This very odd statement is from Microsoft MSFT 454,46 +2,87 +0,64% Marketing chief Chris Capossela.

“We do worry when people are running an operating system that’s 10 years old that the next printer they buy isn’t going to work well, or they buy a new game, they buy Fallout 4, a very popular game, and it doesn’t work on a bunch of older machines,” Capossela stated. “And so, as we are pushing our ISV [Independent Software Vendor] and hardware partners to build great new stuff that takes advantage of Windows 10 that obviously makes the old stuff really bad and not to mention viruses and security problems.”

He also stressed it is “so incredibly important to try to end the fragmentation of the Windows install base” and to get users to a “safer place”.

Now, before you go rush out and upgrade to Windows 10 keep in mind Windows 7 will still be support for another 4-years. To be exact end of extended support will be on January 14, 2020 (Windows 8.1 support ends on January 10, 2023). Furthermore, Windows 7 users make up around 55% of total computers running Windows so there is no danger of hardware and software vendors not supporting Windows 7 in the near future.

So what gives? It is just another misleading tactic to get user with machines that can run Windows 10 to upgrade to Windows 10. I guess not enough people are taking advantage of the free (if you don’t mind a loss of control with your computer phoning home to Big Brother when it experiences a major issue such as BSOD or whatever color screen of death they use now). Microsoft is trying everything they can to push users to switch away from Windows 7/8.1 including re-pushing out the update KB3035583 even if you have hid it in the past. In regards to the latter, this may have to do with the update being reclassified from ‘Optional’ to ‘Recommended’.

Microsoft needs to be careful as the way they are heading people will switch away from Windows 7/8.1 to Linux or may be even ditch the PC altogether and get an Android Tablet or (Amazon) Fire Tablet or Stick; or even an iPad. I am at the point that about 97% of what I do on my Windows 7/8.1 computers are operating system neutral. The bulk of what I do (blogs, forums and games) is through a web browser. In lieu of MS Office, I use Apache OpenOffice. Mozilla Thunderbird handles all my email as well as my Google Calendars. There only a small handful of stuff that I use that must run on Windows most of which I could likely find Open Source alternatives should I ever decide to ditch Windows.

via Forbes > Gordon Kelly