​It’s now official: Microsoft’s extended support for Windows 7 has now come to an end, marking the retirement of an operating system that enjoyed enormous success and popularity over its ten-year lifetime.

Organisations across the globe should now be working to ensure Windows 7 is removed from their environments, although, given the nature of software migration, it’s very likely that the operating system will maintain a large market share for many months to come.

The moment is bittersweet, as although Windows 10 has been the most popular desktop operating system globally since December 2017, the decline of Windows 7 has been remarkably slow given that it first hit the market in 2009. An intuitive design, stable performance and a much-loved taskbar were a breath of fresh air following the widely criticised Windows Vista, something that helped maintain its popularity through the disastrous launch of Windows 8.

The death of Windows 7 seems to have hit some harder than others, but fortunately, the measured, stable, and not at all unhinged IT industry has decided to give the software the send-off it deserves.

The outpouring of love on social media ranges from touching to the truly bizarre.

However, the best tribute so far comes courtesy of employees at Databarracks, who decided to express their reverence of the software by holding a traditional Viking funeral, complete with a little boat.

Touching stuff.

As of December 2019, Windows 7 held a market share of just under 27% globally, although this varies considerably depending on the demographic you look at. In the regions of Africa and India, for example, almost 40% of desktops are running Windows 7, while areas such as the US and the UK lead the way with 18% and 16% respectively.

The numbers stand in stark contrast to those of Windows Vista and the much younger Windows 8 – a sign that the ghost of Windows 7 is almost certainly going to linger for many years to come.

Those that have been heavy reliant on Windows 7 should have already started to migrate away from the OS. However, for those looking for tips about how to move operations over, we’ve put together this handy guide, although perhaps it’s time you start looking for Microsoft alternatives.

Germany’s top football league has partnered with AWS to bring more in-depth insight into live broadcasts and enable more personalised fan experiences.

The Bundesliga will use a range of machine learning, analytical and storage services to build a statistical platform to provide viewers with real-time information on player statistics, game outcomes and predictions on future play. 

The league has the highest average number of goals per game and the highest stadium attendance globally, according to AWS, and the partnership is about improving the fan experience. It also makes Bundesliga the first soccer organisation in Europe to work with Amazon’s cloud computing arm.

“Innovation means challenging the status quo,” said Christian Seifert, CEO of the Bundesliga. “Working closely with AWS significantly enhances the investment we’ve made in innovation over the past two decades, all of which contributes to us being able to deliver a world-class football experience for our fans.”

A number of sporting organisations have taken on such digital transformation projects, using some of the biggest technology companies around. AWS has had plenty of success in this regard, with deep partnerships in Basketball, Formula 1 and the National Football League (NFL).

Real-time statistics

For fans of Germany’s top division, the work AWS has done with the NFL is arguably the closest example of what they can expect. 

With the NFL, during live games, broadcasters can pull up statistics as the game develops. The available pass options a quarterback has will appear on the screen as a graphic; each receivable player will have a percentage for the likelihood they will catch the pass in their given situation.

The Bundesliga system will be based on a similar concept, with the goal of providing insightful information on how likely a goal is to be scored or highlight how teams are positioning and controlling the field.

Such smart real-time functions will be powered by Amazon SageMaker – a managed service that can build, train and deploy machine learning models – which will come up with its predictions and insights through analysing historical data from more than 10,000 Bundesliga games, as well as live match data. 

Match day-ready machine learning 

Other AWS machine learning systems will also be used by Bundesliga. Amazon Personalise, which is used to create individually personalised recommendations in real-time, will be used to offer fans personalised footage, and search results based on their favourite teams, players or matches, as well as serving up tailored marketing promotions. 
However, processing all the information could be an arduous task for Bundesliga’s IT team, so to optimise such operations, Amazon’s Rekognition facial recognition technology will be put to the task. 

Bundesliga will create a cloud-based media archive with Rekognition being used to automatically tag specific frames with metadata on the players, team, game, and venue. This will avoid the need for the manual tagging of some 150,000 hours worth of video, and will make it easier to search for historical match footage and “pivotal plays” to be added into in-game broadcasts. 

As such, Amazon’s cloud-based machine learning services will not only help Bundesliga provide its football fans with a new way to receive match and league information, but also streamline the way the football league accesses and handles its match and team data. 

