# End of Windows 7 Support - 14/01/2020



## HanaBi (Apr 12, 2019)

Probably old news, but support for W7 ends January 14th 2020, and the Microsoft will be pushing notifications to its users between now and then. 

I shouldn't fret too much because all it will mean is that a) you won't be able to contact them regarding problems, and b) they will not be pushing up monthly updates and fixes. But this doesn't mean you should stop using W7, and neither should you be panicked into upgrading to W10 (which is what the guys at Redmond will be hoping for with all the "end of the world" notifications!)

W7 still holds a market share of 39% of all PC users despite W10 being around since 2015/6. And to help the move to the latter don't be surprised if Microsoft reactivate their "free upgrade" offer to get W7 to move once and for all. But one suspects a lot of users will ignore the inducements and threats and just stick to W7 after the cut off, in very much the same way XP users are still around despite XP being dead in the water.

So, do not be panicked into upgrading when the notifications start rolling out. The OS will still work after 14/01/2020, but there will be no more enhancements or fixpacks.




Windows 7 to show notifications about upcoming support end - gHacks Tech News


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## Brian G Turner (Apr 12, 2019)

If MS offer a free upgrade to Windows 10 again I'll certainly consider it. I didn't before because I was concerned about being able to use legacy software, but over the years I've been moving toward online services anyway.


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## BigBadBob141 (Apr 27, 2019)

I've tried Windows 10 and don't really like it much, don't like the look, plus some of the things I used to do in W7 have been mucked about with and made more complicated for no good reason!
My old W7 machine has gone to cyber-heaven and I had to return the new W10 replacement I got, so I think I will look for a good used W7 machine instead of a new one!
I hate it when people mess with things purely for the sake of change, things after they have been "improved" are never as good as they once were!!!


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## HanaBi (Apr 27, 2019)

I must admit I do like the W10 frontend compared to W7. But apart from that I always preferred (and still use) W7 machines.

Amazon will always be a good source for refurbished W7 PCs- quite cheap too. And as I said in my earlier post, don't be put off my the end of support for W7 next year. Just make sure you're as up to date with the latest fix packs as possible, and that you have a good antivirus and anti-malware software and you're sorted!


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## Happy Joe (Apr 27, 2019)

Yep! had the notice from Microsoft display on my screen this last week.
Personally, I tried W10 both the Beta and the Release to production versions; I did not like it; even fired up  one of the free conversion W10 machines (put the free W10 update OS on several drives for several machines), updated it, and still found it less than desirable; virtually unchanged.

I expect to convert to Linux if my stash of W7 PCs ever stop working.
In the meantime hopefully someone will look at the market (39% of PCs and users, should be nothing to sneeze at) and bring out an acceptable user interface (a retrofit user interface for W10 was available at one time, tried it and didn't care for it either), or inexpensive patch subscription.... If all else fails I could probably bite an Apple.  (If they  still make computers).

Enjoy!


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## Brian G Turner (Apr 30, 2019)

I've just had the notice about Windows 7 support finishing, and there's no free upgrade provided - instead they are actually trying to get me to buy a new PC. Therefore I won't be upgrading to Windows 10.

I wonder how Microsoft will handle all the bad publicity, when it's discovered that most people inevitably will be running insecure Microsoft software from next year? I'm presuming Microsoft are going to have to move on the issue to avoid that.


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## HanaBi (Apr 30, 2019)

Brian G Turner said:


> I've just had the notice about Windows 7 support finishing, and there's no free upgrade provided - instead they are actually trying to get me to buy a new PC. Therefore I won't be upgrading to Windows 10.
> 
> I wonder how Microsoft will handle all the bad publicity, when it's discovered that most people inevitably will be running insecure Microsoft software from next year? I'm presuming Microsoft are going to have to move on the issue to avoid that.



Microsoft will not care because as far as they're concerned they have given sufficient notice (some 3 years) for W7 users to make a decision. This can be the same conclusion for other legacy Windows operating systems that have reached EoL (95, 98, XP, Millennium etc)

There might be a slim chance that MS might offer free upgrades to 10 come early next year - it's just a question of who blinks first. But as I have reiterated before, there is no need to upgrade just because 7 will no longer be supported. Just so long as you have good AV and AM, you should be fine until such time you want to move to 10.

That said, you can get some really cheap refurbished W10 PCs and laptops from Amazon for less than £150 (W10 Pro on a HP SFF PC)


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## Overread (Apr 30, 2019)

You're more likely to need to update because of software and or hardware issues. Those are often things that push you to update. 

