What does "unsupported software" really mean?
Hi, everyone. Leo Notenboom here for
Askleo.com. If you're not a subscriber to my weekly
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So we hear a lot of worry about so called unsupported software.
In fact, here's one of the questions I got recently.
Could you define unsupported software?
Is it something like Windows XP, 7 and 8,
which Microsoft will not protect anymore from viruses or whatever it was taken care
of, so that now everyone has changed to some later version or some other upgrade.
Older versions of Windows are certainly one example, but the concept,
the phrase of unsupported software actually has several meanings.
It's actually vague.
So let's run down the list of what it
means to be unsupported and what it means to be unsupported.
The no more features level is a lot
of what we're talking about, especially when we're talking about
something like Windows 7 or even right now, Windows 10 might be in that window.
It's unlikely that any new features are
being developed specifically for Windows 10.
That's not to say it's unsupported,
it's still supported, but the support has at least been declining.
But ultimately, every software at some point is going to stop being developed.
No more features will be added.
That's one form of no longer being supported.
There's no more fixes, mostly.
This is the case where even if you find
a bug in the software, it's not going to get fixed.
It just isn't.
This is what most vendors would call the end of support for a piece of software.
Doesn't matter what's wrong, it's done.
They're not going to make any more changes to it, mostly.
The exception typically turns out to be so called security issues, or in some cases,
data loss issues where if something could cause you to lose data.
But in reality, the bar is very high.
It has to be a very serious issue for the software to be updated at all.
Now, in the case of the Windows versions we've
talked about, 8 and 7 and XP, yeah, they reached that.
That was end of support.
But there's still another level.
For a while,
even after their end of support, they were all still getting fixes
for security issues until the next level of unsupported.
No more fixes, period.
That's where those operating systems are right now.
It doesn't matter what a problem is discovered.
If there's a bug, if there's a security
issue, if there's a gaping hole, it's not going to get fixed.
It is well and truly unsupported completely.
However, there are still exceptions in a sense.
What we think of as Windows isn't always Windows.
The confusion arises most often when you're reusing an unsupported software
platform like Windows 8 or Windows 7, and yet you still see updates coming in.
Most notably, Windows Defender or Windows Security updates.
Because while it is Windows, it's not.
It's on its own separate schedule.
So that means that even though Windows itself for those versions is completely
well and truly unsupported, the anti malware software,
the security software that is on that machine,
may continue to get updates and you may continue to get protected from
newer malware that's discovered long after the end of support date.
Eventually, that's going to stop as well.
Eventually, those tools, for example, are going to stop working.
What that means, of course, is that at that point,
you will need to look for an alternative security software or change your habits so
that you don't need security software or upgrade the operating system, of course.
But the bottom line here is that the software that was running on your
unsupported operating system will keep running for some time.
To be clear, this applies to more than just Windows defender or Windows Security.
This actually applies to almost any
software you're running on your out of date or unsupported operating system.
That software may continue to get updated
for some time, long after the operating system itself is no longer being updated.
At some point,
it won't, and it'll fall into those same stages that we've just talked about.
No fixes mostly, no fixes ever.
Finally, at some point, all of these pieces of software may fall
into the final, final bucket, and that is it don't work no more.
By that I mean the operating system, or more commonly, the software you're used
to using on that operating system simply stops working.
When that happens, you really don't have any recourse.
It may stop working because the most recent update broke something
that required support from the operating system that isn't there.
It may be for some other reason, but the bottom line is that eventually
the software will stop working on that operating system and you're out of luck.
Hopefully, if you need to continue to use that operating system for a long period
of time, hopefully it won't be for a very, very long period of time.
This varies dramatically on the software involved.
For example, since Microsoft security
software is something that is being developed continually for the current
versions of Windows, the fact that it continues to work
on older versions is a nice thing, but it's not a requirement.
At some point,
they may very well encounter some a change that they want to make to support current
operating systems that breaks it on the older operating systems.
And again, at that point, you're out of luck.
But eventually, things will stop working.
The question is how soon?
And there is really no answer.
Now, there is another definition of support that a lot of people overlook.
And that's because a lot of software is unsupported out of the box.
And that is, by support we mean help.
Is there some place you could go to to get
help or support using that particular piece of software?
That is generally unrelated to most of the schedules or most of the watermarks
that I've mentioned so far, but it tends to follow the same trend.
The software is supported to some degree when it is released.
It probably peaks during that software's heyday, but then as new versions
of that software replace the older versions, the support for those older
versions tends to trickle off until eventually it's gone completely.
So support can also mean simply getting help.
Now, the question you may be asking
yourself, and honestly, a question that I get from time to time
is, is it safe to use unsupported software?
The most critical concept you must
understand is that there is no such thing as safe.
It is not an absolute.
Whether you're using the most current version or the oldest version
that actually works, there is no such thing as safe.
There's only safer or less safe.
Now, if you're using unsupported software,
there are things generally that you can do to keep yourself safer.
That is, making sure that you've got anti malware tools or security software
that works on that platform for as long as you're using it.
If you don't have that, you're going to be less safe.
That then means you need to compensate
by being extra security conscious yourself and extra careful.
It can be safe
ish to run older versions of software and especially operating systems,
but it does require that you develop the habits to compensate for the lack
of tools and the lack of support that you may find in the operating system itself.
I hope that helps clarify the situation.
Like I said, I know that for the most part, we keep recommending that you always
use the latest and greatest version of any particular piece of software,
and maybe now you'll understand a little bit of why we continue to recommend that.
But I also absolutely understand that that's not always a viable option.
Hopefully, you'll understand where you are
on this spectrum of support and what you need to do about it.
For comments, for updates,
for links related to this topic and more, visit
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I'm Leo Notenbaum and this is
Askleo.com. Thanks for watching.