With cloud platforms and services being ever-more capable and accessible, Bundesliga is yet another example of how the cloud can be used to drive digital transformation in an organisation, whether that involves overhauling archaic IT systems or finding new ways to deliver services to customers.

Microsoft is set to start work on a controversial $10 billion cloud contract with the US military on 11 February, but not if Amazon has its way.

Last year, the Pentagon awarded the $10 billion contract for the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure (JEDI) to Microsoft, tasking it with replacing ageing computers with a cloud network.

By the time the contract was awarded, Amazon Web Services (AWS) was the only other supplier in the race for the work and seen as a front runner by some, saying at the time it was “surprised” to lose the deal. Reports in a book suggested that may well have happened because President Donald Trump told the Pentagon leadership to “screw Amazon” as part of a spat with the company’s CEO Jeff Bezos. Weeks later, Amazon said it would appeal the decision in court.

As part of the ongoing dispute, Amazon filed a court document yesterday revealing it will seek a preliminary injunction that will “prevent the issuance of substantive task orders under the contract”, the filing says.

The three parties — the US government, Amazon and Microsoft — have already agreed on an expedited schedule for the court to consider the preliminary injunction, because the cloud system is considered important to national security, according to a report in Federal News Network. Amazon will file the formal request for an injunction by 24 January, with the other parties given a week to respond; the court should rule by the 11 February, when work is supposed to begin.

One objection could simply be that Amazon has filed the injunction request too late to stop work, raising questions of why the company didn’t make the request sooner in the case, which started at the end of November.

“The United States and Microsoft note that, in agreeing to the above schedule for briefing of AWS’s intended motion for temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction, they expressly reserve their right to object to the timeliness of AWS’s proposed motion,” the filing notes.

The filing also shows the US government “does not intend to file an answer to AWS’s complaint”. That’s reportedly common in bid protest cases, and means the government won’t give much detail about why it handed the contract to Microsoft.

The Department of Defense has rejected Amazon’s claims and the reports that Trump pressured staff to choose Microsoft over Amazon, and said the contract decision was made without bias or external influence.

​Google is toying with adding biometric support to its Autofill service on Android devices, deployed by users to automatically populate online forms and apps with personal and sensitive information.

Android code that hasn’t yet been enabled suggests Google’s built-in service could, in a future update, introduce an additional security layer involving fingerprint scanning or facial recognition, according to XDA Developers. 

The additional step would be handled through the ‘BiometricPromptAPI’, and would aim to resolve a security concern that has riddled Google’s auto-fill feature for years.

Autofill allows Android users to automatically populate forms and apps with information like passwords, addresses and credit card details, that’s synced with their Google account.

With Google’s Android 8 Oreo operating system, the inclusion of an Autofill API opened up support to third-party password managers like LastPass and Dashlane.

Using the equivalent of Autofill with these apps, however, generally requires users to pass an additional layer of security, like a quick fingerprint scan, to verify their identity.

Unlike these third-party apps, however, Google’s own feature has never demanded any additional form of authentication.

Attackers, therefore, could in theory gain access to a wealth of sensitive information – including financial data – by just bypassing the passcodes users set that allows access into their devices.

According to an APK teardown, biometric support options would be enabled within the Autofill settings portion of the Android settings menu, under ‘autofill security’. 

Users could then separately toggle biometric support on or off for payment information and credentials like usernames and passwords.

Biometric security is increasingly being seen as a reliable and secure alternative to traditional passwords and passcodes. The use of password managers, too, is often recommended by security experts as a means of improving cyber hygiene.

Microsoft, for instance, is a company that’s been highly vocal about the need to shift away from conventional passwords and for users to instead embrace biometrics as an alternative. Its chief information security officer Bret Arsenault has in the past called for online passwords to be eliminated entirely.

Embracing biometric support completely, however, presents its own security challenges, as the Biostar 2 data breach showed, with the nature of the biometric data taken for more permanent than usernames and passwords, which are stolen in most other breaches.

​

​Windows 7 should not be used for sensitive tasks, such as banking or email, after the decade-old software hits end of life tomorrow, the British government’s security service has warned.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the public-facing arm of GCHQ, issued the warning ahead of Microsoft ending extended support for the ten-year-old operating system on 14 January, meaning Windows 7 will no longer get any security updates and that flaws will go unpatched and left open for hackers. Businesses will still be able able to pay to get security updates for the next three years.

