Microsoft issues Windows 7 security warning

Popular operating system can no longer keep up with increased security requirements, according to Microsoft Germany

Microsoft has urged customers to move onto Windows 10, insisting that the world's most popular operating system, Windows 7, can no longer keep up with modern security threats.

A Microsoft Germany blog post said deploying the latest OS is the only way to be fully protected from security threats.

"Today, Windows 7 can no longer keep up with the increased security requirements," said the blog, which has been translated from the original German. "Rather, it provides for higher operating costs - for example, maintenance, lost working time due to increased malware attacks, or increased support requests. At the same time, many hardware manufacturers no longer provide drivers for Windows 7, which means that modern peripherals such as printers are no longer recognised.

"In order to offer users a modern interplay of software and hardware, new processor generations are only supported by the latest Windows platform: Windows 10 is the only Windows version that provides support for the latest Intel, AMD and Qualcomm chips. In addition, many programs are already written or developed for the newer versions of Windows."

Microsoft had no further comment to add when contacted by CRN.

Windows 7 is the world's most popular operating system, according to multiple data sets.

Netmarketshare claims it has 48.3 per cent market share globally, compared with Windows 10, which has 24.36 per cent; and Windows 8, which has just 6.9 per cent share. Statcounter has similar figures when it comes to the global numbers, but adds that in the UK, Windows 10 is more popular than Windows 7. As of this month, Windows 7's share jumped to 23.58 per cent, up from 21.26 per cent in December, while over the same period, Windows 10's UK share fell about two percentage points to 28.58 per cent.

Support for Windows 7 ends in 2020 - now less than three years away. The Microsoft Germany post marks the first step towards a migration campaign which is likely to mirror that of Windows XP, ahead of its end of support in 2014. Before Windows XP's end of life, Microsoft and migration specialists ran a huge campaign to encourage users to upgrade to Windows 8 - the then-newest OS.

Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom said that the Microsoft Germany post is not simply a marketing ploy.

"They have a very strong point," he said. "The security landscape keeps changing. [Windows 7] is just unfit for dealing with modern risks. However, Microsoft have said this continuously from Windows Home, Windows 32, Windows 3.1, Windows NT - it just doesn't have an impact on the market. Even though if you do go to Windows 10, you get fewer issues compared with other platforms, but there are still things which come through - Microsoft didn't plug this vulnerability, or this company was hacked due to Windows issues, and so on. A lot of the time it is down to end-user error.

"Microsoft has got to say it, because it's true. Do they expect everyone to say 'the sky is falling in, let's move to Windows 10'? I doubt it. But if it just puts a bomb under a few large customers, then great. But I don't think they're viewing it as a marketing effort by saying this. If they don't say it and people keep working on Windows 7 and the sky does fall in, Microsoft has to be able to say 'we did tell you'."