Win 7 support ending Upgrades to Win 10

[statsman]

12 days and counting til the end of Win 7 support.

Yeah. Been playing with Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon on a spare PC, which has been suggested as the most stable version of Mint. Haven't seen the comments yet about Mint 19.3. At least I have a reasonably safe way to log into our bank and investment accounts from this PC.

That said, I have a new Dell desktop with Win 10 Pro arriving tomorrow. While I would like to move away from Microsoft to Linux, I have too many applications and scripts I am not sure will run under Linus (heck, they may have issues with Win 10). Also, TurboTax doesn't appear to work under Linux, although I guess there's a way to run Windows under Linux. That's beyond my Linux skill level at the moment.

 

[camfused]

^^^^ IMHO, one of the better Linux distros for former Windows people is Zorin OS. Check at a YouTube of it to see it.

There are many ways to run Windows, under Linux. From memory:
- Set up a VirtualBox VM in which you run a copy of Windows. I do this on my Mac (also Linux, sort of), and Windows runs flawlessly inside the VM.
- Run Wine. It allows you to run many Windows programs, almost seemlessly, as if it is just another icon on the Linux desktop
- Run Parallels (similar to the Wine method, but not free)
- Dual-boot over to Windows from Linux.

 

[easysurfer]

^^^^ IMHO, one of the better Linux distros for former Windows people is Zorin OS. Check at a YouTube of it to see it.

There are many ways to run Windows, under Linux. From memory:
- Set up a VirtualBox VM in which you run a copy of Windows. I do this on my Mac (also Linux, sort of), and Windows runs flawlessly inside the VM.
- Run Wine. It allows you to run many Windows programs, almost seemlessly, as if it is just another icon on the Linux desktop
- Run Parallels (similar to the Wine method, but not free)
- Dual-boot over to Windows from Linux.

My method (sort is) is to have my desktop running Win 10. Have a laptop running linux (for some linux programs that just work better than a Win counterpart).

I've tried setting up VirtualBox VM and Wine and played with Dual-Booting. Preferred to just use a separate laptop instead.

 

[GrayHare]

12 days and counting til the end of Win 7 support.

Agree, it is entertaining. A support-ending event is much like Y2K, totally overblown, and largely an excuse to get people to buy a new OS and new device.
Support of Windows 98 ended long ago, but my copy of it has yet to turn into a pumpkin.

 

[Lakewood90712]

I am seeing win 10 full version for $60 .

 

[brett]

Plan to run out 7 system until we have a hardware failure. Then we will buy a refurb with 10. Very light user. No longer care about the notebook. It was replaced by an iPad years ago.

 

[Cobra9777]

I'm a Windows 7 holdout on our main desktop PC that I built several years ago. I'm getting the upgrade messages pretty regularly now from Microsoft. I even had to agree to "accept the risk" when installing TurboTax this morning.

From what I've read here and elsewhere, the free Windows 10 upgrade still works. So I'll probably do that at some point this year. DS convinced me a while back that Windows 10 is not as evil as I think it is... at least after lots of configuration changes. So I may install it and then have him help me configure it so that I don't get sucked into the [-]abyss[/-] Microsoft ecosystem.

 

[wmc1000]

Yep staying on windows 7 since I also use my desktop as a windows media center pc that outputs to our main tv via 50 foot hdmi cable to view recorded shows in addition to my den that I use during the day.

Did have windows media center running on win 10 but windows 10 puked and it was easier to reinstall windows 7.

 

[statsman]

Going with Windows 10, but I will not "upgrade" my Windows 7 PC. I have applications and scripts that I want to be sure I have access to. I have heard enough Windows 10 upgrade horror stories to want to avoid that scenario. I will keep that PC offline after 1/14/20. New PC with Windows 10 arrived yesterday. Haven't had a chance to set it up.

I also have another PC with Linux Mint 18.3 installed on it. At least I have a secure way to access our online accounts should I encounter issues with the Windows 10 PC. Hopefully not because I need to installed TurboTax on the Windows 10 PC. How much I transition to Linux remains to be seen. A lot of what I have installed and developed on my Windows 7 PC may not transition to Linux.

