Zeus, Snap-on has said they will remain with the windows 7 platform on Zeus after the end of life 1/2020. No upgrades to Win 10. Any insight on tool impact, If any?

dstremski · May 30, 2019

bantar · May 30, 2019

EOL of Windows 7 means that you won't be getting any further updates from the Microsoft. This should only impact you on security, meaning that you device is subject to being hacked as new loopholes are found on Windows 7. I don't know this platform, but likely it is just a hardened tablet computer with a custom keypad (buttons) maybe. If your system gets hacked, Snapon should be able to wipe it clean and reinstall. You'll be down, but not dead. In a closed environment (i.e. this is not a generic PC with other applications running), then SnapOn can likely work around any (non-security) issues that occur over time. There is an advantage to SnapOn having a frozen version of the OS. Every Windows update introduces new bugs that sometimes affects SnapOn. With no more OS updates coming, it actually removes a pain point for them.

IMO, I would not worry about this. SnapOn is an application developer. They depend on the OS, but they are not needing W10 features if they are staying put. If Windows 7 ever becomes a hindrance to SnapOn, they can always bite the bullet and move on. It's easily solved with time and money (and knowing SnapOn, they extract said money from you). (Source: My previous career was Software Development including Embedded Systems (custom hardware). Of course, this is all conjecture, but it should be on point).

Let me drive the point home. My lovely Opus / ESP inspection machines are running Windows XP. We have interesting problems such as the floppy disk getting full, requiring a maintenance call to resolve. It only uses printers that have a physical Centronics Parallel Port connection on them. I'd be happy with an upgrade that let me run a USB printer at least, but that's not coming. These guys do 100's of transactions monthly and are getting the job done. They are attached to the network, so they suffer the same security measures that you would with an old version of Windows 7.