On January 14, 2020, extended support for the Windows 7 SP1 (and Windows Server 2008 R2) ends. Accordingly, after this date Microsoft won’t release new security updates and patches for these OSs. In this regard, Microsoft has released several updates that will notify Windows 7 users of the need to upgrade to newer operating systems (read the Windows 10 here 🙂 ).
Starting from April 2019, Windows 7 Home Editions (Home Premium) users began to receive nag notification of upcoming Windows 7 End-of-Support. The Windows 7 EOS notification looked like this:
January 14, 2020 is the last day Microsoft will offer security updates and technical support for computers running Windows 7. We know change can be difficult, that’s why we’re reaching out earlier to help you back up your file and prepare for what’s next.
You can hide this notification by checking the item “Do not remind me again”. If you click on the “Learn more” button, a page opens that describes the process of upgrading to Windows 10 (there are still options for a free upgrade to Windows 10).
This notification appears after installing the KB4493132. This is a small update, distributed through Windows Update and classified as “Optional” (recommended):
2019-03 Update for Windows 7 for x64-based systems (KB4493132).
The update extracts the file C:\Windows\System32\sipnotify.exe and runs it every day as a scheduled task (run the taskschd.msc and check the Notify1 and Notify2 tasks in the branch Microsoft\Windows\End of Support).
Starting from October 15, a similar end of support notification began to appear on computers running Windows 7 Professional edition. The notification begins to appear after installing update KB4524752.
Please note that after January 14. 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or technical support for Windows 7. We recommend backing up your files to ease the transition.
Update KB4524752 will not display EoS notification on computers running Professional and Enterprise versions of Windows 7 that are joined to the Active Directory domain, on Windows Server, on kiosk devices, on computers that have previously disabled free Windows 10 upgrade notification through the registry (parameter DisableOSUpgrade = 1).
You can hide the End of Support notification in Windows 7 by checking the corresponding box or hide the update in the Windows Update (in the Control Panel or through the PSWindowsUpdate PowerShell module).
If you check the corresponding box, the registry parameter DontRemindMe in the reg key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SipNotify will be set to 0.
- It is useless to uninstall the update KB4524752 from a computer, because it will install automatically through Windows Update in the next update search cycle.
- The WSUS server administrator can approve or decline the update KB4524752 for installation on computers.
If the KB4524752 update is already installed, you can disable the notification on user computers through the registry with the following commands:
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GWX" /v "DisableGWX" /t reg_dword /d 1 /f – hide End of Support notification in Windows 7 SP1.
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v "DisableOSUpgrade" /t reg_dword /d 1 /f – disable Windows 10 upgrade notification.
For information: according to Google Analytics statistics, about 13% of WOSHub visitors still use Windows 7 (and Windows 10 – 84%). So in the near future I recommend thinking about migrating from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Moreover, it is already impossible to use Windows 7 on computers with new CPU models (check the article “The processor is not supported”).