Still Running Windows 7? Here are five reasons why you should upgrade to Windows 10.

Windows 7 was like a breath of fresh air for many of us who did not enjoy Windows Vista due to it's many bugs. It was the best thing since Windows XP according to many. I personally did not take part in the large fanbase of Windows 7, instead I stuck with the dark side upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 was mostly disliked because at its release touchscreens were all the craze and Microsoft wanted to make a version of Windows that was very touchscreen compatible(Let's not talk about Windows 8 before 8.1 which was truly cosmetically awful). Below is a picture of the Windows 8 start menu that kept many Windows 7 users from upgrading to Windows 8.

Fortunately, Windows 8's reign of terror was short-lived. Microsoft recognized the backlash and 3 years after Windows 8's release Windows released Windows 10 and even offered free upgrades to the OS from Windows 7 and 8. However, Windows 7 user were suspicious of the latest version of Windows since they could remember how bad Windows 8 was. Running Windows 7 was perfectly fine as well until Microsoft ended its support for Windows 7 in early 2020. Still many people have yet to upgrade to Windows 10 from 7 despite it no longer has updates. Admittedly, Windows 7 will still run and allow you to do pretty much everything you can with Windows 10, but from a safety perspective Windows 7 is an incredible risk to your network as it no longer receives security patches. I've compiled a list of 5 reasons why you should upgrade to Windows 10 starting with by far the biggest reason. 1) Windows 7 is now a huge security risk for not only the PC you are running it on but also your entire network! Every time that an Operating System reaches its end of life there is a multitude of hackers licking there chops knowing that many individuals and businesses are going to neglect the security risks of running an OS that no longer receives updates. I don't know the exact portion of Windows updates that are actually security patches but I would venture to say a very large portion of these updates have to do with security. If Microsoft is no longer patching the security for Windows 7 that means that your system is no longer safe from security flaws. As time passes Windows 7 will become more and more insecure as new vulnerabilities are found and exploited. Unfortunately, having a system running Windows 7 also puts your entire network at risk. If a hacker can gain access to one system on your network that gives them an entry point into your network and can use that system to gain access to other systems on your network. Certain types of malware, known as worms, can also spread malware throughout your network. In a worse case scenario you could be hit with ransomware that can lock you out of your network and hold your data hostage. Unfortunately, in some cases even data recovery experts will not be able to regain your data, and these ransoms are typically hundreds to thousands of dollars (or millions if it is a business). Below is a picture of a typical looking ransomware note that you would find on a computer infected by ransomware, 150USD is probably a very low amount to be demanded.

2) Updating to Windows 10 is usually free Windows 7 and 8.1 can still be upgraded for free in most cases to Windows 10. In worse case scenarios a key for Windows 10 can be purchased for 30CAD or less. While the Windows 10 key's MSRP is currently 189CAD there is a plethora of legitimate resellers that will sell you a key for significantly cheaper. The last key I bought for 13CAD for Windows 10 Pro and the MSRP for it is 259CAD! It should be noted as well that even without proper licensing Windows 10 will still run almost identically to a licensed version. The main difference is a watermark asking you to Activate Windows in the lower right hand corner of Windows 10 as seen in the picture below. Here is a picture of the watermark you will see on an unlicensed version of Windows 10

3) Windows 10 does not have much more requirements than Windows 7 to run Unless your PC is barely running Windows 7 as it is, in most situations Windows 10 does not use much more resources than Windows 7. Compare the minimum requirements for both Windows 7 and 10: Windows 10: Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor

RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit

Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS or 20 GB for 64-bit OS

Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver

Windows 7: Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit) Hard disk space: 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) Graphics card: DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver As you can see the minimum requirements are essentially identical. One situation where Windows 7 may run better than Windows 10 is if the PC is already quite old and has very old drivers. Windows 10 may no longer support these drivers although in most cases Windows 10 will still work! 4) Windows 10 is stable and secure and will stay that way for many years to come While no operating system is 100% stable or secure Windows 10 has a pretty good grab on both of these. On occasion a patch may negatively affect your computer but this is true with any OS that receives updates. What is very important though is that Windows 10 is still pumping out security patches making your system much less vulnerable to exploits. Even better Windows 10 comes with a built-in anti-virus and firewall that works quite well. The days of needing to buy a third party anti-virus are gone for most individuals needs! A picture of Windows 10' Security centre

5) Windows 10 is easy to use and has more in common with Windows 7 than Windows 8 Windows 10 is incredibly user friendly, it took some features from Windows 8 but mostly it feels like an updated version of Windows 7. Die Hard fans of Windows 7 will probably still find some things to gripe about Windows 10 but at the end of the day Windows 10 feels like a more user-friendly and up-to-date continuation of Windows 7. At the end of the day most people will be pleasantly surprised by the user-friendliness of Windows 10. _________________________________________________________________________ Conclusion: Unfortunately, using Windows 7 today is a huge security risk. In most cases updating to Windows 10 is possible and relatively easy to do yourself. Microsoft provides a tool to update to Windows 10 and the steps to upgrade are fairly straightforward. The tool can be found here. Many tutorials can be found on the internet on how to perform the upgrade using this tool. Uncomfortable performing the upgrade yourself but you still want to upgrade? Here at Tech Horse we will be happy to upgrade your system to Windows 10. We offer this service at the low cost of 50$ and as always we guaranteed our work so if the upgrade turns out to be not possible we charge you nothing.