 

[Cobra9777]

Yep staying on windows 7 since I also use my desktop as a windows media center pc that outputs to our main tv via 50 foot hdmi cable to view recorded shows in addition to my den that I use during the day.

Did have windows media center running on win 10 but windows 10 puked and it was easier to reinstall windows 7.

I was a huge WMC user several years ago and that's one of the reasons I stuck with Windows 7. I had WMC running in the background on a desktop PC with a Kodi add-on called ServerWMC, which distributed it throughout our network (no long HDMI cable). I had multiple HDHomerun devices (4 tuners in all). We could watch live or recorded content from any device in the house. It worked well for many years. But there were times when the guide data just disappeared for days at a time and then mysteriously returned. It was also just kind-of clunky and WMC itself is not supported or updated anymore.

So we switched to streaming services 2-3 years ago and ditched the whole WMC set-up. It's a lot less wear-and-tear on my HDDs. And with cloud DVRs, reliable guides, voice integration, etc, streaming services are just a more elegant solution IMHO.

 

[Souschef]

Our 2 desktops were showing signs of problems. We bought 2 refurbished units with Win 10. All my legacy programs run fine Whew!

 

[jim584672]

If I had an old Win 7 machine I would buy a cheap SSD, I have seen 120GB for $20 or less, and put Win 10 on it to see how it works. I wouldn't worry about activation since it will still run but with a "Activate Windows" watermark, which is easy enough to ignore. Try out to see if anything isn't working and make a decision from there.

 

[Scottie J. Scott]

Now,Windows 7 out of support.

 

[Cobra9777]

And in other news: NSA alerts Microsoft of major security flaw in Windows 10

If successfully exploited, an attacker would have been able to conduct “man-in-the-middle attacks” and decrypt confidential information it intercepts on user connections, the company said.

 

[Sittinginthesun]

Just replaced my 10-year-old Windows 7 desktop with the new Asus ZenBook 14 Windows 10 laptop plugged into my 32 inch monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse. Now I’m wondering why I waited so long because this new laptop is blazing fast, very user-friendly and zero issues. After many many years of buying nothing but HP computer products I started buying Asus recently for my staff at work and I am now a complete convert to the brand. Haven’t had a single issue with several of their laptops.

 

[leftyfrizzell1963]

Just upgraded! While it took a little while, it wasn't too cumbersome. It never asked for licensing info. I'm already familiar with interface since my work laptop was upgraded some time ago. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Gazpacho]

You can just use Windows 7 and use a 3rd party anti virus. Windows 7 should be ok to use for 2 to 4 more years.

 

[leftyfrizzell1963]

Yes, you can still get a free copy of Windows 10 by using your Windows 7 license key.

https://www.howtogeek.com/266072/yo...ws-10-for-free-with-a-windows-7-8-or-8.1-key/

I just converted by 2nd and last PC in the house from Win 7 to Win 10 using the link above. Both were easy, and asked for nothing specific like codes or keys. Just follow the prompts. I converted a desktop and a laptop.

When researching before I did the conversion, MS recommends to buying a new PC 1st. Well of course they do! They almost killed the PC industry with the Win8 fiasco, and apparently they are now making up for it by making this recommendation. Whatever! I had intentionally bought these 2 PCs years ago after Win10 had come out but these were loaded with Win7. The goal was to avoid any upgrade for as long as I could. I think I accomplished that goal. Hopefully after 4 years, they got the bugs worked out, lol.

Will there be a Win11? If so, why? We get auto-updates, why can't they just keep updating the current OS?

 

[statsman]

Will there be a Win11? If so, why? We get auto-updates, why can't they just keep updating the current OS?

I am not sure, but I am getting tired of the game. I would bet the reason given is security and hacking issues, but is it really? As we get more memory and space flexible, software designers are writing more elaborate (and in some cases, far too bloated) applications. Older hardware and operating systems can only take that so far.

