Win 7 to lose MS Support soon

[Erwin]

Real or scare-mongering to scare folks into Win 10?  I use both on different systems and still much prefer Win 7.  (Have a Win 7 interface mod on my Win 10 machine.)

My understanding is that there is such a large # of users still using Win 7 (and hating Win 10) that some sort of support for Win 7 will continue.  Anyone have any thoughts?

[A Canadian Cat]

There are a couple of big companies that pushed for more time and seem like MS is going to support Win7 for them for longer under a program they call "Extended Security Updates"

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/4497181/lifecycle-faq-extended-security-updates

the above FAQ seems to say mere mortals cannot access it only corporations with site licenses can and it will include only security fixes.

Things to consider:

1) Does it matter? If Win7 is working for you keep using it. Its not like MS was fixing issues that most end users where actually tripping over anyway. Most of the applications we use to connect to the outside world (our browsers for example) will still be updated and will still work with Win7. So, maybe it is no big deal.

2) Why not go to Win10? If you are worried I cannot think of a reason not to. OK that's not true I truly hate the forced update "feature" in Win10 and the "when we reboot will try to bring all the apps you had running back". But those are solvable problems. There are several apps that restore updates to be under your own control and you can turn off the goofy app restarting feature. Day to day usage is great the transition has been easy and I don't even remember what was that different. Now windows 8 - that was something worthy of hate

[Erwin]

43 minutes ago, IanL said:

Does it matter? If Win7 is working for you keep using it.

Agreed.  Am planning to keep at least one Win 7 machine

45 minutes ago, IanL said:

Why not go to Win10? If you are worried I cannot think of a reason not to

Many are worried that MS will force a subscription model (aaargh!) on us once Win 7 has ceased to be a good alternative.

I also hate the new look and the way MS seems to be forcing users to use the OS in the way MS wants - ie: to deliver more ads and suck out more info from us and use systems as if they were mobile phones.  I had my IT guy put in a Win 7-looking interface on my Win 10 machine so it looks and feels like Win 7.

The big question for those of us who have invested many thousands of hours learning and becoming very good at Win 7 is why should we be forced to learn a new OS to do what we are already happily doing.  If one is not a social media junky what is the advantage of Win10?  I hear "better security" touted.  But, I do not stay up at night that much worrying about someone stealing my BF log-in details and making posts here.  

It's understandable that a new generation who don't have that sort of "legacy issue" are happy with learning a new OS since they have not (yet) made that huge investment of time learning an OS.  But just wait till they get into their 40's and 50's after 20-30 years of getting good at Win 10 and MS tries to force em to Win x25 or whatever.  

 

[StieliAlpha]

Interesting discussion. My brother is currently struggling with the migration decision.

My line of thinking is somewhat different from yours:

1) To carry on with Win7 will jeopardise the internet security of your machine. Probably not immediately, but increasingly.

2) New app‘s will be more and more not Win7 compatible.

3) The Win10 upgrade costs nothing and does not really hurt. I don’t know, what Erwin does with his computer, but to get a “working knowledge” of Win10 and some confidence to work with it took me perhaps 5h, certainly not “thousands”.

4) My advise to my brother was: If you are happy now and want to run your machine as stand-alone, continue with Win7. If you want to work online, rather change to Win10. (Or in his special case: Buy a new PC, which has Win10 only anyway.)

I must admit, I did hate to change from Win XP to Win7 and every Win-upgrade was a little painful. But I certainly cannot imagine to go back to XP or 3.1, though both „worked for me“.

Edited January 18, 2020 by StieliAlpha

[Erwin]

It all depends on what one uses one's machine(s) for.  

Personally, I don't have many apps on my Win 7 machines.  Primarily used for-mail, games and browsing.  No internet banking.  No social media.  Maybe purchasing online via CC's.  But, the CC companies are very good if fraud happens.

There have already been security breaches of Win 10, so the security argument is nothing more than a specious marketing PR from MS.  A couple years ago, iPhone was supposedly secure.  Today it can easily be hacked.

As I buy new systems I have Win 10 machines but dislike the interface - I use a mod that gives them a Win 7 UI.  Also, some older software (eg games) won't run on Win 10.

If and when MS ends up using a subscription model for Win10 there will be a great gnashing of teeth.  While Win 7 users will have more money in the bank and be saying "told you so".  

So, long as Win 7 machines do everything one needs and wants, not sure what the argument is for upgrading to Win 10.

If one does a lot of social media and want to do all one's financial stuff online, Win 10 may be better.  But, that is a risky lifestyle choice as you can be sure that one day it will all be hacked.  

 

Edited January 18, 2020 by Erwin

[Rob2020]

Okay, so in case anyone is interested, here we are, more than three-and-a-half years later, and I only recently (about two months ago) upgraded from Win7 to Win10. I always hesitate with OS upgrades because there always seem to be some of my games that don't like to cooperate.

I've had no particular problems over the past 3.5 years since the Win7 support came to an end in early 2020.

My AVG anti-virus stayed up to date, and as I rarely download anything and visit mostly sites I'm familiar with, virus threats were not an issue.

Similarly, until recently Chrome continued to support Win7 users, and when that came to an end it did factor into my finally getting Win10.

I still got Win10 for free, btw, although I had to get a disk off a guy on Ebay for $10 because the Microsoft website kept on throwing errors at me when I tried to upgrade through them.

The one thing I despise about Win10, as do many people I think, is that it now forces you to get a Microsoft account. That company should have been broken up years ago. As some other people have said in another thread around here, the Windows OS is increasingly just being used to collect personal data. The autistic psychopath that owns much of the company should also have been jailed years ago, and definitely should be now, considering his actions during the past 3+ years.