Windows (All Versions) End of Support and Life Cycle details!

Windows (All Versions) End of Support and Life Cycle details!

Every Windows product has a lifecycle. The lifecycle begins when a product is released and ends when it’s no longer supported. Knowing key dates in this lifecycle helps you make informed decisions about when to upgrade or make other changes to your software. Here are the rights and limits of the Windows lifecycle.

End of support refers to the date when Microsoft no longer provides automatic fixes, updates, or online technical assistance. This is the time to make sure you have the latest available update or service pack installed. Without Microsoft support, you will no longer receive security updates that can help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal your personal information. For more information go to Microsoft Support Lifecycle .

Operating System	Latest Updateor service pack	End of mainstream support	End of extended support
Windows XP	Service Pack 3	April 14, 2009	April 8, 2014
Windows Vista	Service Pack 2	April 10, 2012	April 11, 2017
Windows 7 *	Service Pack 1	January 13, 2015	January 14, 2020
Windows 8	Windows 8.1	January 9, 2018	January 10, 2023

* Support for Windows 7 RTM without service packs ended on April 9, 2013. Be sure to install Windows 7 Service Pack 1 today to continue to receive support and updates.

Service packs and updates are part of the process of keeping your Windows product up to date. Service packs combine the latest updates and fixes into one package or download. A service pack can include security and performance improvements as well as support for new types of hardware. To install the latest service pack for Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, or to install the latest update for Windows 8, visit the Service Pack Center.

Desktop operating systems	Date of availability	Support retired
Windows XP SP1	August 30, 2002	October 10, 2006
Windows XP SP2	September 17, 2004	July 13, 2010
Windows XP SP3	April 21, 2008	April 8, 2014
Windows Vista SP1	February 4, 2008	July 12, 2011
Windows Vista SP2	May 26, 2009	Available now
Windows 7 SP1	February 22, 2011	Available now
Windows 8.1	October 18, 2013	Available now

Reference from: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows/lifecycle

What is BIOS in computers & how does it

BIOS is short for Basic Input Output System. It is much more than the name suggests. One might think that BIOS controls input and output system. But the BIOS does much more and it is not possible for any operating system to continue without a proper BIOS in place. Today, we will see what is BIOS in computers.

BIOS has been there in our computers since the days of DOS – Disk Operating System… even prior to the structured DOS created by Microsoft. It is one of the most important components of the computer though it does not take the credit by appearing on your screen regularly. This post also looks at the most basic component of computers and explains why is it required in computers for computers to work.

What is BIOS

BIOS is a firmware, in short. It is stored on a chip on a part of the computer motherboard and is basically, a set of instructions that run to help load the operating system. You OS would fail to load, if not for the BIOS!

When you turn on the computer, BIOS instructions are initiated. These instructions make it check the RAM and the Processor (for faults) on your computer.

1. It enumerates the RAM by checking each compartment to see if all of them are working.
2. After checking out RAM and Processor, it checks for other devices attached to the computer
3. It detects all the peripherals, including the keyboard and mouse and then checks for the boot options
4. Boot options are checked in the sequence configured on your BIOS: Boot from CD-ROM, Boot From Hard Drive, Boot from LAN etc.
5. It checks for bootstraps on the devices in the order you or the machine vendor configured the BIOS.
6. It passes reigns of the computer to operating system by loading the essential parts of the OS into the random access memory (RAM) reserved for the OS, after bootstrap is located.

This is not a comprehensive list of functions of the BIOS. It also checks up CMOS, and other chips to set up the date and time on the computer, and to load the device drivers into the memory. It checks and uploads input and output interrupts (signals) to the RAM so that the operating system knows what is happening. For example, if a user presses a key, an interrupt request is created and passed on to the BIOS which sends it to the operating system. The operating system then decides what action to take, according to the way it is programmed.

The reason why operating system cannot work without BIOS is because the former resides on hard disk or a removable disk. It is the BIOS that loads the drivers of the hard disks and removable disk drives, so that they are functional. It then loads the primary portions of the operating system such as the MBR, GPT, FAT, etc, into memory, so that the operating system can continue loading itself.

Making Changes to BIOS

It is easy to make changes to BIOS when required. The most common changes people make in BIOS is to change the BOOT ORDER. While the computer is booting, press DEL key on your keyboard to enter BIOS. From there, you can see different options grouped under different headers. Use tab and arrow keys to navigate. Sometimes Page Up and Page Down keys are required to change values of essential items. When you are done, press F10 to save changes and exit. The options are displayed on right or bottom on the screen so that you know what keys to press for saving or discarding changes. The options also specify what keys to use for changing values.

How to Update BIOS

As the computing scenario changes, new devices etc are introduced. To make a computer work with these devices, the BIOS has to be upgraded. If your operating system fails to detect a new peripheral, it is possible because BIOS doesn’t know how to handle it. If you face any such issues, it might be a good idea to check if any BIOS updates are available.

