FBI warns against using Microsoft Windows 7

Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7 earlier this year in January, which meant that all users of the platform stopped receiving any updates from it since then.

However, a large number of people have continued to use Windows 7 on their computers.

This makes their system vulnerable to hacking threats due to the lack of new updates from Microsoft that would otherwise effectively block the vulnerabilities from Microsoft, including the kind of vulnerability it identified in March that impacted all devices operating Windows 7.

The idea behind stopping the updates for Windows 7 was for users to start moving to newer operating systems such as Windows 8 or Windows 10.

But even now Windows 7 is still the second most popular operating system on computers after Windows 10, surpassing the Mac too.

The FBI now wants you to stop using Windows 7. “As time passes, Windows 7 becomes more vulnerable to exploitation, due to lack of security updates and new vulnerabilities discovered,” the FBI has said.

The FBI advised everyone to upgrade to the latest version supported by Microsoft, in this case, Windows 10.

Of course, this does not mean that Windows 10 is completely free of security vulnerabilities either. Compared to Windows 7 though, it is several times safer and Microsoft continues to invest a lot of resources to constantly launch security updates for the system.

If you have an original version of Windows 7, you may be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, but bear in mind that this does not work for everyone.

You can go to the Windows 10 download page on the Microsoft website and use your Windows 7 license to download the latest version.

You might have to enter the key associated to your device – in the cases of laptops, for example – to receive the updates.

This story originally appeared on MENA Tech