Microsoft tagged Windows 7 as 'outdated' and reminded users to upgrade windows 10

Recently the tech giant took a step to remind its customers running on Windows 7 that they have just three years of support remaining, told them that the aged OS was "long outdated" and urged them to upgrade to Windows 10. Windows 7 will exit what Microsoft calls Extended Support on Jan. 14, 2020; at that point, the company will stop all security updates.

The company used the three-years-and-counting milestone to simultaneously denigrate Windows 7 and promote its successor. "Windows 7 is based on long-outdated security architectures," said Markus Nitschke, the head of Microsoft Germany, in a post to a German-language company blog, adding that the OS "does not meet the requirements of modern technology, nor the high security requirements of IT departments."

Nitschke continued, "With Windows 10, we offer our customers the highest level of security and functionality at the cutting edge."

The praise-the-new-denounce-the-old method is as old as software, and one Microsoft has regularly applied. Three years ago, the company used some of the same strategy when it disparaged Windows XP, whose retirement was then quickly approaching, and trumpeted Windows 7 as its replacement. It repeated the claim, but with less effect, when it touted Windows 8 over 7 in 2012. But Microsoft's call to abandon Windows 7 has been louder, a shout in comparison. Not only has the firm done the usual - favored the new over the old - but it has also significantly changed decades of practices thought inviolable, such as patching, when it eliminated reasons why enterprises stayed with Windows 7.