Windows 7

Fully out of support since January 2020, with even the paid Extended Security Updates program for businesses having ended in January 2023 — Microsoft no longer offers any download or update path for it at all.

end-of-lifelegacyno-longer-downloadableDownload / Upgrade ↗Official page ↗Lifecycle / Support docs ↗

Platform

Windows

Released

October 2009

Support ends

January 14, 2020 (paid Extended Security Updates for Pro/Enterprise ended January 10, 2023 — no further path exists)

System requirements

1 GHz CPU, 1GB RAM (32-bit) / 2GB RAM (64-bit), 16GB-20GB storage, DirectX 9 GPU with WDDM 1.0 driver.

Windows 7 remains genuinely in use on a real population of older PCs -- specifically machines too old for Windows 10's requirements, in regions or contexts where hardware isn't regularly replaced, or running specific old industrial/embedded software that was never updated. Unlike Windows 10, there is no remaining official path to get security patches for Windows 7 at all anymore: mainstream support ended in 2015, extended support in January 2020, and even the paid three-year Extended Security Updates program available to Pro/Enterprise customers ended in January 2023. Microsoft's own current guidance for anyone still on it is simply to upgrade the hardware or move to Windows 11 where the hardware allows it -- there's no download page to link to because Microsoft no longer distributes it.

Release dates, support windows, and system requirements come from Microsoft's and Apple's own published lifecycle pages (linked above) — always confirm there before relying on this for a production/enterprise deployment decision, since support policies occasionally change.