Last Updated on December 1, 2019 by Christopher G Mendla
Microsoft announced that the release of Windows 10 is scheduled for this summer (2015).
Business owners will have to make some decisions as to which operating systems they should purchase and when.
- Windows XP is end of life and any XP machines should be immediately retired. (Immediately means YESTERDAY!!). In almost all cases, machines running XP are not candidates for an upgrade to Windows 7, 8 or 10. You can squeeze some life out of them by installing Linux.
- Windows 7 – Mainstream support has ended. Extended support ends in January 2020. One note is that 32 bit operating systems have been found to be fundamentally vulnerable to hacking. 32 bit machines should be upgraded to 64 bit or retired.
- Windows 8 – Mainstream support ends in January 2018 and extended support ends in 2013.
- Windows 10 – Release scheduled for the summer of 2015.
One of the highly touted features of Windows 10 is the ability to use biometric scanning instead of passwords. There are hacks that can bypass some biometric security. It will be interesting to see how the new system holds up to hacking attempts.
The other feature is that Windows 10 is supposed to be a smaller operating system.
If you are planning to purchase systems this year (2015) be sure to consider the impact of the release of Windows 10. Often a new release of any software needs a good shakedown before it is completely stable.
For more information, see the Microsoft Blog Post on Windows 10