For example some Photoshop editions won't run on earlier Windows versions such as Windows Vista. Furthermore Nvidia doesn't support Windows 8.1 with their latest graphics cards (though oddly they do support Windows 7 and the driver for 7 is the same as it is for 8.1).
So MS doesn't even have to come at you direct, they will come sideways with 3rd party companies and products requiring that you update in order to keep using or to use them. 

Personally I've got 8.1 and find it great and a good solid OS - its been the fastest and most stable I've ever used from MS, the only issue is the daft logic behind getting rid of the start menu. 


Personally I'm holding off on Win 10 as long as I can. I use a lot of older software (games) and Win8.1 runs almost everything, but it took a while to get there and I don't want to go through that with 10 until I am forced to. In addition I dislike the update policy MS has adopted for 10 along with their data harvesting. Though I'm sure I'll get dragged along anyway with the masses eventually.


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## Biskit (May 1, 2019)

When W2K came to an end, I switched to Linux and haven't missed Windows at all. Better yet, I found the Xubuntu flavor which felt like W2K with a few things moved around on the screen.


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## tinkerdan (May 1, 2019)

They have seem to have  already stopped their automated license verification server.
I have a notebook with win 7 starter--because that is all that works on that system--and it tried to update to win 10 back when they offered that. It began systematically failing until it completely died and I had to use a thumb drive with an iso build of win7 starter to reinstall an OS. When it went out to verify itself it kept failing and I ended up doing the long process to validate the license which involves about 8 strings of 6 numbers verbally inputted to their automated system then a much too fast return of a long string of numbers from the automated system(fortunately you can tell it to go back to repeat).
I finally got it restored; however it consumed more than an hours time to do something that should have just taken moments over the web.


A word of caution for those who keep systems that have lost support.
Turn off all updates> Isolate the machine behind a firewall other than the one microsoft offers> and as usual be hyper vigilant concerning opening emails and websites.
Turning off updates....
There is an exploit using those update conduits to get into old systems and render them useless--which is handy for microsoft and computer sellers who will be replacing your system unless you really want to go through the trouble of reinstalling an old OS on an old machine.


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## HanaBi (May 2, 2019)

tinkerdan said:


> They have seem to have  already stopped their automated license verification server.
> I have a notebook with win 7 starter--because that is all that works on that system--and it tried to update to win 10 back when they offered that. It began systematically failing until it completely died and I had to use a thumb drive with an iso build of win7 starter to reinstall an OS. When it went out to verify itself it kept failing and I ended up doing the long process to validate the license which involves about 8 strings of 6 numbers verbally inputted to their automated system then a much too fast return of a long string of numbers from the automated system(fortunately you can tell it to go back to repeat).
> I finally got it restored; however it consumed more than an hours time to do something that should have just taken moments over the web.
> 
> ...



Endorsed fully.

I still have a number of XP, Millennium, Vista (ha!) and 7 machines on my VMware infrastructure, and am using trusted 3rd party security apps to make sure they stay secure, as well as disabling all possible updates from MS for precisely the reasons tinkerdan highlighted. 

In terms of driver support for legacy OS' - can't really say I have had much of an issue. If existing apps work on those legacy systems and you're happy with that functionality  then live with that limitation rather than being pushed to an OS you don't really need.


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## -K2- (May 2, 2019)

Brian G Turner said:


> I've just had the notice about Windows 7 support finishing, and there's no free upgrade provided - instead they are actually trying to get me to buy a new PC. Therefore I won't be upgrading to Windows 10.
> 
> I wonder how Microsoft will handle all the bad publicity, when it's discovered that most people inevitably will be running insecure Microsoft software from next year? I'm presuming Microsoft are going to have to move on the issue to avoid that.




When they killed off XP, it wasn't that the OS stopped working, it was that 'online' aspects needed to keep up with new communication protocols didn't.  Things like directX, flash, java and so on, shifted to more advanced versions that XP didn't have.  I'm already running into that on W-7.

As to bad publicity, they just shrug.  Asking for them to continue supporting it is like griping that they don't make replacement car parts for my '69 Dodge R/T any longer.  I'd say reasonably, we all got what we paid for.  Now it's time to pay again... Although, I'm holding out until it becomes totally unworkable like XP did.

K2


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## Dave (Apr 15, 2020)

I had the usual problems this morning with Windows Updates and couldn't get online, so I wrote this while I waited:

*If Windows was a Car*

“So, here is your new house with a new free car to replace your old car!”

“It isn’t free really. You just added the price to the price of the house, didn’t you?”

“But you got a big discount and it’s shiny and new!”

