Microsoft's support for Windows 7 (all versions) ends on 14th January 2020
"After this date, technical assistance and software updates from Windows Update, that help protect your PC will no longer be available for the product. Microsoft strongly recommends that you move to Windows 10 sometime before January 2020 to avoid a situation where you need service or support that is no longer available."
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4057281/windows-7-support-will-end-on-january-14-202
Q&A...
Q. What does this mean for Trados Studio users?
A. As Microsoft are withdrawing all support and assistance (as of 14th Jan, 2020), (RWS (fSDL) will no longer be able to provide technical assistance for Windows 7 users. SDL recommend you upgrade your operating system to Windows 10.
Q.- I am operating Windows 7- Will my Studio licence continue to work after January 14th 2020?
A.YES- Your licence will not be affected and will continue to work as normal, as long as no other significant changes are made to your computer.
Our support teams will however no longer be able to offer technical support. Should questions arise, please refer to the RWS Gateway and Community resources.
Q.- I have a number of App Store applications installed. Will these continue to work?
A. If you already have apps installed, these should not be affected.
However, we will no longer provide technical support for applications installed on a Windows 7 machines. Please also note that new releases and/or updated apps will not be developed for Windows 7 machines!
Q. MS is no longer providing support/updates etc.! Is my computer still safe?
A. Providers of third party applications such as your AV (Antivirus), VM/Parallels, Office applications etc. will only normally update /bug fix/patch for supported OS versions.
This means that your computer (W7) will not be on the latest stand and may become unstable and vulnerable.
Q. Can I upgrade my Windows7 for free?
A. The official response from Microsoft is that the free upgrades have now been discontinued and that you should purchase an upgrade.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/get-windows-11
Depending on your country of residence, it might be worthwhile using a search engine to see if you are still eligible to receive a free upgrade.
Q. If I upgrade my Operating System (OS), do I first have to deactivate my Trados Studio application.?
A. YES- It is essential that you first deactivate your Studio licence before (i) upgrading your current system to W11 and/or (ii) installing Studio on a new machine.
Q. When upgrading my Operating System (OS), what happens to the App Store applications I have installed?
A. When you upgrade your OS, you will need to reinstall the applications on the new OS.
PLEASE NOTE:- If you have installed an app that is licensed (paid/subscription), please check first with the developer (before upgrading the OS) for information on uninstalling/returning activation codes etc as otherwise the licence/subscription may be invalid.
Q. I am using Windows 7 and an older version of Studio- When I upgrade the OS, should I also upgrade my Trados Studio version?
A. RWS (fSDL) offers official technical support for those using Trados Studio 2021 and Trados Studio 2022 versions only.
Should you be using an on older version of Studio (2009/2011/2014/2015/2017), you may find that your legacy Studio version may not install correctly and /or becomes unstable on new Windows 10 operating systems.
We recommend therefore, that you update both the OS and Studio version!
As Windows 7 is no longer supported, and we no longer test Studio versions on this operating system, you may find the latest versions of Studio may be unstable and not work correctly
Q. I am using Windows 7 and the latest version of Trados Studio- Will Trados Studio 2022 continue to work on Windows 7?
A. Our support teams, ceased testing Trados Studio under Windows 7 environments after Microsoft retired all support/updates and fixes at the beginning of 2020
We cannot therefore guarantee that Trados Studio 2022 will work smoothly on a Windows 7 machine. We recommend that you upgrade your operating system to Windows 11
Should you have further questions- please address these in the RWS (SDL) Community- Translation Productivity Forum
https://community.sdl.com/product-groups/translationproductivity/