GrayHare
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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- Nov 21, 2011
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Yep, it's for our safety. I got a good chuckle out of that.
I finally upgraded my main PC from Win 7 to Win 10 (Aug, 2025). Yeah, you read it right.
- Thread starter robnplunder
- Start date
Yep, it's for our safety. I got a good chuckle out of that.
Al18
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
As I mentioned above, TurboTax Online is continuing to be supported for Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11.
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
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I'm going to Linux when web sites give up on any browser running on Windows 7. Right now, everything seems to work with Firefox ESR, although some of them saber rattle about it.
MC Rider
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I'd also guess few or none. But I don't need those anymore since retirement, and can open my Excel and word files, my pics, movies, pdfs, etc with the software built into Linux. Firefox is in the package. Print to PDF. No need to search for drivers or anything for me, found my printer, set up scanner, it was all automatic. It reads my USB drive, my Android phone, DVDs, no sweat.
Need to see if I can use my Logitech cordless keyboard mouse and touchpad.
I'm hoping that is the case. Most of what I use on Windows 10 can be replaced on Linux. With the little "hardware" scare on my Windows 10 Pro PC that I posted about a couple of weeks ago, I have backed up everything I don't want to lose. On a minimum of three drives. In some cases, up to six drives. Yeah, I'm that paranoid. I grew up in an age when disk drives failed and sometimes so did the tape backups.
I will keep the Windows 10 PC offline to run software I haven't found a replacement for (yet). I am making a list of every application and tool I use on Windows 10 to find a suitable replacement for Linux. I have a lot of Windows batch files, so I will need to re-learn on how to write shells for Linux (I used Unix a lot in my career, mainly under Sun Solaris). I also use MAWK on Windows 10 in conjunction with some batch files, so that will be an easy replacement in Linux.
MC Rider
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With your experience, you'll be more than fine. I just use the things. Start with 1 machine like you suggest and dive in. The waters fine.
OP
OP
robnplunder
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I suspect it is mostly Intuit. It takes resources to maintain SW support.
OP
OP
robnplunder
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I believe people who write viruses will focus their attention more on the latest OS. My WIndows 7 was probably more secure from the virus attacks for the same reason.
rk911
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OP...you can easily prevemt feature upgrades to Win10 or Win11 by using Gibson Research's In Control. There are some limitations but overall it does the job.
OP
OP
robnplunder
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That is true for me (and probably for most of us).
gwill1010
Recycles dryer sheets
TT online is supported on any version of any operating system. Maybe a browser issue, but not likely.
Al18
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I didn’t think programs designed for Windows worked on Linux. So none of Adobe’s Creative Suite works, no PS Elements, no Acrobat Pro, etc. I have hundreds of programs designed to run on Windows. It’s stupid to think most would want to switch in this situation.
rk911
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Agree. Up until a few weeks ago I had a Win7 desktop running a single app.."live" weather radar. That machine finally bit the dust and I am looking for either a Win 7 or, more likely, a Win 10 laptop to run that app. Win 7 was hands down the best OS Microsoft ever produced, at least for non-business users.
Route246
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I switched the entire household to Mac about 10 years ago and never looked back. I never get these calls from my wife about needing to leave work and go home to fix a printer issue so she can print something she needs now. Worst case on Mac is she needs to delete the printer and re-initialize it which she knows how to do.
It was a big hit in terms of expense but well worth it in the long run. We are all-Apple all the time except me as I still have Linux running in my man cave cluster for much of my utility server work, I have a few BSD still running and I have a bunch of Vagrant using Virtual Box for my DMZ and honeypot stuff. I'm a S/W engineer and I have written kernel and driver code that is checked in to some older LKML trees, mostly 2.14 vintage. I work in command line 95% of the time, BTW.
I am also a ham radio operator so I need one Windows machine to handle all of the applications I run as the ham radio world is all-Windows all the time except for some applications that are ported to Mac and Linux. The problem is the entire suite in the ham shack is best kept on Windows. I'm off the air because my Win 10 crashed and requires TPM for the patch required to reboot it. I bought a Win 11 box but got tired of trying to port all of the ham radio applications which seem to all use a different DB with varying levels of export/import capability to enable moving from one Win to another Win. Retirement is less than two months away and the ham shack software stack is near the top of the list for porting.
That said, I wonder what you do about bit rot, security and OS requirements for various apps and thingies you might be using. Do you have sensitive information on your Win 7/10 environment that you care about? Once they are in they pretty much have everything administrator has which is virtually everything including your private keys and other things that are locked down. Are you not concerned about intrusions? I admit to being a little sloppy but I don't have any crown jewels on any of my systems. I am very concerned about my keys and keep them secured on R/O encrypted devices and they are all checked in encrypted to Github for easy retrieval anywhere in the world. I know this is overkill but I grew up (professionally) on the pre-Internet ARPANET and watched as virii and intrusions evolved so I am a little paranoid about these things.
