The Verge: Microsoft to stop selling Windows 10 downloads on January 31st. “Microsoft says it will stop selling downloads for Windows 10 Home and Pro licenses later this month. Windows 10 will continue to be supported until October 2025.”
Bleeping Computer: Microsoft ends Windows 7 extended security updates on Tuesday. “Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise editions will no longer receive extended security updates for critical and important vulnerabilities starting Tuesday, January 10, 2023. Microsoft launched the legacy operating system in October 2009. It then reached its end of support in January 2015 and its extended end of support in January 2020.”
PCWorld: RIP Internet Explorer: Microsoft’s iconic browser is being killed off in June. “Believe it or not, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still lives. But not for long. If you’re one of those people who is still reliant on Internet Explorer (hi, Dad!), Microsoft has some bad news: Microsoft will officially end support for the Internet Explorer desktop application on June 15, 2022.”
CNET: The App That Prepares You for Death. “When someone you love passes away, it’s impossibly hard to prioritize all the logistics. You’re facing unimaginable stress and grief all at once, so when it comes time to negotiate funeral planning, insurance records, legal and financial documents, and more, it can be overwhelming. So it’s important to get all of this sorted before you’re reeling from loss. Enter Bereev, a death preparation app that’s beginning to make waves in Australia.”
Yale Law School: Solomon Center and CAPC Launch Innovative Palliative Care Policy-Tracking Database. “The COVID-19 pandemic increased the demand for palliative care and exacerbated many of the challenges it addresses, straining hospitals and communities across the country. But tracking developments in policies and regulations across states has been difficult. States maintain their own data on legislation and regulations, with no centralized platform bringing together information from across the country. The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy and the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) aim to fill the gap with an innovative new initiative — the Palliative Care Policy GPS (GPS) — a publicly accessible and regularly updated database that tracks state policies on palliative care and related services.”
The Verge: Microsoft is ending support for the old non-Chromium Edge. “Support for Microsoft’s Edge browser is ending today — not the new Chromium-based one, but the original Edge that was built as a replacement for Internet Explorer 11. Microsoft now calls it Legacy Edge, and the company announced it would be discontinuing the product back in August. That day has finally come: Legacy Edge will no longer receive security updates, and anyone still using it should start the process of switching to something else.”
PCMag: Google Extends Support for Chrome on Windows 7 Until 2022. “Though Google previously announced in January 2020 that it would effectively be yanking the security blanket from the arms of Windows 7 users browsing with Chrome on July 15, 2021, things have changed a bit. But this isn’t an altruistic move to coddle users who refuse to upgrade. It’s purely a business decision, at least for those who use Chrome as part of their organization’s IT hierarchy.”
BBC: WhatsApp to stop working on millions of phones. “Messaging service WhatsApp will no longer work on millions of smartphones from 1 February. Android and iPhone devices which only support outdated operating systems will no longer be able to run the Facebook-owned app.”
Neowin: Google provides a timeline for phasing out Chrome Apps. “Google today provided a timeline as to when and how it will start phasing out support for Chrome Apps across all operating systems. The company had first announced back in 2016 that it was doing away with Chrome Apps.”
ZDNet: How to switch from Windows 7 to Chrome OS CloudReady. “Yesterday, a friend asked what he should do since Windows 7 has come to the end of its supported life. I asked him what he uses his computer for. He replied, ‘Email and Facebook.’ He added that he has no interest in moving to Windows 10. He’s far from the only one. About one in five users have stuck with Windows 7 to the bitter end. And, really, for his purposes, who can blame him? For him, Windows 7 just works. So, rather than try to convince him to move to Linux, I suggested he consider Neverware’s Chrome OS variant, CloudReady. Here’s how to do it.”
ZDNet: Here’s what will happen to your Windows 7 PC on January 15, 2020. “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, 2020.”
Softpedia News: Linux Lite 4.8 Arrives as a Windows 7 Alternative, Based on Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS. “Linux Lite creator Jerry Bezencon announced today the release and general availability of the Linux Lite 4.8 operating system as an alternative to the soon-to-be-deprecated Windows 7 OS.”
BetaNews: Windows 7 users will still get updates to Microsoft Security Essentials when the OS is out of support. “It’s now mere weeks until Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft. When January 14, 2020 rolls around, the end date for support will have been reached, and Microsoft is keen for people to upgrade to Windows 10 to avoid having insecure computers that don’t receive updates. But not all security updates are being dropped. Having previously said that Microsoft Security Essentials would no longer receive updates when Windows 7 support ends, the company has indicated that updates will in fact continue to be released.”
BetaNews: Zorin OS 15.1 Linux distro is ready to replace Microsoft’s dying Windows 7 on your PC. “If you are ready to ditch the soon-to-be-unsupported Windows 7 for a more secure Linux-based operating system, you have plenty of great options. One of the best choices, however, is Zorin OS — a Linux distribution that specifically targets people switching from Windows. Today, the latest version of that operating system, Zorin OS 15.1, is released to the world.” If you’ve got someone who’s used to Windows, has Windows 7, and can’t/won’t upgrade to Windows 10, Zorin is great. If all they want to do is get on the Internet and do their stuff in the cloud, it’s really great.
9to5 Google: Google apps for Glass Explorer Edition will be killed in 2020 after final update. “Google Glass today lives on as enterprise product for factories and other similar environments. The consumer-focussed Glass continues to work for Explorers that spent $1,500 from 2013 to 2015, but it surfaced today that many Google Glass features will be killed in February 2020.”
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