Microsoft announced (opens in new tab) yesterday that it's going to start notifying Windows 7 Pro users about its plan to stop updating the operating system on January 14, 2020.
Windows 7 Home users started to receive (opens in new tab) those notifications in March. Now they'll start to reach the operating system's professional users--or at least some of them. Microsoft said in yesterday's announcement that "devices that are domain-joined as a part of an IT-managed infrastructure will not receive the notifications."
Like we noted in March, these notifications include a "learn more" button that leads to a page on Microsoft's website about Windows 10 (opens in new tab) and the devices that run it. The company's basically combining the carrot (a new operating system) and the stick (no longer supporting the current operating system) to get Windows 7 users to upgrade.
The notifications should help Microsoft ensure that Windows 7 users can't act surprised when the operating system stops receiving updates in a few months. (Although we established earlier this week (opens in new tab) that many people will manage to be surprised even if they were notified of a company's plans years in advance.)
Windows 7's had a long run: the base version debuted in 2009, was supported until 2015 and then saw the Service Pack 1 release that's still around today. Nearly 11 years isn't bad for an operating system--especially when its successor has more than 900 million users--but soon it'll be time for Windows 7 to go to Windows Heaven.