You have to check the BIOS version first. This can be done by entering BIOS at the time of booting, by pressing DEL. Once you have the version of your computer BIOS, you visit the website of your computer manufacturer to see if there is any updated version of BIOS is available. If there is, download it and run it. The process is generally wiping off all the previous information on the BIOS chip and rewriting it with the new information.

Make sure you have power backup while upgrading the BIOS. Because if the computer turns off during the process, the BIOS may be corrupted and you will need a technician to fix it. Your boot CD/DVD may or may not help depending upon how the BIOS stands after a powercut or a sudden system turn off while rewriting the BIOS.

IMPORTANT: If your computer is working properly, you do not need to update or flash your BIOS. In any case, should you wish to, we recommend that you do not try to update your BIOS yourself, but instead take it to a computer technician who may be better equipped to do it.

THANKS TO INDIA POST PARIWAR

How to downgrade from Windows 8/8.1 to Windows 7

 

Today im going to show you on how to downgrade 

from Windows 8 to Windows 7.

Before you begin you are going to need the Windows 7 operating system CD and you are going to be required to make changes in your BIOS before booting it up.

Go in the BIOS by pressing "F2" (if it doesnt work press "ESC" or "DEL")

In the BIOS you want to:

1. Go to "advance" and disable "Vertulazation Technology"
2. Make sure to Disable "Secure boot"
3. Change the boot from "UEFI Boot" to "CSM Boot"

Once you done that save the changes and shut down your computer you want to turn it back on and go into the boot menu (By pressing "F12"). Then insert your Windows 7 OS CD or USB and boot it up.

Once you boot it up, select Advance in the installation and choose your hard drive that your Windows 8 is. Format the hard drive and install Windows 7. Once after Windows 7 finishes installing you want to install the Wi-Fi card if you have a Laptop. After installing it, download and install important drivers such as Video Card, Sound, and other hardware you think may need to be updated.

 

 

Microsoft releases .NET Framework 4.5.2

Microsoft has announced the release of .NET Framework 4.5.2. This release is said to be a highly compatible update to the.NET Framework 4, 4.5 and 4.5.1. This version of the .NET Framework runs side-by-side with the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and earlier. But in the case of Framework 4, .NET Framework 4.5 and .NET Framework 4.5.1, it will perform an in-place update.

The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework for Windows operating system, that includes a large library of coded solutions to common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework.

.NET Framework 4.5.2

Based of feedback from various source, this release comes with several reliability and performance improvements along with some new features.

1. ASP.NET improvements
2. Distributed transactions enhancements
3. High DPI Improvements
4. Improved activity tracing support in runtime and framework
5. A more robust profiling

To find out what’s new in .NET Framework 4.5.2, visit MSDN. To download it, visit Microsoft. On this web page, you will get the links of web installer as well as the language packs. Microsoft however recommends that you use the Web Installer instead of the Offline Installer for optimal efficiency and bandwidth utilization.

Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Vista SP2 users, may download and install it.

 

 

DOWNLOAD

 

What is Windows 64-bit Itanium ?

 

At times, you may have seen on some Microsoft sites or some download sites, download links being available for Windows x86, Windows x64 and Windows x64 Itanium as well, and wondered what Itanium x64 stood for. Itanium refers to a processor architecture for Server operating systems, and were also called were called IA-64, where IA stood for Intel Architecture.

Windows 64-bit Itanium explained

IA-64 uses the Intel Itanium architecture which is meant for high-performance Enterprise servers and computing systems. It was released in 2001 but its performance was not up to expectations, and it soon sunk like the Titanic – prompting some critics to refer to it as Itanic!

On the other hand, AMD designed the x86-64 processor, which ran both 32-bit software at native hardware speed and offered support to 64-bit memory (AMD64). This is called as x86-64 or now simply as x64. x64 is actually a Microsoft term and stands for Extended 64.

While initially, Microsoft did support the Itanium processor configuration, it later on, dropped Itanium support due to lack of market interest. The main problem with Itanium was that it was not backward compatible, in the sense that it was not able to run x86 software efficiently. It could run only x64 software.

Subsequently Intel too decided to introduce this x64 extension in its own x86-based processors. The Extended Memory 64 Technology or EM64T allowed processors like the Intel Xeon processor to permit 32-bit platforms to access larger amounts of memory supported by 64-bit platforms. It is this architecture that we are now using, as the 64-bit processor in our desktops and laptops.

Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2008 R2 were the last versions of Windows operating system to support the Itanium. Later versions of Windows did not support 64-bit Itanium. Development of the Itanium versions of Visual Studio and SQL Server were also discontinued later on.

Am I running Windows 64-bit Itanium

Users running older operating systems, can if they wish, find out which systems they are running. To do so, open CMD type the following and hit Enter:

wmic cpu get architecture

These are the possible values:

• 0 means x86
• 6 means Itanium
• 9 means x64

Thus, when referring to 64-bit architecture, one technically has to be a bit more specific as there are two main 64-bit hardware architectures. The first real 64-bit architecture was released by Intel with this Itanium processor. What we are now using is the ‘backward compatible’ 64-bit extension to the 32-bit architecture, developed by AMD first – followed by Intel