Windows 7 and Server 2008 End-of-Life
Summary: Now is the time to upgrade your business’ computers from Windows 7 to Windows 10. As Window 7 nears its end-of-life in January 2020, companies need to be prepared now for the switch. Steve Ripper, Senior Network Engineer at PCG, discusses what the change means and how companies can go through it seamlessly. Listen or read more to learn about Windows 7 end-of-life.
John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher. I’m here today with Steve Ripper, Senior Network Engineer at PCG, a managed service and IT provider with headquarters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and locations in Dover, Manchester, and Portland, Maine. Today we are talking about the Windows 7 and Server 2008 end of life. Welcome, Steve.
Steve Ripper: Hey John, how are you?
John: Good. So, Steve, Windows 7 and Server 2008 are both coming up on their end-of-life. What does that mean?
Steve: So, Microsoft will — for any operating system and any software package they do, but specifically here for operating systems — they will set a time where they’re just not going to continue development on it. They’re not going to continue to update it, and they’re not going to continue to support it. So, they’ll send those dates. They usually will give you two years warning, and they might extend those. Sometimes they don’t.
So, the Windows 7, which is probably the biggest one that we’re going to talk about today, is because it’s so widespread, it’s so prevalent. It’s the largest in-position operating system in the world. So that’s in January of 2020, right? So less than a year from now, Server 2008 is going to be in September of this year. Okay. So, the older server infrastructure that might be in people’s data centers or, server closets and so on, that’s also going to hit this mark.
For that one, particularly, your IT department would have to manage that. It’s something that you wouldn’t really see affecting the users as much. It would be an equivalent server or equivalent technology that replicates what that server does, and then getting that in place and migrating to it. But generally, that happens behind the scenes. You still have to plan it if you’re an office manager.
John: Sure.
Managing Windows 7 End-of-Life
Steve: The Windows 7 is much more of an impactful change, right? Cause all these users are using these OSs.
John: Right. It’s right on my laptop or my desktop that’s sitting right in front of me at my desk.
Steve: Exactly. Exactly. So, for that, there’s a process of Microsoft is going to say, ‘listen, you’re not going to see as many updates come out’, right? So immediately once January hits, you’re going to start to see there’s what we think of as an attack surface, the security profile of those PCs, ours growing larger every day because the bad actors, as we like to call them, are going to continue working as hard as they always do.
But Microsoft is going to do less and less figuring out what the vulnerabilities are, writing patches for them, pushing those patches out. So those little things are going to stop happening, right? So there really isn’t anything you can do to mitigate that. It’s just going to get worse and worse. Some of the antivirus makers will start to work a little harder to try and pick up that slack, and then they’ll kind of tail off as well.
So that’s one thing you’re going to see, is just an improved attack surface. Bigger problems with Windows 7. All of those moments where you have a virus, you don’t know how it happened, right? So, it didn’t happen to me last year or the year before, but suddenly, why is my machine acting funny?
The second thing you’re going to see is software packages by your major companies. They’re going to start to drop the support. So, the minute Microsoft says we’re not supporting Windows 7, that’s a license for Intuit like QuickBooks to also say we aren’t either, right? That’s a cost savings for them. For them to go through their tech support department and say, we are now only doing Windows 10. If a Windows 7 call comes in, or it doesn’t come in that way. The call will come in, ‘hi, my QuickBooks doesn’t work.’ They’re going to instruct their department to say, ‘hi, what operating system are you using?’
John: Right.
Steve: And the minute you say Windows 7, they’re going to say, ‘sorry, we can’t help you.’
John: Right, right.
Effect of Windows 7 End-of-Life on Third-Party Products
Steve: So, your third-party software products, whatever that is, you’re going to start to see an impact from that. And then the third thing you’re going to see, because customers look at me all the time, like ‘Steve, why can’t I just continue to use Windows 7? Like how big a deal is this?’ And these are the answers. You think it’s going to be fine, and then what’s going to happen is the printer on your desk is going to die, right? So just suddenly stops working in June. So, you’ve been fine up until that moment, really didn’t see any attacks on you, and you didn’t care. Your software is still working.
