It turns out that the final day of Windows 7 was not
actually the last, as Microsoft messed up an update. Now, a new patch is
required to fix a problem introduced by mistake.
The official end of life for Windows was January 14,
2020. Microsoft said that no more updates are planned. It was an unceremonious
death for a famous operating system, but a long time coming. The community came
to terms with the fact that no more updates would be released.
The supposedly final update, KB4534310, brought security fixes to the Microsoft Scripting
Engine, Windows Input and Composition, Windows Storage and Filesystems, and
Windows Server. But it also introduced a weird bug. Users who stretched the
background in Windows 7 found that it was replaced by a black image, with no
way to fix the problem.
“After installing KB4534310, your desktop wallpaper might
display as black when set to Stretch,” admitted Microsoft. “We are working on a
resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release, which will be
released to all customers running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.”
Initially, the company said that only users who purchased
the Extended Security Update (ESU) would receive the fix, but then decided to
extend the courtesy to all users. This means the upcoming patch for Windows 7
will be the last.
The Windows 7 operating system still has a market share of around 30%, which is sizable enough to make a difference. Users are advised to install a security solution, such as Bitdefender Total Security 2020, which is scheduled to support the operating system for the next 24 months.