Win 7 support ending Upgrades to Win 10

[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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qs Laptop Yes, you can still get a free copy of Windows 10 by using your Windows 7 license key. https://www.howtogeek.com/266072/you...-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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leftyfrizzell1963 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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by statsman 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:

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational You can also keep updates going for Windows 7 for free according to this: https://www.zdnet.com/article/bypass...n-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