You’re going to go to Best Buy. You’re going to buy a printer. You’re going to get one from us, however you’re going to get it. Amazon is going to ship it to you. You’re going to put it on the desk. You’re going to plug it in. No drivers for Windows 7 because they also did the same thing, right? HP went and said, ‘listen, if Microsoft doesn’t have to support them anymore, we don’t have to write drivers for it.’ And when they make that new printer, they’re going to say Windows 10 only. So suddenly we’re going to get a call, ‘I can’t print anymore.’
John: Right.
Steve: I didn’t think this Windows 7 thing is going to be a big deal, but why can’t I print?
John: Right. That’s support for all of all of your peripheral equipment, like your printers and things like that is going to go away. All of the, like you said, that just the programs on your computer maybe, or software that you’re using. They might stop working now because they’re not being supported anymore. So, a lot of this trickles down.
Steve: Yeah. And you’d be amazed at how much it trickles down. So, you’ll get like, I bought a new digital camera. And then plug the digital camera in ‘cause I want to upload my photos. The drivers for the camera aren’t supported anymore. Right? So, you’d be amazed when, if you just think about, some people don’t even do that. They think about how many things they plug into their computer that it does for them, whether it’s photography, whether it’s music, whether it’s line of business apps, whether it’s communications, the things that your USB hard drives, I’m doing backups. Suddenly my USB hard drive doesn’t work anymore. So that one’s extreme. That would probably would still work. But you’re going to see all across the board, like suddenly, why doesn’t this work anymore? Aw, have to . . .
So, we’re always, especially in businesses, we’re trying to say, ‘listen, try to get ahead of that curve.’ Don’t fall behind. Don’t fall into that trap of next June having to replace the AP or AR person’s computer because suddenly they can’t print. And it becomes an emergency. And now we’re racing to get a new PC and get the migration done so that they could print checks for your payroll. And we’ve been telling you about it for a year ahead of time. So those are really what we’re trying to get out in front of.
Reasons Microsoft is Phasing Out Windows 7
John: Right. So why is Microsoft doing this in terms of dropping support for Windows 7? Is it just that . . . of course, they want to move forward. They always come out with the newer products. Are they just trying to push me to buy Windows 10? What’s the deal?
Steve: So yeah, that’s a constant one. It’s like why? They’ll go, ‘Steve, that’s great. I understand why it’s going to be a problem, but why does it have to be a problem? Why do they have to change so much?’ And I feel that pain. I feel it all the time.
The answer to that question is that what happens is that new technologies are constantly changing. So, when they come out with a new version of like a security script, so let’s say it’s like SSL, and they go to SSL, to make this number up, but like SSL 3.0. It becomes almost impossible to retrofit that into Windows 7. Windows 7 is literally getting . . . every operating system we use is literally getting older in front of us, even though we don’t notice it. As the technology changes around it, it becomes increasingly harder. And this is true for all software.
I keep using QuickBooks as the example because many people use that as well. So, QuickBooks, they’re using new versions because to add the newer features of the way we do things can’t be put into the older version. So, the only way to do it is to start writing from the ground up. And that’s exactly what you’re seeing.
So, Windows 10 is very much a growth and an evolutionary change from Windows 7. It’s still got a ton of Windows 7 underneath it. But what it doesn’t have is all of the things that they needed to do that Windows 7 could not do anymore and would be prohibitively expensive to get Windows 7 to be able to do them. It becomes a losing game to keep retrofitting the OS while it’s still being a ten-year-old operating system.
Tips for Companies to Update to Windows 10
John: Right. So, what does my company have to do to update all of my computers to Windows 10? Maybe I have only some of the people at my company are still on Windows 7. Maybe a lot of the people at my company are still on Windows 7. What do I have to do?
