Last year Microsoft officially ended their support for Windows XP. What this meant is that if you didn’t already upgrade to Windows 7 or 8, you wouldn’t get anymore support from Microsoft. This might not be a big deal for regular users, but for corporations that have systems relying on Windows XP, this could be trouble which is something many banks faced.If you recall, many banks had ATMs that still ran on Windows XP which prompted a mad rush and cost millions for extended support. Presumably (and hopefully) by now the majority of ATMs are running on at least Windows 7, but given that Windows 7 is considered old compared to Windows 8, should banks start planning their next upgrade? As it turns out they are, but it seems that they will not be going with Windows 8.
Instead, according to the ATM Industry Association, they will be skipping Windows 8 in favor of Windows 10 which has been confirmed for a release on the 29th of July. According to the association’s CEO Mike Lee, “ATM deployers should start their 2020 migration without delay as ATM hardware purchased now will still be in use when support for Windows 7 OS ends in that year.”
It is unsurprising that these banks would skip Windows 8 in favor of Windows 10. For starters Windows 8 was not looked upon favorably by many due to the various changes made by Microsoft that just didn’t sit well with its users. There are also financial reasons as upgrading to Windows 8 would mean that they’d have to upgrade to Windows 10 eventually, essentially paying for software twice.
Filed in . Read more about Security, Windows 10 and Windows 8.