end of support for windows 7

Yeah, I am using Windows 7 and like it.

 

Im still using it. How much support could they possibly be offering anyway lol

 

Your probably OK for continuing to use Win 7 for the next couple of months as should be getting the last round of updates. You might be able to extend protection by being behind a good firewall (software based firewall is not what I'm talking about here, a true dedicated firewall) and browsers will be likely updated for quite some time. If you are smart about your web browsing, probably extend the life a little bit more as being connected online is the biggest vector of vulnerability.

However, make no mistake about it, there are vulnerabilities and it would take a big one for MS to patch Win 7 for it and then again, they may not due to how long it's taken people to migrate of XP (which ironically didn't start off as that great of an OS either). Shoot even Win 10 still has blobs of legacy code in it (and 32 bit libs really need to be removed, they really do).

If you can take your Win 7 machine offline (which is something that I would highly suggest anyway for a production machine) that would be the best thing to do. Get something current to browse the web with and do web related activities.

 

I got the same message this morning. Knew it was coming but did not know the date. Not a fan of Windows 10, we have it at home and I never use the home computer for that reason.

Maybe time to join the cult of Apple? How does Flexi work with Apple? I have been using Flexi since the early 2000's and would hope it is pretty much the same on Apple vs PC...

 

It doesn't. Flexi hasn't had an Apple version in a long time. Looking at VMing a copy of Windows to run Flexi on Mac.

 

We've been using Windows 10 and it works fine. We just have one Windows XP machine that we occasionally fire up to run a machine that had no drivers past Windows XP. It is true some software requires an upgrade to work on Windows 10, but we crossed that road years ago.

If you are computer savvy, upgrading to Windows 10 is not hard, and it's free using your product key from Windows 7.

 

Upgrade in of itself, isn't that big of a deal, but I've always been a big advocate of fresh install. If running older computers, replace those with hardware that will definitely work with the newer software/components. Does the hardware have support for Win 10 etc? Some do, some don't. Drivers have always been an issue with doing the upgrade versus fresh install path. One of the nice things about having drivers baked into an OS versus reliant on 3rd party, but that does have it's own con as well, if there is no support, there is no support period.

 

I'm sure it's been said here, but I'm just confirming. Windows 7 will still be safe to use for a few more months. Even past that for machines not connected to the internet or highly protected. Now of course they recommend buying new machine because older machines may not work properly right after installation and may have driver issues. Your machine may also be slower, so you'll need to plan on upgrading RAM, memory and even CPU.

We'll be upgrading out Dell XPS with new ram, gpu and power supply before updating it to Windows 7.

There's still a way to do the free upgrade so look out for it.

 

If you want to do a clean install it's still free. As I said "if you're computer savvy", which means you know how to check to see if there are drivers for your hardware.

Though sometimes install stalls because Windows 10 Setup tries to find drivers on the internet and just stalls out, the solution to that is to not be connected to the internet while installing.

 

I wouldn't exactly consider that "computer savvy". But then again, I don't consider "RTFM" and getting Arch up and running starting from CLI to having a full blown DE "computer savvy" either. That's just reading instructions.

That actually can happen during a regular update as well. Have had it get too new of drivers that didn't work well with the device or it actually installs the wrong one. There have been quite a few interesting updates on my dad's computer that's for sure.

 

So I have to very similar machines, a few years old. I was able to successfully update the slightly older one to win 10, went smoothly. The second machine, got to the checking for updates like you mentioned, and blue screen errors galore. Got it back to win 7 without data loss. Unplugged all my printers, plotters, dongles, etc leaving just the mouse and keyboard and 1 screen. Left it installing overnight (slow internet) came in the morning and it had just reverted back to win 7 on its own... as if I never tried to install. Although I checked the updates logs and it said failed install error code xxx, which I looked up and suggested likely driver associated.

I'd rather not do a fresh install, IDK just seems like a pain to reinstall all our software and and settings... unless I'm missing something here and it's actually easy to do..

But you say unplug the internet to install. So would I runt the media creation tool again but download to thumbdrive, then use that to update the computer with internet unplugged? This should bypass the step of windows trying to update my driver and allow the install? Will the driver update automatically or easily once I'm on windows 10 with an internet connection?

 

I have 10 on all my computers. My boomer mom has 7 on hers, she is freaking out about the support ending. I asked her what she is worried about, she really couldn't tell me.

 

Yes. Use the media creation tool to either make a DVD or a thumb drive for install. Disconnect the internet and run the upgrade. When it's done, reconnect the internet, let it find as many drivers as it can, and then manually install what it misses.

 

The support ending primarily means no more Windows security updates. Depending on how she uses computers, that could lead to getting viruses/malware if an exploit comes along that would need a patch to prevent. Given the history of Windows XP it can also mean that in a year or two her antivirus software manufacturer will no longer support Windows 7.

 

Not having windows updates any longer on windows 7 does NOT make you vulnerable for anything. Ive had Windows 7 i know for over 10 years with no updates at all, no problems. I do run ccleaner and avira. I honestly question where some of you go on the web that you feel like your non supported windows 7 is going to explode.

My thoughts are mircrosoft security updates are BS. the bog down your system and do nothing but cause issues thats why I stopped running them. To each his own

 

Not all problems are usually noticed. Some malware is designed to be in the background. But bare in mind, being more vulnerable doesn't in of itself mean that you will get something, but you are more then likely to get something over someone that is current.

Updates are a double edge sword, and with MS delivering them, not the best track record. So from a stability standpoint, you are very much correct.

Unfortunately, given how Windows handles account permissions and giving how much legacy code that's in Windows, running an unsupported version does very much make you more vulnerable to these things when using an unsupported version of Windows.

Bare in mind, some of the stuff that you use now, also won't be supported after so long as well. So there goes your mitigation for the bad stuff as well.

 

If anyone has advice on how to continue to use older computers it would be appreciated by many I'm sure. For example, I have a number of Windows XP computers that I use to run certain equipment and/or software that can not be used with newer computers. I need to have these computers connected to our internal network but do not need to have them connected to the internet and be vulnerable to outside viruses and malware, which our internal network is connected to. With the end of support for Windows 7, I will now have many more computers in the same situation, probably like many other people will too. What is the best way to have these computers networked but safeguarded?

 

To me, and this is just me, it's going to depend on if you want also keep those older physical hardware to run those OSs, or if you want to handle this via software on newer hardware (this later option would depend on what licensing abilities that you have, especially for your legacy OS). At some point, going to have a hard time finding hardware that will work with the legacy OS, so keep that in mind as well.

I personally VM all my legacy OSs, but must have the newer computer(s) spec'ed out appropriately to handle running 2 (or more, I can run up to 4 at one time and one is within another VM) at near native (certainly perceptually native) performance. VMing is not the same as emulating and emulating does have a very big performance hit, I wouldn't suggest that method unless there is very much a need (which is usually if you are trying to run an X86 OS on an ARM device (or vice versa)).

The nice thing also about going the VM route, your host OS can be anything that you want it to be, as long as it has VMing software that supports the legacy OS(s) that you are wanting to run.

Just my take on it though, so take that for what it's worth.