“The NCSC would encourage people to upgrade devices currently running Windows 7, allowing them to continue receiving software updates which help protect their devices,” an NCSC spokesperson told The Telegraph.

“We would urge those using the software after the deadline to replace unsupported devices as soon as possible, to move sensitive data to a supported device and not to use them for tasks like accessing bank and other sensitive accounts,” the spokesperson added. “They should also consider accessing email from a different device.”

The NCSC noted that criminals started targeting Windows XP immediately after extended support ended in 2015, though Microsoft has issued a handful of emergency patches for serious vulnerabilities despite officially ending support.

As of the end of 2019, Windows 7 was still used on 27% of desktops and laptops globally, according to Net Applications’ Market Share, while 55% were on the most recent version, Windows 10. Indeed, a tiny slice, just over 2%, remain on Windows XP.

That includes consumer devices around the world, but Kaspersky warned last year that as many as half of small businesses still use older operating systems, such as Windows 7, despite the significant security risk. That’s partially down to cost and dependence on apps unsupported on newer systems, but also down to habit, the security firm said. This is despite a number of high-profile attacks such as WannaCry, which targeted Windows 7 machines.

For those who prefer to plan ahead, Microsoft has already announced that it will end support for Windows 10 in 2025.

Microsoft has unveiled a set of new features for its flagship Teams platform to appeal to what the company calls “firstline workers” in industries like medicine, retail and manufacturing.

Over the course of 2020, the major Slack rival will introduce a suite of tools, including features like an in-app walkie-talkie, shared device sign-out and off-shift access controls for IT administrators.

The news marks the company’s second major push around ramping up functionality for frontline-workers, hinting that Microsoft is aggressively trying to fill what it sees as a gap in the market.

Microsoft had previously revealed simple sign-in for Microsoft 365 and Teams at its Ignite conference in November. The previously announced SMS sign-in tool would allow frontline workers to log onto Teams using an SMS authentication code obtained by entering their phone number.

Companies in the retail industry, in particular, with high staff turnover, could be the main beneficiaries from this feature, as well as from new tools like off-shift access controls and shared device sign-out.

“Companies at the forefront of digital transformation recognize how critical it is to enable all of their people with the right technology and tools,” said Microsoft’s corporate vice president of modern workplace verticals Emma Williams.

“That’s why, in industries like retail, hospitality, and manufacturing, there’s a movement underway to digitally empower the Firstline Workforce – the more than two billion people worldwide who work in service- or task-oriented roles.

“Giving Firstline Workers the tools they need requires companies to address unique user experience, security and compliance, and IT management.”

Allowing workers to sign in using SMS, for instance, would allow IT departments to avoid the need to set up fully-fledged user accounts for individuals who may not stay in the job for very long.

One of the most eye-catching new features, the walkie-talkie tool, is aimed at supplanting the need to buy additional equipment like radios, with workers able to conduct voice conversations over Wi-Fi and mobile data.

Microsoft sees this walkie-talkie feature as a means to help companies ditch “analog devices with unsecure networks”, with workers no longer having to worry about crosstalk or eavesdropping from third-parties.

Principal analyst for digital workplace at CCS Insight, Angela Ashenden, said frontline workers have become a growing area of focus for Microsoft, with this segment of the workforce historically unserved with any apps or tools.

“We’ve seen Microsoft target this group already with its collaboration solution Teams,” she said. “And with its mixed reality applications as part of Dynamics 365, and we’re now starting to see these two worlds coming together as the company focuses on key verticals like retail.”

“Today’s announcements of a new push-to-talk, walkie talkie feature in Teams will be hugely valuable for retail businesses, and SMS sign-in helps address the challenge of the high-turnover storefront workforce who aren’t always given an email address to use to sign in with (this is a feature we’ve also seen Workplace by Facebook rollout).”

The use of off-shift access controls, similarly, gives IT admins the capacity to limit worker access to the app on personal devices outside of working hours. This would ensure employees are not working longer hours than they’re supposed to and helps employers comply with employment regulations.

While these features don’t have fixed release dates, Microsoft has penned broad estimates that range from later this quarter, to over the course of the first half of the year. All capabilities are expected to have been released by midway through 2020 or earlier.