According to the security company ESET, more than three million systems in Germany are still running Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8. Since these systems no longer receive security updates, they are vulnerable to attacks. Support for Windows 8.1 will also end in a year – and there are still about 1.3 million users here too.
One year after the end of official support for Windows 7, the operating system is still in use on many systems. According to software security company ESET, there are currently 2.7 million such systems in Germany. In addition, another 450,000 computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 8 are no longer supported. So in total, there are just over three million legacy systems.
Safety risks and liability
The company’s public relations spokesperson, Thorsten Urbanski, sees a major security issue with the use of legacy operating systems. Since Microsoft does not provide regular security updates for older versions of Windows, attacks are possible due to vulnerabilities that have been discovered since support ended. The company warned last year that an operating system that is still supported should always be used in a business environment to avoid liability risks.
Unfortunately, ESET does not provide any information on how many affected systems are using the Microsoft paid support extension. Businesses and government organizations can still purchase security updates for Windows 7 thus keeping systems up to date. However, in the long run, a change to a more modern operating system will also be necessary here.
| The operating system | user | supports |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Vista / XP / 8 | 0.45 million | number |
| Windows 7 | 2.7 million | number |
| Windows 8.1 | 1.3 million | Until 10/01/2023 |
| Windows 10 | 44 million | And |
| Windows 11 | undefined | And |
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After all, the majority of computers run a modern operating system. According to ESET, there are currently 44 million users in Germany who are using Windows 10, which is still supported. However, there is no information about the new operating system Windows 11. In addition, the number of systems running the old Windows has reportedly decreased by about two million. in the last year. However, Windows 8.1 may soon become a problem because support for this operating system will also end next year. Windows 8.1 is still currently in use by about 1.3 million computers.
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