Here’s what will happen to your Windows 7 PC on January 15, 2020

December 10, 2019 TH Author

Credit: Microsoft

Windows 10

Microsoft has been warning Windows 7 users for the past year-plus that after January 14, 2020, they’ll get no more security updates to the operating system for free. Even though users will be able to continue to run Windows 7 after that date, they’ll be more susceptible to potential security problems. To hammer that point home, Microsoft is planning to deliver a new pop-up notification to Windows 7 users on January 15 next year.

Microsoft already has been delivering warning notifications periodically to Windows 7 Home and many Pro users about the pending January 14 end-of-support date. But on January 15, the company also is planning to push a full-screen notification to those still running the OS to make it clear that “Your Windows 7 PC is out of support.” Note: “The notification will not appear on domain-joined machines or machines in kiosk mode,” the KB article says.

Like it has been doing this year, Microsoft will be delivering this new nag notification to Windows 7 users by making it part of a patch rollup. The coming notification will be embedded in monthly rollup KB4530734, which Microsoft is making available to Windows 7 SP1 users on December 10 as part of its Patch Tuesday set of updates. This patch will configure Windows 7 PCs that receive it so they will display the January 15 notification starting on that date.

The January 15 full-screen warning will tell users that their PCs are more vulnerable to viruses and malware due to no security updates, no software updates and no tech support. It will say that “Microsoft strongly recommends using Windows 10 on a new PC for the latest security features and protection against malicious software.”

Those who see the full-screen warning will have three options: Remind me later; Learn more; or Don’t remind me again. If users don’t click on the “Don’t remind me again” button and just dismiss the screen, they will continue to get nag warnings.

In April this year, Microsoft began proactively notifying Windows 7 Home users about the approaching end of support deadline for Windows 7 via a pop-up. Starting in October, Microsoft also began delivering pop-ups about the end of support to Windows 7 Pro devices that were not domain-joined.