Steve: Yeah. So, the first thing to do is to try not to be one of the hundreds of companies that will call us at Christmas time. Right before the deadline, right? No. So clearly there’s going to be a migration.
So, the first thing to do is, you need to talk with us. But the first thing you’re going to do is identify just how big is the scope of the problem is. Like how many Windows 7 do you have? For a lot of our companies, John, they’re kind of rolling the transition for any number one. I’ve got companies that have mostly Windows 10, if not all Windows 10, but I’ve also got companies that are halfway. I have very few companies that have no Windows 10, because right now we’re not putting a PC in that has Windows 7. We haven’t been doing that for a year.
John: So, anybody that’s bought a laptop or a desktop recently has Windows 10?
Steve: Yeah, so pretty much, unless they had a compelling reason to not. Then they had to tell us that. Like we have this software package that just does not work in Windows 10. Okay, but we did it begrudgingly because we know that this is coming, right? So, a lot of the companies we look at will have a number of Windows 10s already done.
So the first step is identify which ones haven’t been done. Who are they? How many do I have, and what does that budget look like? This is a migration project, right? And it can be, it’s daunting because you are taking a little bit of time away from each person when you’re actually swapping that PC out. One of the things that has really fueled the PC revolution is how much of it’s in the name, personal computer, how personal they are to every person.
Even no matter how hard you try, that person in AR is still customizing that machine for what he or she does, right? So, to get all of those customizations moved over, whatever they’ve been keeping on their desktop, whatever they’ve gotten in their ‘my documents’, whatever apps that they need to do their job, whatever needs to happen. So, they have check scanners. Say they have particular type of printer that only they’re using.
These are all things that have to be looked at and said, okay, we’re going to put a new machine in, and we need to be on the ground running when that person sits in front of it, can do everything that they were doing on the old one. Could be daunting, right? So, it takes a little bit of planning, but those are the kinds of things you’re looking at. And that’s the project that you’re doing.
Once you know which ones you’re doing, then it’s you’re talking to us, and we’re saying, okay, so we’re going to give you a price for you’re buying 12 PCs, right? So, you’re going to buy the hardware, we’re going to get it all configured here. We’re going to get it all set up. We’re going to pick a day, and we’re going to get them all in. Or maybe do it in phases. So. phases is fine too.
The nice thing about this is that it’s not like it’s doing a software project where if you’re changing the software project, you have to do all 50 PCs in the company at once, because the software’s changing, right?
John: Right.
Steve: In this case, you could do five at a time. You could do five this month, five next month, five next month. It can be a rolling migration. The goal is to try and get this done before the, let’s call it the spring of next year, right?
Buying a New PC vs. Upgrading a Current PC
John: Yeah. Do I always have to replace my computer in order to get Windows 10, or can I just take the computer that I have and buy Windows 10 and install it on my existing computer?
Steve: So, there is an upgrade path, but it’s, as we get further and further into closer to the end of Windows 7, that upgrade window closes. And what I mean by that is there is specific hardware requirements that need to be met for Windows 10 to run. So, Windows 10 there is a, Microsoft has a utility. It’s easily googleable. There’s a utility that you can just go and we’ll check your PC to see if it will take Windows 10. So, before you’ve spent, whether either you’ve talked to us or spent penny one at a store or wherever, you can see if that machine will actually run Windows 10 because not all of them will. So, for any company that is part of that inventory process, not only how many are just running Windows 7, but how much of them are of older vintage.
There are a few that will be of newer vintage that are running Windows 7 that you could do the Windows 10 upgrade. They’re getting fewer and fewer. For some computers, they might run Windows 10, but is there value in doing that? So, if there’s only four gigs of memory in this computer, and it’s a slightly older vintage processor, and it has a slightly older hard drive. Yes, we probably could get it to Windows 10. Would that be worth that effort? When, if we gave them a new PC, they would be twice increase, eight gigs or 16 gigs of memory. A tenfold increase in hard drive space. A five-fold increase in processor power. So, there’s a value in spending that money for that user. Every company needs to do a cost benefit.
