Windows Embedded POSReady 7, the last supported version of Windows 7, has hit the end of the road nearly five years after the desktop edition.
Four years and ten months ago, Windows 7 reached the end of its life. For many Windows users, it was the classic version, and as The Register reported in 2019, for a fee it was possible to continue getting patches for an extra year.
It might therefore surprise you to know that one version of the product was still getting updates until about a week ago. Although the mainstream desktop version's end of life was January 14, 2020, the special edition for embedded computers, Windows Embedded Standard 7, continued to get updates for a few more years. Specifically, until October 14, 2023. Even that wasn't the last. The version intended for point-of-sale devices, called POSReady, got an extra year. The end of Extended Security Update Year 3 was October 8, 2024.
This is not unprecedented. A decade ago, The Reg reported how you could get years more updates for Windows XP with a registry hack that turned it into a cash register. Even that finally hit the end of the line in 2019, though. This month marks the equivalent point for Windows 7, and it is now time to say goodbye.
There were ways to keep getting updates to Windows 7, and we covered some of them when we looked at running Windows XP in 2023. The Legacy Update tool was still able to occasionally deliver some updates, but now, if some horrendous kernel exploit is discovered, you're on your own. (There's even an analogous tool for pre-XP versions, called Windows Update Restored.)
The main point here is that certain specialized editions of Windows live on for years after the mainstream versions reach their end of life… and while as of this week, Windows 10 has just one year to live, some editions will keep getting critical updates for longer. Specifically, Windows 10 LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel).
Windows LTSC versions are intended for corporate users willing to pay for the Enterprise edition. Currently, the latest is Windows 10 LTSC 2021, and as the product page says, this is "equivalent to Windows 10, version 21H2."
Since there was one further and final release of Windows 10, Windows 10 22H2, it seems likely to us that there may one day be an LTSC equivalent of 22H2.
- Want to live dangerously? Try running Windows XP in 2023
- Windows XP@20: From the killer of ME to banging out patches for yet another vulnerability
- Microsoft claims to love open source – this alleged leak of Windows XP code is probably not what it had in mind, tho
- RIP: Microsoft finally pulls plug on last XP survivor... POSReady 2009
Windows 10's end of life has a significant difference from those of previous editions, though. You can't upgrade many older PCs to this newer version because Windows 11 requires a TPM chip, and the 24H2 release closed off the option to bypass that.
Windows 10 also has other advantages as well as running on a far wider range of hardware. You can place the taskbar vertically, which Windows 11 can't handle without third-party jiggery-pokery, and you can also uninstall the built-in "modern" applications with a couple of PowerShell commands.
There are already multiple projects that produce unofficial custom versions of Windows that do this for you. In Linux terms, these would be distributions. NTDEV Tiny10 produces stripped-down custom builds of both Windows 10 and Windows 11, with everything removed that isn't essential. There are also special remixes of Windows aimed at gamers, again very much unofficial, such as Atlas OS and ReviOS.
We would not be surprised if enterprising modders found ways to produce unofficial builds of Windows 10 LTSC in the future – perhaps Windows 10 IoT Enterprise as that has nearly eight years left – which will bring these extended lifespans to ordinary home users.
Of course, this vulture staffing The Reg FOSS desk would recommend simply switching to an OS without any of these artificially imposed restrictions. ®