Windows 7 Support Ends January 14, 2020

This sounds ominous, and in a way, it is.  In a nut shell, this means Microsoft will not do any updates to Windows 7 after that date.  That means program patches to fix problems like functionality, virus protection, etc.  They will not help you in any way after that date.  If you continue to use it after that date, it will be entirely at your own risk.  for more information, open this link:

https://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-prepare-for-windows-7-end-of-life

To protect yourself, this article advises upgrading to Windows 10 as the simplest remedy - at the cost or a Windows 10 license ($119 from Microsoft). But, your computer has to meet the following:

Here’s the minimum specification for Windows 10:

  • Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC.
  • RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit.
  • Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS.
  • Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver.
  • Display: 800 x 600 resolution
  • For more on upgrading your Windows 7 machine to Windows 10, check out our comprehensive article on How to use Windows 10
 

If your Windows 7 machine doesn't meet these specifications you won’t be able to run Windows 10 – and even if your machine just meets the requirements, Windows 10 won’t run that well. We’d recommend at least a 2GHz dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM (8GB ideally) and a 160GB hard drive for Windows 10 to run well.

An alternative is to buy a newer replacement computer with Windows 10 preinstalled.  The cost of a new computer is anybody's guess.  However,  I've managed by purchasing a newer refurbished computer (with Windows 10) for under $400 for a decent laptop.  Later I replaced the hard drive with a Solid State Drive (SSD) for about $60 with a substantial increase in operating speed. 

With a desktop computer, the old hard drive can be added as a second drive for access to existing data.  You'll need to re-install any apps that didn't come with the old computer when it was new.

With a laptop, you'll need to somehow transfer your existing data to the new machine.  Again, apps will need to be reinstalled.

Lastly, you could could switch to the Apple Mac and it's operating systems or to the Linux (free) operating system.  All have pros and cons.  For more insight, read the article above.