“Windows 8.1 receives one more batch of security patches on the coming Tuesday,” reports Ghacks, “before Microsoft lays the operating system to rest.”
Windows 8.1 does not get the same Extended Security Updates treatment that Windows 7 received for the past three years. Once the last patch has been released, it is game over for the operating system. Windows 8.1 users may continue using it, but the system’s security issues will no longer be fixed by Microsoft or anyone else. Browsers and other programs will stop getting updates, and some websites will refuse to work as new technologies are no longer supported by the browsers.
Windows 7, which receives the last ESU patches on Tuesday as well, looks to be in a similar situation on first glance. Microsoft won’t release updates for it anymore, even though there is still demand for that.
The article does note that 0patch, a third-party security platform from the Slovenia-based digital security lab ACROS Security, “will support Windows 7 with at least two additional years of critical security updates.” (The cost: around $25 per year.)