“Okay! It does look good, but what about this trailer full of equipment. I won’t use that and it’s heavy. Can I detach it?”

“Oh! No! You have to keep that at all times!”

“But there is this golf and tennis equipment here. I never play those sports.”

“Sorry, those are the rules.”

“But I can only go 20mph. I’m sure I could go faster if I detach that trailer.”

“Sorry!”

“Can I turn off the Sat Nav then. It never stops talking!”

“Sure! And by the way, we need to take the car back and give you a new chassis and replace all the windows because some people didn’t like them.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s vital. You could have crashed at any moment.”

“And we need to change all the wheels!”

"That's hard to believe!"

“And the steering wheel is faulty too.”

“Didn’t you check this car first?”

“Some things we just can’t check. We’ve decided to give you this new paint job at the same time. You can have any colour you like.”

“I like the paint job, but what about this scratch on the bonnet?”

“Sorry about that. If you choose black, then no one will ever see it.”

“And we have to change the wheels again. Faulty!”

“Seriously! You only changed them four days ago!”

“Sorry! And we are going to give you these nifty new wing mirrors!”

“Actually, I really need to use the car today. Can’t it wait?”

“Sorry! You must have them and have them right now. They’re fabulous. Everyone loves them. It won’t take long!”

“You said it would take long, I’m waiting and waiting!”

“Sorry!”

“These wing mirrors don’t work!”

“Sorry. We are working on a fix.”

“Soon, I hope?”

“And we need to change those wheels again.”

"No way!"

“And change the steering wheel. It’s very dangerous!”

“And you are only telling me this now!”

“If you want, we can give you a new car to test. Only problem is that it has no lights.”

“I already have no wing mirrors, and now you want me to drive without lights?”

“You would be helping us to make safer cars!”

“I think I’ll pass!”

“And sorry, but we need to change the wheels again!”

“Again?”

“Sorry, yes! And that engine has to be replaced too!”

“You can’t be serious?”

“Actually, we have a new car you can have instead. This will have no problems!”

“Okay, is it free?”

“We’ve decided not to sell cars anymore. We will rent it to you instead!”

“I’ll stick with this car!”

“It’s a heap of junk and we won’t repair it anymore.”

“Okay!”

“No more new wheels!”

“That would be a bonus!”

“Well, you are going to have to have this new car anyway!”

“But this new car is too big for my road. It is too wide and has an even bigger trailer. Can’t I just have my little car again that I had before this one?”

“Sorry! Why don't you buy a new house?”


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## Elckerlyc (Apr 15, 2020)

And this new house is keeping track of all your digital doings, continually listens to what you say and take notes of where you're going with your car.
The problem I have with Windows is not so much the continual updating (it's a necessity in the fast evolving cyber-world), but that you cannot trust their OS on _your_ computer to think _for_ you and protect _your_ privacy. After every update you need to check the settings and still you cannot be sure what information about you is being collected by Microsoft, not for your benefit but theirs.


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## Astro Pen (Apr 15, 2020)

I still use XP because it was the best system they ever made. Subsequent windows behaved increasingly like phones/ video games and the hood was welded shut macintosh style so if anything went wrong you couldn't 'get in there'. Where did it put that lost file? your guess is as good as mine.
Even system restore is gone! Why?
If they were going to push an 'arcade' style OS they could at least have had the decency to give it an XP emulator mode for grownups.
I have an 8.1 laptop with the useless arcane 'tiles' thing pages and pages of them mostly commercial garbage like "shopping" and don't start me off on the "charms" which are as annoying as a fly on your face.

Then there's the NSA backdoor question.


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## Foxbat (Apr 15, 2020)

Astro Pen said:


> I still use XP because it was the best system they ever made


Absolutely agree 100%. I don’t use it online because I don’t know how secure it is now but I keep a PC with XP and it’s the one I use the most. It rarely gives me any grief and it’s the only computer I  have that I’ve not threatened to throw out the window.


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## Elckerlyc (Apr 15, 2020)

My PC runs on Linux, but I have Win-7 running in a virtual environment (VM Virtual) for a few programs that have no Linux alternative. It's safe and in a emergency you just close the window without saving.
I used to have XP running too (for some old games) that way but for some reason can't get it running anymore.


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## Cydramech (Apr 15, 2020)

If not for either my favorite PC games all being Windows-dependent or DirectX not being available to Linux/Ubuntu, I'd only be using Ubuntu or Linux anyway. However, that's due to performance (well, not completely - my desktop is a beast of a machine regardless) and simplicity, whereas I've been using W10 since it came out and I never had problems with it.


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