As of January 13^th, Microsoft ended its support for Windows 7. Before users of the world's most popular operating system grow too concerned, just be aware that Microsoft plans to phase out this version of its operating system, but will continue to offer Extended Support until 2020.

Basically, this means that users will not get all of the same perks for Windows 7 as they used to. Mainstream Support provided warranty, fixes for all bugs, design changes, free incident support, and feature requests. In the Extended Support stage, Microsoft users will still get security updates, but they will not have any of the other provisions.

The security updates are like patches when errors or dangerous security bugs are found in the operating system. Significant design updates will not be supported any longer. So if you just keep running Windows Update regularly, you will be fine.

Microsoft wants to gradually move out of Windows 7 and into Windows 8. Computers with Windows 7 stopped being built as of October last year, and it is very possible you will not find them available in stores. Many major businesses will still be running Windows 7 Professional, and this business-facing version does not have a specific end of sales date.

But for the rest of us, Windows 8 is the next step. Despite Microsoft's attempt to move its computer-users onwards, over 50% of users opted for Windows 7. They will have a hard journey ahead of them as they try to wean customers off of the five-year-old system.

On that note, more details regarding Windows 10 will come out later this month.