For my DW and I, we've reach the point where we no longer need to keep up with our employer's software environments. Older applications, like Office 2010 for us, work perfectly for our needs. (FYI, Office 2010 gets the same EOL treatment on October 13, 2020). The main concern is browsing and online account access. I could not let myself continue to use Win7, even with a full suite of anti-virus and malware protection, for online account access.

When we went through the upgrade from XP to Win 7 six years ago, we purchased three desktop PCs and two laptops. This time, we purchased one desktop PC. Some of the older computers now have Linux Mint 18.3 w/Cinnamon installed. I would be perfectly fine using Linux for Internet access and my main Win 7 PC for Windows applications going forward. Sadly, applications like TurboTax need either Win 10 or MacOs, hence the single purchase of a desktop PC for Win 10.

 

[leftyfrizzell1963]

I am not sure, but I am getting tired of the game.

Sadly, applications like TurboTax need either Win 10 or MacOs, hence the single purchase of a desktop PC for Win 10.

I'm getting tired of it as well.

Also, I've been using Web Turbo Tax for 6-7 years. This avoids downloading and installing a new version every year. I download the end results (forms, worksheets) in PDF form and they are online for previous years. It is my understanding its the same engine running the rules in the background either way.

 

[Cobra9777]

I just upgraded our main desktop PC from Windows 7 Pro to to Windows 10 Pro. Totally free. I used the instructions on CNET that directed me to the Download Windows 10 page at microsoft.com. It never asked for a product key or any other information. I confirmed it's activated under Settings>Update&Security>Activation, where it says "Windows is activated with a digital license."

Whole process took about 2 hours. It was very smooth. I did almost no prep other than to confirm my backup process had run the night before. When it was done rebooting for the 3rd or 4th time, all my programs had been updated to Windows 10 versions, even my cherished copy of Office 2010 and an ancient version of Adobe PhotoShop. Everything was configured exactly the way I had it in Win7 as well.

I spent another hour or two changing a few things that are new to Win10, like removing as much of the Microsoft bloatware as it would allow, disabling Cortana, and carefully reviewing all the privacy settings. I also set up the Start menu the way I wanted it and changing a few other things, like returning Chrome to my default browser.

All in all, it was a relatively painless experience. I'm still learning and modifying some things as I use it, like not sure about the constant notifications on the right. DMIL also has a perfectly good desktop still running Windows 7, so I'll have to do the same with her machine in the next few days.

 

[Ian S]

On my dual-boot PC which I've had for several years, I finally decided to make the transition from Windows 7 as primary OS to Windows 10 (each on its own partition of an SSD). Pretty easy as it turns out. I use Thunderbird for email and fortunately had put its profile folder on my main data hard drive instead of the the OS SSD. I had already transitioned to Win 10 last year for my tax software and have MS Office 2007 and Libre Office there as well. I already have the latest Corel Video Studio and Paintshop Pro already installed. Installed Waterfox as it allows me to keep using some extensions that can't be used with the latest versions of Firefox. I ordered Acronis True Image from Newegg but it appears to be backordered so will have to occasionally boot into Windows 7 to do my backups.

I started to remove some programs from Windows 7 but I think I'll leave it alone for now. It works fine for the legacy programs I want it for and I no longer download email or surf the internet with it so all should be good. It is still protected by McAfee.

 

[sengsational]

I've been getting updates on the two Win7 boxes where I did this hack:

You can also keep updates going for Windows 7 for free according to this:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/bypas...s-7-extended-security-updates-on-all-systems/

From what I understand, there's a program that you run which tricks Windows into thinking that it has installed and activated the extended security updates. It probably won't last long, but kind of fun to watch the cat and mouse game. It wouldn't cost Microsoft anything extra (except bandwidth, which is microscopically small cost), to put updates on your Windows 7 machine, but it's certainly not something they want (they want you, obviously, paying by the minute, but will settle for selling you OS as a service You probably should NOT do this hack, but if you do, make sure you go about it safely: always check your hash if treading in the darker corners of the Internet: 008fa84c72ed4c847581a2e24380ddd6f688ef99