So, the first step is to get how many do I have to do? And so, within that list, when we do it, we build out a spreadsheet. We get the 10, 15, whatever it is. 50, whatever it is. And then we look through and we say, okay, so this one’s got . . . we make a cutoff point. So, like if it’s got a newer generation I 7, and it’s got eight gigs of memory and enough hard drive space, maybe we do an upgrade, an in-place upgrade to Windows 10. Otherwise, replace, replace, replace, replace. So, for most companies, then you’d see like maybe a 10 or 15% chance of doing a couple of them as upgrades. Most of them are going to be replacements at this point.
John: Right, right. And then somebody who gets a new computer that has more memory, etc. It’s going to run faster. They’re going to be a more productive employee anyway, so it’s often worth that extra cost.
Steve: Right. And that’s what you’re balancing. You’re balancing, yeah. So, Steve, that’s going to be several, maybe $500 more than just the upgrade. Five or 600 per that unit. But is that 500 worth it for what you’re getting? In most cases. Now, so the upgrade process was more important maybe a couple of years ago. When Windows 10 came out, the difference between the hardware, between what was being run and what was just coming out wasn’t that big a difference. There’s a much bigger gulf between the two now. So, years into it, anything that’s running Windows 7 still is probably also older, is really what I’m getting at. And so, you’ll find that there isn’t a lot of compelling reasons.
You can look at it, and there’s plenty of utilities. We run utilities, and there’s plenty of utilities on the internet that you can get if you want to do it yourself. That will just go and it will go out and reach out into your network. You just run it on one PC, and it will tell you all the others, what their memory is and what their OS is, and then you can build a spreadsheet and look at it from there.
Troubleshooting Windows 10 Issues
John: Okay. So you mentioned some of the issues that you might encounter when you’re doing this upgrade to Windows 10 across the board in your company, including just making sure that every user has all of the software that they used to have before, all of the things that they could do before they can still do now. What are some of the other issues that a company might encounter as they go to do this upgrade to Windows 10?
Steve: One of the big ones is, so that’s fine. We have to go to Windows 10, but how is it going to affect the primary software that I use? So, there are companies out there that just email and do Excel and Word, and everything. But most companies have what we call a line of business application. There’s one particular application that was designed for their space that they work in. So, in any consideration when we talk about going to Windows 10, it’s easy for us to go, you have to go to Windows 10. Hey, gotta do it, right?
John: Right.
Steve: So, if you use an accounting product that’s specific to what you do, or an inventory management product, I’m trying not to go into whatever industry. You need to talk to that vendor. So, where are you? At this point, almost everybody’s Windows 10 compliant. They’ve had years and years to get ready. But it’s still a question that you want to ask.
And also, the other thing is that you kind of want to identify the real, what I call for me, they’re the problem PCs. To the company, they wouldn’t be the problem PCs, but the ones that are working really hard. There’s a difference between computers that work hard and work really hard.
For example, typically your shipping PC is probably one of your hardest working PCs in the company, right? In order to ship, it might have several different shipping softwares on it. The UPS software, the FedEx software, the whatever shipping company you might use. Then you’re going to have like four or five label printers attached to it. You’re going to have a laser printer attached to it for documents. You’re going to have a scanning gun. So, you see where I’m going with that?
John: Yeah.
Steve: There’s a number of peripherals. There’s a number of configurations that go on.
John: And they all have to be able to work with that computer in that software, yeah. Yeah.
Steve: And they do, and when you have it all dialed in, then that person is able to ship all different kinds of things. But when it’s out of whack, I mean the calls we get when a shipping computer is down for a company because in some, in many cases, that’s their product going out the door. So, there’s that.
