Support ends for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, 8.1

Heya folks, Ned here again. January 10 is a big day for support lifecycle on Windows Server and Windows. Not directly storage or file services-related, but critical news for IT Pros and their organizations, so I'm blogging about it.

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Extended Security Update ends January 10, 2023 - that's today - except if you're running those VMs on Azure or the Azure Stack family, which gets you one more year of security patches - https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/windows-server-2008-r2
• Windows 7 Extended Security Updates also ends January 10, 2023 - today. There is no Azure time extension like Windows Server 2008 R2, they will receive no more security patches - https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/windows-7
• Windows 8.1 extended support also ends January 10, 2023 - today. There is no ESU - https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/windows-81
• Windows Server 2012 R2 extended support ends October 10, 2023 - That's 9 months from today, not far off - https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/windows-server-2012-r2 

For information on upgrading or migrating your legacy machines:

• Migrate VMs to Azure Stack HCI - https://learn.microsoft.com/azure-stack/hci/deploy/migrate-cluster-new-hardware. 
• Migrate VMs to Azure - https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/site-recovery/migrate-tutorial-on-premises-azure.
• Upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 then 11 - https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/deployment/upgrade/windows-10-upgrade-paths
• Upgrade Windows Servers to later operating systems - https://learn.microsoft.com/windows-server/get-started/upgrade-overview 
• Upgrade Windows Server 2008 R2 to latest operating systems - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/itops-talk-blog/how-to-in-place-upgrade-windows-server-2008-r2-to-windows-server/ba-p/752330 

Until next time,

- Ned Pyle