Does Windows 7 Still Have Updates

Windows 7 0patch

It can inappreciably accept escaped your attention that Windows 7 has now reached end of life. For companies and enterprise customers unwilling to pay for Extended Security Updates, this means at that place will be no more updates. The average home user who has decided to stick with Windows 7 has been completely abandoned by Microsoft, leaving them with an operating system that could be institute to contain an endless number of security vulnerabilities.

Simply, really, there is some other option for home users, and it does not involve paying any money to Microsoft. We're talking micropatches. Specifically, we're talking most micropatches from 0patch. We've covered the work of this company in the past, including its recent gear up for the Internet Explorer vulnerability.

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0patch describes itself as "a microscopic solution for a huge security problem", issuing fixes for software faster than official developers, and information technology has pledged to continue to back up Windows 7. Following on from what it did with Microsoft Office Equation Editor, 0patch has already appear that it is going to "security-prefer" Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft has -- at least in theory -- released the terminal update for Windows 7 that will be available to everyone. Then 0patch is taking over. The company will employ security advisories that are issued by Microsoft to decide any vulnerabilities in Windows seven and Windows Server 2008 that need addressing, and work to produce fixes.

With Windows 7 now officially at EOL, 0patch is adopting the following approach:

Each Patch Tuesday we'll review Microsoft's security advisories to determine which of the vulnerabilities they accept stock-still for supported Windows versions might employ to Windows vii or Windows Server 2008 and present a high-enough hazard to warrant micropatching.
For the identified high-risk vulnerabilities we'll inspect Windows Updates for supported Windows versions (e.grand., Windows x) to ostend whether the vulnerable code that was fixed in Windows 10 is actually present on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008. (For all intents and purposes, such vulnerabilities will exist considered 0days for these OSs.)
If the high-risk vulnerable code is found to exist nowadays on Windows vii or Windows Server 2008, we'll start a process of obtaining a proof-of-concept (POC) for triggering the vulnerability. Sometimes a POC is published by security researchers soon afterward the official vendor fix is out (and sometimes even before); other times nosotros can get one from our partner network or threat intelligence sources; occasionally researchers share a POC with us privately; and sometimes we have to create a POC ourselves by analyzing the official patch and working our mode out towards the input information that steers the execution to the vulnerability.
Once we have a POC and know how the vulnerability was fixed by the people who know the vulnerable code best (i.e., Microsoft developers), we'll port their gear up, functionally speaking, as a serial of micropatches to the vulnerable code in Windows vii and Windows Server 2008, and examination them against the POC. Later on additional side-effect testing nosotros'll publish the micropatches and have them delivered to users' online machines within hour. (Which by the style means that many Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 will be patched sooner than those with still-supported Windows versions where organizations volition continue to prudently test Windows updates for days or weeks before having them applied to all computers.)

Using 0patch mean that you lot don't have to pay out a penny to Microsoft, simply it doesn't necessarily mean that you will exist able to go along Windows 7 updated and secure free of charge. 0patch offers 3 service tiers -- Free, Pro and Enterprise. The Gratuitous tier, obviously, doesn't cost anything, only no Windows seven patches are guaranteed to be released for complimentary. The company explains:

0patch Gratis volition proceed to be available and we'll continue to add select micropatches to the Complimentary programme simply nosotros demand to emphasize that 0patch FREE is by no means a suitable method for keeping Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 reasonably secure after their EOS.

Despite the name, the Pro tier is suitable for both domicile and professional person users and it includes access to both Windows seven post-EOS patches and Windows Server 2008 post-EOS patches. Unlike Microsoft's Extended Security Updates, 0patch Pro is very competitively priced -- just $25.95 (or €22.95) per agent per year.

Clearly relying on a 3rd political party to secure your operating system requires something of a leap of organized religion and trust in a company you may be unfamiliar with. But over the years 0patch has proved its worth, and for anyone who -- for any reason -- is going to keep using Windows 7, its micropatches could represent the most cost-effective and sensible manner of keeping the unsupported operated system secure.

0patch CEO Mitja Kolsek confirmed to BetaNews that "we plan to provide security micropatches for Windows 7 for iii years", adding "the condition beingness, obviously, that enough users are interested in the service to keep it economically sound".

Find out more at the 0patch website. There'south besides a Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 Post-End-of-Back up FAQ that'southward worth taking a look at.

Prototype credit: 0patch