Microsoft will stop supporting and patching windows 7 Starting January 2020. Clients must decide sooner than later what computers need to be shelved or are worthy of a two hour upgrade.

What’s immediately disqualified for an upgrade?

Hardware that contains 4 gigs of RAM and is more than 4 years old. The reality is that hardware will break sooner than later and it will be your responsibility to replace it. Don’t upgrade!

What computers to upgrade?

First, upgrade the RAM if 4 gigs or less for computers three years or newer.

What’s involved in the upgrade?

2 hour of billable IT work. This number is possibly more for the rare occasion of catastrophic failure during the upgrade.

Is there anything more to consider?

Yes. Does upgrading computers still make sense or do iPads accomplish the same task for your workflow?

Can I wait?

Sure but most businesses must maintain some sort of compliance and you are not in compliance if your devices are not encrypted. The windows 10 upgrade offers easier device encryption

Ok, what about a server upgrade?

There are a lot of things to consider on the server upgrade. The most important is it a fairly new (under 4 years) physical server running Windows or is the server hosting a bunch of virtual servers? I would lean towards upgrading the virtual server if you have no plans to move the services to the cloud. Regardless, there’s a lot of planning involved for either option you choose. Those discussions are for another post.

Server and Windows 7 End of Life Summary

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