Windows 7

[Horus]

Just a timely reminder that one of Microsoft’s best loved operating systems Windows 7 will cease to be supported on the 14th of January 2020. Estimates put it as high as 45% of people still using this O/S and I am not surprised it is IMO probably the best and most stable of all the versions. You can still continue to use it after that date, but they will not issue any new security updates or support for this version. It will not be a problem for those who may have purchased a new PC or Laptop as they will almost certainly have Windows 10 installed on them , your choice will be to upgrade to this new version which may or not be a problem to you dependant upon what software you may be running on the old Win 7. For anyone sticking with the old version I would suggest that before the due end date you should install all the latest available updates as this ‘may’ go some way to protecting your PC for a little bit longer from malicious attacks.

If you are not familiar, here is a link to show you how to do this:


I suggest you try to do this around the 7th of January 2020 for maximum effect.

[crewmeal]

Windows 10 is a nightmare. I have to use it at work and find it difficult to navigate. Thank goodness for IOS.

[BBLUX]

There are still far too many issues trying to get certain software applications to work on Windows 10. I am really sorry that I now have Windows 10 on all my PC devices. Some software makers have given up trying to make their software work on Windows 10.
Windows 7 is still the most stable and compatible OS Microsoft ever produced. I am considering rolling my small old laptop back to Windows 7 Ultimate as I still have an activated copy. It will allow me to use some essential software that has not worked correctly since buying this Windows 10 laptop.

[John Landon]

I have been forced to use Windows 10 at work this last year or so, and I really do detest it.
As a Sysadmin, I need to have total control over my works PC, but there are still some functions I cannot perform.

I was in Cyprus a couple of months ago perfroming 2 data Centre transofmations so had a laptop with me, with a touchpad instead of a mouse, the screen was all over the place, and my VPN software would not work.
I felt like a total idiot having to call our own helpdesk to have it fixed, but even then they could not fix it so I felt a lot better.

In the end I had to get firstline to install Logmein on my works PC, so I could access it from my laptop as a workaround for not having VPN access.

I still run Windows 7 at home and love it. I will be staying with it until the bitter end. As a rule Micro$oft usually make essential software redundant on older operating systems so you have no choice to "upgrade" to the latest operating system.
For exapmple with Windows XP, a vital network component was necessary to connect to the internet, this was not available for XP, then they made the main gaming platform DirectX unavailabe for XP, so this forced many users to adopt Windows 7.

Up puntil July last year, there were more users on other windows platforms than there were on Windows 10.
Normally when a new version of Windows comes out, eveyone adopts it quite quickly, this is proof of how much people do not like Windows 10.

Windows 10 is infact, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 Fixed ! that is why they gave Windows 10 away free for people with Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. They were even pushing it down onto your PC without your knowledge in the form of a Windows update if you had, 7, 8 and 8.1. over 2GB of data ! Not funny if you were on a metered connection.

When I got back off holiday there was a major update for Windows 10 that had to be installed. That wiped out all my admin tools, and then I got 2 more updates for that update over the next 2 days and had to restart the PC each time.. OR it will restart it for you overnight.

I have loads of apps open and windows, so I have to have 2 monitors for them all, it is a absolute pain in the backside having to reopen all these apps and windows after the restart and having to present many different credentials.


I built a new PC about 4 years ago, and intslled Windows 7 again. The specification is still current and so there is no point in building a new one, but when eventually it does become necessary to upgrade my hardware, I will have no choice but to install Windows 10.
the ONLY reason I have Windows on my PC is because I like gaming, and the Windows platform is the only one that supports my games.

otherwise I would be using Linux Mint, or UBUNTU running on 10 year old hardware, as Linux will do eveything else that I do on a PC.

God only knows how I am going to be able to show Alison how to use Windows 10 when we are forced to adopt it.


We may get another year or 2 out of Windows 7 with any luck..

[carrie]

What will happen if you use windows 7, will your computer cease to work?

[John Landon]

Your computer will work just fine for a while.
Microsoft will not be supporting Windows 7 anymore, so no more updates. You will however still get security updates.

I think you can probaly still run Windows 7 for some time to come, maybe another 2 -4 years !
If you use Internet Explorer then you may well have to switch to a 3rd party browser like Firefox in that time.

Other than that, Office will still work plus most of your applications should be just fine.

The only issue I can forsee is that if you buy a new printer for example, there may not be any drivers for it in Windows 7.

[BBLUX]

That gives me some hope then John.
My little Lenovo touch screen laptop is going back to Windows 7 when I get back to it in Luxor. I had to abandon my perfectly good Canon flat bed scanner because Windows 10 did not have drivers for it. I gave it to ACE who still had a Windows 7 PC.
I keep my current laptop set to metered connection as that does restrict the updates thank goodness. My HP laptop took a hit on one previous update when some of the drivers were corrupted. Fortunately having several laptops I was able to download the damaged drivers and reinstalled so I could get it working again. Bloody Microsoft quality control!!

[John Landon]

Sometimes you can use generic drivers for certain equipment, but that seriousy compromises relaibity of that device.


One positive note about Windows 10, is that the command shell ( CMD ) does support and run Linux command, so I can ssh into all my linux servers and copy fies to them from my Windows PC and from the servers, so that is better than having to run Putty.

Windows Sever is now vey much command line based now, though the cheeky buggers have done what they do best and copy Linux, this time the shell command wich they call power shell.. they just swap the "/" with a "\" plus you have TAB completion on the command line, another Linux shell attribute..

[Brian Yare]

My little Lenovo touch screen laptop is going back to Windows 7 when I get back to it in Luxor. I had to abandon my perfectly good Canon flat bed scanner because Windows 10 did not have drivers for it.

I have found that VueScan works quite well with my old Mustek A3 scanner on Windows 10.

https://www.hamrick.com

[BBLUX]

My little Lenovo touch screen laptop is going back to Windows 7 when I get back to it in Luxor. I had to abandon my perfectly good Canon flat bed scanner because Windows 10 did not have drivers for it.

I have found that VueScan works quite well with my old Mustek A3 scanner on Windows 10.

https://www.hamrick.com

Thanks Brian. My son gave me their old Epson printer scanner which works fine with Windows 10.