Windows 7 Approaching "End of Life"

Next week marks the end of a chapter for users of PCs. On Tuesday January 14, Microsoft will no longer support the use of Windows 7. On Thursday, Linden Lab had a reminder that for anyone who hadn't upgraded their operating system, time was running out. They would also be changing the system requirements to run Second Life.

Microsoft is discontinuing support for Windows 7 on January 14th. This means that it will no longer get updates, including security patches. Therefore, running Windows 7 will become increasingly insecure as new vulnerabilities are discovered and not patched.

Accordingly, Linden Lab is updating our system requirements to remove Windows 7 from the versions we support. This does not mean that Second Life will stop working on Windows 7 immediately; existing viewers, and possibly some new viewers, should run as well as they did before. However, we will not be testing any viewers on Windows 7, so it is likely that compatibility problems will develop and increase over time. In addition, we will not attempt to fix any problems which occur only on unsupported operating systems (if a bug is reported against an unsupported system, we usually try to reproduce it on one that is supported; if we can't, we don't investigate further or attempt to fix it).

In order to keep your Second Life experience as reliable and secure as possible, we strongly recommend using only supported versions and keeping them updated with the latest vendor patches.

Windows 7 has been among the more popular versions of Windows, to the point many kept on using it after 8 and 10 came out. Windows 10 has had some problems in it's first few years. But ready or not, the old OS is going away, and the alternatives to upgrading to 10 are few and not for everyone.

image source: Imagit

Recent Windows Updates May Slow Down Your Computer

If you think your computer isn't running as fast as it was, you may be right. But it may not be hackers slowing it down, but measures to stop them.

On January 3, Intel and other makers of computer chips announced that two flaws had been discovered. Nicknamed "Spectre" and "Meltdown," they exposed the users of the computers with the chips to potential hacking attacks. The result has been both companies and individual computer users having to update their computer software. Unfortunately in the case of Windows updates, there are problems. The company "confirmed that some Windows 10, 8 and 7 adopters will face slower computers once the patch is installed."

While brand new machines with Windows 10 shouldn't see much of a slowdown, users of older computers with Windows 10, 8 and 7 would likely see a noticeable slowdown. One article stated the slowdowns would be from 5% to 30%. For computers with AMD chips, there was an unforeseen problem. The Windows updates were making these computers unable to reboot and making them "bricks."

There's also a report that the CEO of Intel sold the maximum amount of stock he could, about $24 million dollars worth, upon finding out about the flaws.

It is unclear when there will be further updates that allow computers back to their previous speeds.

Sources: Express, Tweaktown, BGR, Telegraph, CNN, Forbes 

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: Windows 10's Dark Secret

Microsoft is releasing their latest version of Windows: Windows 10. In development for over two years, Microsoft calls it, "the best Windows ever." And the company is giving it out for free. So what's the catch? It seems the Operating System collects quite a bit of your data that gets sent to Microsoft. Nydia Tungsten had a few things to say about it.

Read more in Extra.

"Windows" by the Ballet Pixelle

When one thinks of dancing in Second Life, ballet is not usually what comes to mind. But this example of culture and the arts can be found here on the Grid too. Gemma Cleanslate recently heard of a performance by the Ballet Pixelle named "Windows." So she went by to see it.

Read more in People.