If you’re still using a PC with Windows 8.1, it’s high time to upgrade to a newer version. Microsoft is indeed abandoning this old system, which therefore becomes exposed to all kinds of threats…
After Windows 7 in 2020, it’s Windows 8.1’s turn to officially bow out. Released in September 2013, this version corrected the many faults of Windows 8, which appeared a year earlier. An innovative system, but which had failed to convince – to seduce? – because of its interface that is too touch-oriented and poorly adapted to traditional PCs, with its famous tiles and its welcome screen. If Windows 8.1 played its role rather well until the arrival of Windows 10, in 2015, it faded fairly quickly afterwards in front of the newcomer who still has many adaptors today, despite the arrival Windows 11, which suffers from various youthful defects but also, and above all, from its incompatibility with many PCs.
Anyway, if you still use a computer with Windows 8.1, you will have to evolve, because Microsoft reminds that this version is now abandoned and that it will no longer be supported from January 2023. : so there will be no more updates, including security. And that is what is causing the problem. Because even if your PC will continue to operate normally, it will no longer be protected as it was until now and its flaws will no longer be corrected by the traditional Patch Tuesday that the publisher releases each month. So unless you use a third-party security solution that is regularly updated against new threats, you will be exposed to all kinds of risks from the Internet.
As it should be, Microsoft advises to jump straight to its best system, namely Windows 11. But this very self-serving advice is skewed by the fact that most PCs running Windows 8.1 are old and therefore incompatible with Windows 11. The publisher’s undeclared objective seems to be to encourage consumption by buying a new complete PC – with a new Windows license… It seems much more judicious to us to simply switch to Windows 10: not only is the update simple – no compatibility concerns – but, in addition, it should still be free – see our practical sheet to find out more. And if this technique no longer works, you can always buy a legal version for a few euros through a specialist (see our article on Microsoft licenses at a bargain price). You still have some time ahead of you: the latest Windows 8.1 update is scheduled for January 10, 2023.