Usually your accounting PCs are also in that list of very hardworking PCs. So, while it may not be that different than the other PCs, you can imagine what happens when that PC doesn’t work. So, are people getting paid? You have to have an AR, right? Your accounts receivable is your company. So, if that PC isn’t doing AR, you’re not making any money. So, you have to identify which ones, and when they’re being done and get those done.
Okay. But you know, the good news is that there’s some serious advantages to getting into the Windows 10. It sounds like every time I get this, like we’re dishing out a pile of pain. You have to do this. And companies are like, ‘ah, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to interrupt everybody. I don’t want to spend all that money. That’s a line item expense.’ Like, why are you doing this to me?
And I get why they start to hate us. But so sometimes we have to like try, put some sugar into it, like so what you are getting. More than anything else, this Window 7 thing is that we’re all going to start saying no. Right? Even when we don’t want to say no. ‘Hey, we want to do this.’ ‘Sorry, you can’t.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because you’re Windows 7.’
John: Right.
Steve: And then I don’t want to say that, but we are going to say that. And QuickBooks is going to say that. Microsoft is going to say that. Everyone’s going to say that. HP is going to say that.
So, Windows 10, in a nutshell, we’re going to start saying yes again. Right? So hey, can I use one drive? Yes. Built into it. You don’t have to do anything. Costs you nothing. It’s all built in. Am I going to get all the updates I’m supposed to get so I don’t get viruses? Yes. Windows 10 gets automatic updates from Microsoft, and we can manage it and we can look at it, right? I bought a new printer. Can you help me hook it up? Sure. Yup. You got Windows 10. There’s going to be drivers for it. You should be all set. So, it enables us to say yes again. I know that there’s pain, but you got to do it.
Learning to Use Windows 10
John: Right. And then the final one would just be, you know, I’ve been resisting going to Windows 10 because I just hate having to learn a new operating system. And I’ve seen somebody using it, and it just looks hard to use. It looks confusing, and I don’t want to have to learn that. How do you respond to somebody who’s like that?
Steve: So, you know, there’s always the conspiracy theories. They’ll come out, and they’ll be like, Microsoft, I heard it’s really bad. Or it’s got a lot of bugs, or it doesn’t work well, everything. So, you know, the first thing you have to do is just you try and steer away from the, listen, you have to do this because it doesn’t make anybody happier that they have to, right?
So, you try to steer away from that. And what you’re try to focus on is that, well, first of all, it’s a perfectly well-working operating system. It’s been in production for years now. So, any bugs that maybe it did have . . . all been patched out at this point. It is more modern. It’s more stable, and it’s faster, right? There’s not much I can do than just look, try to gain trust and then tell you that. But like I wouldn’t use Windows 7 now. Like I just wouldn’t.
The other thing is that the UI? So, change is tough. There’s not a lot getting around change. Usually what I tell them is that, listen, there’s a lot of ways that I can help you configure that original operating system, that desktop to do a lot of the things that Windows 7 did for you.
It’s not that hard to turn the start menu, the start button, the desktop, to look in a lot of ways Windows 7 is because a lot of times once they click their icon, their program opens up. They’ve been working in that program for years.
John: And it looks just the same.
Steve: It looks just the same, right? So, it’s really just the operating system elements, the start menu changes, where the icons are, and that flusters some people. Some people don’t care. They’re fine, but other people would be like, huh, they just see it as different.
John: Right.
Steve: So, you try and get around that. You try to introduce. Listen, if you go here and you just put this, drag this icon here . . . see the way it looks exactly the same? And they go, ‘oh, okay.’
John: Right. Or I want to open that control panel. Look, all you have to do is just search for it in the search bar there, and it pops right up. You don’t even have to try to find it on your desktop anymore. And things like that. Focus on the positive.
Steve: Exactly. Exactly.
John: All right. Well, that’s really great information, Steve. Thanks again for speaking with me today.
Steve: All right, thanks John.
John: And for more information, visit the PCG website at pcgit.com or call (603) 431-4121.
