Sorry…. Doom and gloom again this month: It’s February 2023; we’ve been warned for several years now and the date is finally upon us; Windows 8 and 8.1 is officially out of support!
The same thing happened to Windows 7 two years ago, and Office 2010 last year, and many other products over the years, so this is nothing new; just the natural life cycle of these software products. Windows 8 was first released in 2012 and has received new features and security updates throughout its 10 year life. The team who look after the software updates have been doing a great job keeping the software safe but they cannot go on supporting it forever, and the cut-off has now arrived.
So from January 2023 no future security patches or fixes will be released for Windows 8 and 8.1 and it should now be considered dangerous to use online. It will not be dangerous straight away, but as new malware threats and viruses develop in the wild then Windows 8 and 8.1 will be more and more vulnerable to them as time goes on. Typically it takes 3 to 9 months to become a problem, but you should make plans now to upgrade or replace.
The good news is that Windows 8 and 8.1 (and Windows 7 for that matter) will upgrade for free to Windows 10. If your computer is healthy and compatible, and your apps and printer will support Windows 10 then it’s fairly straightforward to upgrade, just visit the Windows 10 support page and download the media creation tool. Select to “upgrade this PC” and this will upgrade you to Windows 10.
Sometimes the upgrade can fail if the computer is unhealthy or has faults or malware. Older printers and applications can have compatibility problems with Windows 10, so it’s worth checking first before you upgrade. If you are using older apps then you may also need to upgrade them too, sometimes for free and sometimes a paid upgrade.
I’m pleased to say that from our experience this probably isn’t going to cause a big problem. There are very few users out there still running Windows 8 as almost everyone has upgraded to Windows 10 for free already. I’m not sad to see Windows 8 drop off the radar; it was never a well-received OS and has had plenty of problems over the years. Check your versions today to make sure you’re up to date and feel free to call us for free advice if you are worried.