Another one bites the dusts: Windows 7
We had a long love affair. But now Windows 7 is leaving me, although not of its own free will. I got this in an email today:
As of January 14th, 2020, Microsoft, the developer of the Windows 7 operating system, announced that additional security updates and technical support will no longer be available for home users of Windows 7. While the operating system is over a decade old, it is estimated to still run on a quarter of all PCs worldwide. Microsoft is encouraging all users still on Windows 7 to upgrade to their latest operating system, Windows 10, in order to continue to receive security and functional updates.
I hate Windows 10.
It’s always the same. First the “suggest” you change. Then they force you to change. And although every now and then the change turns out to be for the better, it’s usually not.
Like you, I loved Windows 7. But Windows 10 is actually pretty good. Everything before it that came after Windows 7 was awful, though.
Give it a chance. Get used to it.
Every new version of windows is more bloated and has more problems. I have an old LaserJet 2100 printer and when I installed win10 on my desk computer the printer would not work and I got cryptic error messages that were meaningless to me. Hewlett Packard produces a universal printer driver program for all their printers named PCL6. Days later I finally discover the cryptic message from Microsoft meant that PCL6 does not work with WIN10 and I had to downgrade to the older PCL5 to get my printer working. Crap like that causes me to curse Microsoft.
I had to update three of my computers from Win7 to Win10 last week. Thank goodness their (free) update site was still working. I could live with Win7, but XP was still my favorite. Now I guess I’ll learn to live with Win10 (until they bring something new out, of course).
still running W7 on my flightsim computer which is running FS9 (15yrs old!). I never liked FSX and have way too many great planes to replace now anyway. I disconnected any updates from MS many years ago, so W7 still thinks it’s around 2010 🙂 I got a new laptop last year for general purposes and its running W10 and gets all the MS updates it seems like every few days. As I don’t do anything very stressful with it is seems to be working fine.
When MSFS2020 comes out sometime this year I’ll be buying a new computer that will have the horsepower to run it and I assume will run W10.
Silly me; I thought Microsoft did this years ago. Guess I got conned.
As with others, I liked, if not really loved, Windows 7, and hated Windows 10; but, we have reached a more or less amicable accommodation as of now.
I think of Microsoft, and others of the ilk, in the way I think of government. They have a congenital aversion to leaving well enough alone.
I wonder if “Legislatures gotta legislate; regulators gotta regulate; Schiff gotta bloviate” could be worked into the lyrics of a song.
Urgh. I am wrestling with this too. I would like to replace my 10-year-old laptop, but any new machine would have Windows 10. And whatever the good and bad of 10 may be, my audio mixer/converter, which is absolutely essential, does not have W10 drivers. I’m more ticked off at Mackie, the mixer company, than at Microsoft. But…grrr….
” They have a congenital aversion to leaving well enough alone. ”
which goes hand in hand with their need for profit. Even though an OS may be really good, unless they force people out of it to a new OS, they can’t sell any software. As if MS doesn’t have enough money, but it’s really the profit motive driving new OS’s.
I switched to Mac 10 years ago. It’s dramatically better.
I’m a Linux user 🙂 so I live well.
Your Windoze 7 PC is probably still perfectly adequate, and it will continue to work as it has. What Microsoft is saying is that THEY will no longer provide support or bug fixes, or updates to their crappy security suite.
Buy a 3rd party antivirus – or install one of the good free ones – and save your money. https://askbobrankin.com/update_free_antivirus_programs.html?hdr
Personally, I _like_ Win10, but my wife hates it. It’s not that big a jump, actually.
@Ken Mitchell, agreed. Also stop using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Use Firefox instead, and for Internet searches use DuckDuckGo.
Some three years ago, I installed Windows 10, per MS request. I had Windows 7 Pro, and changed over to Windows 10 Pro. Per the warnings of a number of articles, I turned off as much of the “send back to MS mother ship” Windows 10 additions as I could.
Several months after that, my hard drive failed. In putting MS on my new hard drive, I could get Windows 10 on my system, but NOT Windows 10 Pro. I called a MS representative. The MS rep advised me to install Windows 7 Pro- NOT Windows 10 Pro – on my PC, as the machine’s software had been designed for Windows 7.
Now I need to deal with the change, or not.
I also hate Windows 10, and love Windows 7. I feel a sense of betrayal. I’ve been a loyal user, purchasing their product. Now its scr**w you, we need to make more money so tough luck. This relationship is a one way street. Surely enough profit is being made for Microsoft to provide some type of support to the millions of customers who have stuck with them, but this isn’t how they think. Capitalism works for all- the first chance I get to switch to something else good, I will. Its out there somewhere….
@’quiet conservative’: Ask around your community if anyone uses Linux. I use Ubuntu Linux. It was easy for me to make the switch from Windows. The only thing to ask yourself: How reliant am I on Windows applications? If just Outlook for email then there is Thunderbird for that. If just Office apps like Word and Excel then there is LibreOffice. However if you have Windows software that you can’t find a Linux equivalent for then I recommend installing WINE (aka “Wine Is Not an Emulator”…hehe). I’m not a gamer but apparently there are many games written for Windows. The WINE people do a good job of supporting those games.
My favorite was the switch to XP. Huge leap forward but when I finally needed a laptop instead of a desktop, the Lenovo I bought came with Windows 7. What a piece of —-, the machine and the OS. After a few months of aggravation, my daughter begged me to get a Mac, I did, loved it immediately. My husband, left-brain that he is, still uses PC’s. Of course, he teaches programming at our local community college.
Perhaps a topic for your consideration. If you want to know just how bad our education system really is, he can tell you. Not only are the students unprepared for real learning, they have no moral compunction against cheating. It’s appalling.
If you miss windows 7 style menus, you can regain that with:
https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
No longer a fan of “free” anything unless it has an open source license.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/30/avast-shuts-down-marketing-analytics-subsidiary-jumpshot-amid-controversy-over-selling-user-data/
Remember, if a product or service is “free”, you are the product being sold.
As long as you have independent virus/malware protection (eg Norton, Macafee, etc.), you should be able to keep using Windows 7 for at least another year or two, or even three, until you download/purchase some new “must-have” software that is not compatible with Windows 7.