Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Windows 7 Support extended to 2023!

This is topic Windows 7 Support extended to 2023! in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-11-2018, 01:55 PM:

Good news for owners of many TMS Systems...

"Microsoft bowed to the reality that enterprises won't purge Windows 7 by its January 2020 retirement, and has announced it will sell extended support for three years past that deadline."

Full Article Here

Mark

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-11-2018, 04:20 PM:

I've heard from several IT professionals that Microsoft still supports Windows XP, if you have the right contacts and are prepared to pay a humongous annual fee. Their official line is that they no longer support it in any way, shape or form, but the reality is that for a select few, they do. Apparently there are hundreds of thousands of computers out there, especially medical devices (e.g. PCs that control dialysis machines and automated anesthesia delivery), running XP, which would require complex regulatory hurdles to be cleared were the OS to be upgraded.

I'm not surprised that Windows 7 will prove hard to kill off. XP and 7 were very successful versions that were stable and that end users liked. Vista and 8 were the complete opposite, and everyone seems glad to see the back of them.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 09-11-2018, 06:12 PM:

Windows 2009 POSReady (a version of XP) had it's life extended by the Partnertech corporation for the thousands (millions?) of Point of Sale systems that they built out there until April of 2019.

I wonder how much it cost them.

I am currently researching ho much it's going to cost us to replace all of our POS systems that run this particular OS.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-12-2018, 04:22 PM:

quote: Leo Enticknap
I've heard from several IT professionals that Microsoft still supports Windows XP

Yes, they still support the XP Embedded platform, which is primarily industrial.

Mark

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-12-2018, 05:05 PM:

Why would this even matter for a single-purpose device that is not connected to untrusted networks? Any bugs that would affect operation have likely already been found and fixed and security is basically a nonissue in this sort of environment, anyway. If the software works, then why would manufacturer support matter? Eventually, it will be an issue, as new hardware becomes available and requires drivers to be written, but, until then, it seems unlikely to be a problem.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-12-2018, 06:44 PM:

It's pretty much a non issue for me except the last few years I do run Windows update on W-7 Pro systems I have TMS running under. This is for two reasons, 1. Later versions of TMS require add on stuff that's include in Windows update. And 2., also because I have had two TMS systems hacked into through Team Viewer. I caught one of those hackers myself logged in. It seems as mature as Nteam Viewer is that hackers have written access apps to enable them to break in relatively easy.

Mark

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-12-2018, 07:29 PM:

POS are a special case due to the money part of it all, especially credit card stuff.

On purpose built stuff, I rarely, if ever run Windows updates...nothing is changing and typically it only has to run the one program.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 09-13-2018, 04:14 PM:

As long as you make sure it's not connected to the Internet and nothing else changes, there's really no need to constantly updating specific systems.

Although, I've seen some time-bombs go off in certain systems, in many cases those were related to expired certificates.

quote: Leo Enticknap
Apparently there are hundreds of thousands of computers out there, especially medical devices (e.g. PCs that control dialysis machines and automated anesthesia delivery), running XP, which would require complex regulatory hurdles to be cleared were the OS to be upgraded.

The engineer in me really gets angry if somebody really considers Windows to be a platform for life-supporting equipment...

Unfortunately, incompetence is something that's universal, across all layers of humanity...

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 09-13-2018, 07:03 PM:

I, for one, am thrilled.

My menu boards all run on Windows 10. Their infernal updates have been the only problem I've ever had with the service... and it's been a huge problem. Those darned things decide, pretty much whenever they want, that I need to know an update is coming, or that I need to do it now, or I need to schedule it, because their update is far more important than whatever I'm using their OS FOR. 3 of those mini-computers, that do nothing much more than run Chrome, have bricked themselves during updates.

I also use Windows at a number of radio station transmitter sites, where I run software-based audio processors. For that matter, I also do that at my drive-in (and my automation is Windows based). All of those computers are on Win-7, because Win-10 updates shut the stations down until they're done. Can't have that.

If they'd turn off the mandatory "feature", it wouldn't be a bad system. But...

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 09-13-2018, 07:25 PM:

Jack,

In Windows 10, you can tell the system when you want it to update. For example, on my systems, I tell it not to do any updating between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. every day. Addtionally, you can turn off any notifications that might pop up. I do not have issues at this point with Windows 10 except when one of those major updates go through and wreak havoc on a certain program or two.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 09-13-2018, 11:26 PM:

Thanks, Dennis.

I may have heard that somewhere, but never checked it out myself.

I'll look for that.

-J

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-14-2018, 03:08 PM:

quote: Steve Guttag
On purpose built stuff, I rarely, if ever run Windows updates...nothing is changing

Absolutely not true. As GDC TMS has gestated it has required a number of updates from the Windoez site including Bonjour... not that I know what THAT is used for in TMS! I have also had to replace some older single processor Dell 2950 servers that simply could not adequately run the program any longer.

Mark

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-14-2018, 07:18 PM:

I'm running 4.2 on Win7Pro...I did an update when transitioning to 4.0 (had to change VNC programs too) but that is it!

On the site I have it running Server 2008...again, zero updates and running 4.2

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-14-2018, 08:45 PM:

Jack--do your menus really need to connect to the Internet? If they need to go to one specific site (for menu "content," for example), you could set up a web proxy and allow access only to that site. My understanding is that Windows 10 will only attempt to install forced patches if it has Internet access (because otherwise, how would it know that patches are available?).

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 09-15-2018, 03:18 AM:

quote: Scott Norwood
Jack--do your menus really need to connect to the Internet? If they need to go to one specific site (for menu "content," for example), you could set up a web proxy and allow access only to that site. My understanding is that Windows 10 will only attempt to install forced patches if it has Internet access (because otherwise, how would it know that patches are available?).

My boards are part of a cloud-based service out of the Boise area. In practice, it works pretty well, but I've asked them to consider storing the boards internally, rather than frequently going out to the cloud to look for changes. The system could look outward once a day or so and be just fine.

Other than the site they get their updates from and the online access I use (Team Viewer), that's just about all the computers need to keep track of.