years was far away is now suddenly putting many consumer and corporate users of Windows 7 in a predicament. Since January 14, Windows 7 support, which included delivery of system patches for identified vulnerabilities, has ended. But it's no use complaining; now the key is to protect Windows systems still running as effectively as possible.

Consumer users can still switch to Windows 10 free of charge

In fact, consumer users are indeed urged to make the switch to Windows 10. In this case, Microsoft is being very generous and continuing to offer a free update to Windows 10. Any home user with a valid serial number for Windows 7 can enter it to activate Windows 10. The update works almost totally automatically per Media Creation Tool, for those who want to install the update from a stick, for example. Or users can simply launch the Windows 10 Upgrade Assistant directly under Windows 7. Beforehand, users need to definitely make a data backup.

Those who want to or have no choice but to stick with Windows 7 ought to use a good Internet security suite. The product list at AV-TEST shows most recent tests under Windows 10. The table at the end of the article indicates how long the manufacturers still provide support for Windows 7 with their products.

Browser manufacturers ensure further Windows 7 support

Browsers, especially those used for surfing the web, ought to always be up-to-date, as they may also contain vulnerabilities and offer proprietary defense mechanisms. Google has made it totally official in assuring its Chrome users that it will provide further security updates at least until July 2021. As the latest version of Microsoft Edge for Windows 7 relies on the same HTML engine as Chrome, it ought to have security updates. There has been no official word on this yet from Firefox. Only in the support forums, the leading moderators point out that Mozilla continued to supply updates for Firefox under Windows XP for several years after support was phased out.