Windows 8.1 drops extended support in 2023. Windows 7 already ended in 2020.
Despite this, 12% of windows users globally, and 6% of USA users, still use Windows 7. This is actually larger than the share who still use w8.1 (3% both USA and globally)
Why is continuing to use Windows past its support deadline dangerous? And if it is dangerous, why are there still SO MANY windows 7 users?
The primary reason it isn't safe is that OS exploits are no longer patched, making the OS vulnerable to viruses and other malware.
As to why so many people still use 7, its mainly because its probably the last Windows OS that people really liked. The newer ones have weird UI choices (Windows 8/8.1) or privacy violating features (Windows 8-11). They also seem to prefer sticking with something they are familiar with rather than going with a Linux alternative, which would really be the best choice. If I'm not mistaken at one point some of that user base is also from businesses that hadn't upgraded their equipment to newer OS, but I'm not 100% if that is currently the case.
what privacy violating features does windows 8.1 have?
Data collection and personalized ads (mainly using your browsing/search data).
The real question is what privacy violating features doesn't modern Windows have? Given the vast number of 'User Experience' and 'Telemetry' and 'Reporting' services and scheduled tasks running all the time, and those are just the services that openly confess to sending data, we'll likely never know. Some of the most egregious issues are the services to do A/B psychological testing on you by changing around Windows elements, anything you type in Start Menu, anything you say in its vicinity when Cortana isn't pulverised to the ground, any time you log in without a super-special local-only account, masses of personalised info gets sent to Microsoft.
Edit: I do still have Win10 for playing a few games that won't work on Linux though. So shoutout to ShutUp10 for being a decent way to disable a large portion of the madnesses. https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
Simple reason is it will stop receiving security updates. Therefore any new vulnerabilities discovered or introduced by software will not be patched.
windows 7 runs much better than 10 potato pcs.
fun fact windows 7 still gets security updates if u patch it. https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/bypass-windows-7-extended-security-updates-eligibility.80606/
fun fact windows 7 still gets security updates if u patch it
uhh how does this work? Microsoft ended support right?
they still offer security updates for certain high volume license buyers (think schools and large businesses who may not want to update frequently for practial reasons), you can modify the system files to trick microsoft into thinking you're one of them to still get updates
Nothing's stopping you. I've seen enterprises still running Win7, XP, 03, you name it. They still make plenty of money. You just shouldn't be, especially if you aren't computer savvy, for the reasons other commenters have pointed out. SMBv1 vulnerability comes to mind, but I know there's way more.
Are you trying to do something specific on an old OS or is this just a general question?
The other answers wrt security are correct but in ways that are even more serious than you might think. For instance, one could say "the OS is out of date, but my web browser is fully up-to-date, so therefore I am safe." This thinking is incorrect.
The web browser being up to date is of course, without question, necessary for security, but it still depends on OS libraries. If there is a bug in a feature that the browser relies on, e.g. memory allocator, then there is nothing you can do to protect your system against such an exploit. The allocator will never be fixed since the OS is unsupported. Newer OSes also tend to introduce features that software can use to improve their own security.
Consider this occasion where Chrome had a vulnerability that was only seen to be exploited against Windows 7 32-bit (in 2019, so Win7 was still supported by Microsoft at the time!) https://security.googleblog.com/2019/03/disclosing-vulnerabilities-to-protect.html
