4 ms·

Massive Backtrack seems quite a hyperbole. I would just say adjusting to the new reality, where still millions of users are using W7 and this hardware, and let

Massive Backtrack seems quite a hyperbole. I would just say adjusting to the new reality, where still millions of users are using W7 and this hardware, and let them without, at least, security updates, seems like a horrible plan.

zymhan 10y ago
Except this is a reality that was blindingly obvious to people outside of Microsoft, and yet they maintained their ridiculous stance for many months.
- KirinDave 10y ago
  Maybe it was something more of a fervent hope? Microsoft is trying to support users and usher them to a sustainable model for an OS delivery. The Win7 model and prior is clearly not sustainable, for a variety of reasons. That Microsoft is having such trouble getting people to upgrade even when giving it away is troublesome. Not just for their bottom line, but for all of ours. Win10's model and tech represents a lot of concrete security improvements and stamping out old windows boxes will steadily reduce the number of trivially exploitable machines on the internet. We really should be rooting for them to succeed at this.
  - 0x0 10y ago
    What's trivially exploitable in an up-to-date windows 7 installation?
    - rogerbinns 10y ago
      Have you run Windows Update on a Windows 7 installation recently? In my experience it takes several hours to decide what updates are available! Here are about 14 million search pages about the issue https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=windows%207%20windows%20update%20running%20for%20a%20long%20time https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=windows%207%20wi...
      - walterbell 10y ago
        Try this list of MS patches: http://wu.krelay.de/en/2016-07.htm http://wu.krelay.de/en/2016-07.htm
        rogerbinns 10y ago
        Those search results are also full of lists of patches and workarounds. Often with followups a month later indicating Windows Update broke again. Anyway to be clear - I don't need help keeping Windows 7 up to date. My (downvoted) point is that there are a lot of people out there running Windows 7 unaware that they are not fully updated, and hence under considerably greater risk.
        walterbell 10y ago
        One would expect that Microsoft can fix this problem, especially now that Windows 7 Skylake support is extended for several years.
        rogerbinns 10y ago
        Windows 7 was already supported till 2020. I am surprised Microsoft hasn't already addressed the issue. I offer how many search pages there are as indication of how pervasive the problem is. In my own case (I realise this is anecdata) I only found out about the issue by trying to upgrade to Windows 10 and having that install hang. It happened on a workstation, laptop and virtual machine!
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - 0x0 10y ago
        This will improve: http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/08/windows-7-8-1-moving-to-windows-10s-cumulative-update-model/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/08/windows-7-8-1-moving...
  - beagle3 10y ago
    Win10's model and tech represents a lot of improvements for Microsoft, but essentially no direct benefit (and thus a switching cost) for Win7 users on older hardware, who are pretty happy with their system. Microsoft promised support until 2020. It didn't promise "support until 2020 but only if you upgrade your hardware after 2016". Any other course of action would have gotten them a lot of bad press and some lawsuits.

zymhan 10y ago

Except this is a reality that was blindingly obvious to people outside of Microsoft, and yet they maintained their ridiculous stance for many months.

KirinDave 10y ago
Maybe it was something more of a fervent hope? Microsoft is trying to support users and usher them to a sustainable model for an OS delivery. The Win7 model and prior is clearly not sustainable, for a variety of reasons. That Microsoft is having such trouble getting people to upgrade even when giving it away is troublesome. Not just for their bottom line, but for all of ours. Win10's model and tech represents a lot of concrete security improvements and stamping out old windows boxes will steadily reduce the number of trivially exploitable machines on the internet. We really should be rooting for them to succeed at this.
- 0x0 10y ago
  What's trivially exploitable in an up-to-date windows 7 installation?
  - rogerbinns 10y ago
    Have you run Windows Update on a Windows 7 installation recently? In my experience it takes several hours to decide what updates are available! Here are about 14 million search pages about the issue https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=windows%207%20windows%20update%20running%20for%20a%20long%20time https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=windows%207%20wi...
    - walterbell 10y ago
      Try this list of MS patches: http://wu.krelay.de/en/2016-07.htm http://wu.krelay.de/en/2016-07.htm
      - rogerbinns 10y ago
        Those search results are also full of lists of patches and workarounds. Often with followups a month later indicating Windows Update broke again. Anyway to be clear - I don't need help keeping Windows 7 up to date. My (downvoted) point is that there are a lot of people out there running Windows 7 unaware that they are not fully updated, and hence under considerably greater risk.
        walterbell 10y ago
        One would expect that Microsoft can fix this problem, especially now that Windows 7 Skylake support is extended for several years.
        rogerbinns 10y ago
        Windows 7 was already supported till 2020. I am surprised Microsoft hasn't already addressed the issue. I offer how many search pages there are as indication of how pervasive the problem is. In my own case (I realise this is anecdata) I only found out about the issue by trying to upgrade to Windows 10 and having that install hang. It happened on a workstation, laptop and virtual machine!
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - 0x0 10y ago
      This will improve: http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/08/windows-7-8-1-moving-to-windows-10s-cumulative-update-model/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/08/windows-7-8-1-moving...
- beagle3 10y ago
  Win10's model and tech represents a lot of improvements for Microsoft, but essentially no direct benefit (and thus a switching cost) for Win7 users on older hardware, who are pretty happy with their system. Microsoft promised support until 2020. It didn't promise "support until 2020 but only if you upgrade your hardware after 2016". Any other course of action would have gotten them a lot of bad press and some lawsuits.