Microsoft has decided to end support for Windows 7 in the official community forums, as well as a number of its other products, but it will leave them open so that users can discuss with each other.
The Microsoft Answers community is operated by Microsoft itself. It has forums for many of its products, where you can post your problem and receive support from Microsoft technicians as well as from various third-party representatives.
These forums are very popular, as many users write there on a daily basis. However, last Friday, Microsoft in an announcement that it is ending technical support through these forums, for a number of its products, namely:
- Windows 7, 8.1, 8.1 RT
- Microsoft Security Essentials
- Internet Explorer 10
- Office 2010, 2013
- Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, Surface RT, Surface 2
- Microsoft Band (this forum will be locked)
- Mobile devices forum (Microsoft will continue support in the forum under the name “Other Windows mobile devices”)
- Zune
The forums will remain available and open to community members, who will still be able to use them to post new questions, topics, or answers (with the exception of the one that will be locked in July 2018). Microsoft staff will continue to monitor them to remove any spam, but will no longer respond to users when it comes to providing technical support.
It is interesting to note that another Microsoft support technician posted a similar announcement on the Windows 8.1 forum, highlighting that Microsoft is making this move for products that have “reached the end of their support.”
Microsoft’s wording is not clear, as it could mean that it is stopping “support” but continuing “extended support” which could be paid support.
On the other hand, for many users, the end of answers from Microsoft technicians is not such a big loss, as many of their solutions have been considered useless at times. These people, who don't work directly for Microsoft, but for third-party companies hired to provide support, usually provide generic solutions that don't help much in the case of complex errors.
It's also important to note that this isn't the end of full support for Windows 7. Security updates will continue to be offered until January 2020, so users still running the operating system have more than a year and a half to upgrade their devices to a newer system.
Windows 7 has a worldwide share of around 40% of desktops, while Windows 10 is around 35%.
