Financial Institutions - It's Time to Upgrade Your ATM to Windows 7

July 24, 2015


Remember a year ago when Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP? Many business owners were crushed to see their old faithful operating system (OS) go, but they eventually upgraded... all the PCs, all the laptops, and all the registers.

One thing might have been forgotten: the ATM!

DC Payments Director of Client Services and Sales Support for the financial institution sector, Murray Clark, explains that most ATMs which have a PC core have been running the Windows XP operating system.

"A critical issue with continuing to run the old OS is that there are no security updates," says Clark. "Because of that, the Windows XP platform and associated software on ATMs that aren't upgraded won't be supported by their manufacturers. Microsoft and the major ATM manufacturers announced discontinuation of support for Windows XP as of April 8, 2014. So going forward, security patches and hot fixes for any new patches will not be made available by Microsoft for Windows XP."

DC Payments is the only financial services provider in Canada that can offer a Windows 7 upgrade on all three ATM models most commonly used in the industry today: NCR, Wincor, and Diebold. One of the priorities was replacing the non-supported Windows XP OS with the more recent, supported Windows 7 - and DC Payments has delivered. Clients have expressed concerns about potential vulnerabilities around Windows XP and DC Payments now has the solution.

DC Payments is NCR APTRA™ Activate ready
The software which manages NCR Windows 7 load sets, APTRA Activate, is so sophisticated and complex, it adds yet another dimension to this upgrade. Comparing NCR ATMs running on XP to those running Windows 7 is like comparing a bicycle to a car. As the only financial services provider offering clients a Windows 7 upgrade with NCR, DC Payments can drive it for you.

"Working with DC Payments in launching Windows 7/Activate has been a true pleasure. Their team of technical consultants was highly professional, responsive, and collaborative throughout the entire project. This is truly representative of the overall partnership between NCR and DC Payments," says Tami Horowitz, Channel Account Manager at NCR Corporation.

So it's time...
DC Payments has successfully implemented APTRA Activate for DUCA Financial Services Inc., and is in the rollout planning stages to complete these upgrades for other clients.

"This has not been an easy process but rather intensive," says Clark. "DC Payments has been involved in full testing and certification of the ATM manufacturing-supplied software upgrade and replacement, as well as testing of the changes required to upgrade to Windows 7. We have taken the lead role in working with the ATM manufacturers to test, certify and validate their new hardware, software, and Windows 7 upgrade packaging."

There is good news for those who upgrade: Windows 7 is currently expected to be supported until 2020.

Although the process does require a bit of effort for ATM owners, with DC Payments' expert guidance, we are here to help you get it done.

DC Payments continues to seek out new technologies and solutions to assist our financial institution clients. For more information about these services, please contact Murray Clark at 905-461-2117 or by email at Murray.Clark@directcash.net.

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