Most intrusions are done by script kiddies who download packages and containers that do most of the heavy lifting for them and they don't know a lick about coding and TCP/IP. AI is going to enable a whole new batch of script kiddie toolkit capability, I fear that things are about to get very interesting in my opinion. My biggest fear is a seek-and-destroy attack that just comes in and deletes everything on your system including NAS and connected storage. People won't know what hit them
Route246
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I trust Steve Gibson. He is more of the throwback and nerd than I am as the author of SpinRite. He's not a pretender and knows what he doesn't know, as it is more important to know what you don't know vs not knowing what you don't know. He is also woefully wedded to DOS and Windows due to the nature of his low-level code base being DOS and legacy-boot dependent. He operates in a space where things like UEFI and virtualization are just concepts. I don't know anything about In Control but I believe it is well thought out and does the job it is intended to do.
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I bought SpinRite when I bought an IBM PC and that allowed me to change the interleave. And much later, when I was commuting, I listened to Security Now. I started at about episode 12 and listened to every one for years and years. Steve is the real deal. But once I wasn't in the car, I slowly quit listening. I worked on the Android version of SQRL. Great idea, but without big names picking it up, it went nowhere. I had no idea he wrote yet another utility (In Control), but when he sees a need, he makes some good stuff. And gives it away. The world needs more guys like Gibson.
Graybeard
Full time employment: Posting here.
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I am surprised at how many are using Win 7 and intend to continue to use Win 10 after the support for it ends. If you use your pc for banking, credit cards, brokerages, aren't you exposing your information and accounts to viruses et al when you are not receiving the monthly Windows updates? My pc can't be upgraded, it is 6 years old, and I have yet to see how to purchase the ESU for 1 year for $30. If I can't get the extended support I don't feel safe using Win 10 after 10/14/2025. It seems to me getting the monthly updates are important to protect your pc from all the bad stuff. Comments?
Route246
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Yes. Yes.
It is a matter of risk tolerance. I believe that it requires being victimized before you take a stand on security. Our home was broken into and a great deal of damage was done to it. A safe was broken open and three of my handguns were taken. Due to replacement cost I actually made a profit on those guns (Colt Python, S/W 686, 25 SatNightSpecial) and I really wanted to get rid of them, anyway. That said our home lights up like daytime around the entire perimeter with motion sensor lights, a floor safe embedded in concrete is now in a concealed location and 4K surveillance cameras with remote NVR is in place. No alarm system, though.
I would have never done this unless I had been broken into. I think I've been hacked enough times to frighten me to be vigilant when it comes to online security.
JoeWras
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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LOL!
OP
OP
robnplunder
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I have 2 PCs with Windows 7, now 1 after the upgrade. No issues, ever.
I have a laptop that I use extensively and another PC with Windows 10 that I seldom use. I’ve had to reinstall the laptop several times due to viruses and other unknown issues. Although Windows 10 has security measures in place, they didn’t prevent these problems. Did the security measures stop other malware attacks I might not have been aware of? It’s possible. Will the unsupported version of Windows 10 be more vulnerable to future attacks? I am not sure. But I am thinking Windows 11 won't be any safer from malware attacks than Windows 10.
RetiredAndLovingIt
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I had a Moto G7 and it was a great phone but I think I've upgraded 3 times since then and stayed with Motorola. 2 Moto G Stylus' and now a Moto G 5G, but not sure i'm going to like this phone as much as the Stylus models. I got it because it has both Esim and Physical sim capabilities.
Yeah, I don't think I could do it. My biggest worry is the Internet activities: browsing, emails, and online account accessing.
If I absolutely needed a Windows computer and didn't plan on upgrading past Windows 10 (a consideration on my part), I would have a second PC with Linux Mint installed for use on the Internet. The Windows 10 PC would be disconnected from the Internet.
It would be inconvenient to switch between the two PCs, but sometimes the price of convenience is an increase in risk. And everyone's tolerance is different. That worry about risk is why I won't dual-boot a single PC. If that PC fails for any reason, I am locked out of everything.
GenXguy
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6 years old isn't that old at all. You can probably upgrade to Windows 11 using the method I mentioned in the other thread.
Graybeard
Full time employment: Posting here.
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No I can't. My pc lacks something and IIRC it requires going into the registry and I wouldn't attempt doing that!
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