News | Dental Software Solutions

Windows 7 - end of life

Written by Clare Levy | Jul 8, 2022 7:00:00 AM

At Software of Excellence, we have been working closely with our customers over the last four years to encourage them to upgrade their operating systems from Windows 7.

As you may be aware, Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 in January 2020, following its announcement in 2018 to do so. Since this date, Microsoft has not provided security updates or support for any PCs running this version of their software.

Up until now we have been able to manage backward compatibility with Windows 7, however this has now changed because Microsoft will no longer support the .net programming framework that we build EXACT on for Windows 7. This means out of necessity we are unable to support Windows 7 hardware to run EXACT, to ensure the security of data, continue to update our software and ensure compliance to latest regulatory requirements.

We are anticipating a number of NHS regulatory changes in the next few months. It is therefore critical that your dental practice are able to upgrade to the latest version of EXACT to manage NHS contracts. To run the latest version of EXACT which will include all the future regulatory changes including NHS fee updates, forms and more, then you must upgrade your operating system to comply to the NHS changes. 

It is critical to upgrade your operating system as soon as possible to Windows 10. If you are logging into EXACT using a Windows 7 computer, then your sensitive patient data may not be secure and you will no longer be able to update your EXACT software to align with any version updates.

Software of Excellence will stop supporting hardware using Windows 7 as its operating system to run EXACT from 30th September 2022. To learn more about updating your operating system then click here or take a look at our FAQs here.