Windows 7: Windows 7 is EOL is near, what will you do?

No worries! so many posts and pages, it's easy to miss something. It's not old age, it's being a human, haha ^ ^

I really don't see how any of this is ridiculous? The point of the original post was to ask people what they're going to do after Windows 7 reaches EOL. Some people are going to continue using Windows, others aren't. Some users have perfectly good reasons to use Windows and others have perfectly good reasons not to. I really don't see how it's ridiculous when people are giving perfectly good advice and alternatives. Nobody is saying you must/mustn't use this or that OS. People are quite capable of making their own decisions.

I won't be using Windows 10, but I dislike when people try and shove down my throat why I should/shouldn't use it, just because they do or don't. It's personal preference, it's for me to decide - not them!

I come on here to give advice, but I don't order people what to do or what to use. Your post telling people what they can and can't talk about really isn't helping. There are moderators in these forums and if they feel it's a breach of the rules then they're free to remove posts, or shut down the conversation entirely if they deem it unsuitable.

The point of forums is to discuss. If everybody just said "we're going to continue using Windows", then this wouldn't be much of a discussion, would it?

Nobody has turned this into a Linux helpline/discussion board, they've just given their own opinions on what they're going to use.

I believe this is for the Moderators to decide. The point of this thread wasn't set up to give people advice on specific Windows OS issues, it was posted in the "General Discussion" section to enquire what users will be using after 7 reaches EOL. So, I don't see how any of what has been discussed in this thread (apart from the occasional slice of friendly banter) should be considered not relevant to the discussion?? I see no reason why this discussion has wandered off topic, as the posts are still relevant to the original question.

Personally, I'm nowhere near ready to make a switch to Linux, which is why I'll be sticking with 7 for a while after EOL, then I'll continue to use 8.1 until its EOL. But, I have not ruled out Linux for future use, I just need to try it out a lot more before I decide what to do. I have a few years to make my decision, so I'm not too concerned about it just yet.

There is nothing wrong with this thread, as long as it keeps Civil, and friendly, I see no issues to worry the forum Management

There is something that people need to do when using an OS that is no longer supported.

They need to learn how to create regular Backup Images.

Tutorials
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
Imaging with free Macrium

Given MS' woeful updates (this year) W7 could already be considered to be "End of Support".

I've rolled my PC back to December 2017 (a couple of weeks ago) and although I'm still downloading the Security Only updates, I've stopped installing them.

This means I have to rely on Backup Images (using Macrium Reflect Free Edition).


Another option is to convert an existing W7 install to a VM.
Macrium Reflect Images can be converted to VMs.

VMs can be easily copied to external storage.
Obviously people should only run copies of their VM.

VMs can be easily isolated from networks, so they should be protected from malware and rogue updates.

I run various VMs in VMware Player on a Linux Mint 18 Host, including:

• W10 Pro (1703) VM
• XP VM with old Windows games
• W7 VM with software development tools (Visual Studio, Android Studio, Netbeans, etc.)

I can also run most of my VMs in VMware Workstation 9 on W7 (including a LM18 VM).
VMware Workstation 9 won't run W10 VMs though.

Many people and I before have tried Linux but later became frustrated and went back to windows. One Obvious reason is most devices are design for windows OS. It may able to run Linux but it cannot guarantee other device driver inside is going to work for a machine, perhaps other distro can for one thing or another. So for me, If I'm planning to buy a new device and want to use Linux, the best way is to find the device designs for it as well as the programs have to use. Linux is a free software, so there's nothing to complain about, neither expecting more support compared to Windows.

The claim for others that Windows 7 is the best shot released by Microsoft, is also referring the legacy code of windows 7. (I don't think if the legacy hardware was continued for Windows 8 & 10.) It made an old device compatible, stable and more secure than the previous version. The problem is, as torchwood did mentioned one, many programs are not certified by Microsoft due to money reason from small or individual developer. No offense but this is an example when a poor written driver corrupted other dependency driver made unstable other programs when ran or even the windows itself. This is happened as bunched of programs on Internet like a Freeware software easy to install everyday. On the other hand with security issue, Windows 7 is secure as Linux or Unix is. It vast popularity from several billions of users for Windows is the reason targeted to security. Criminals write malicious code for Windows expecting more profit for them in return. And Of coarse, the same case will happen to Linux if it is popular worldwide than Windows.

I have nothing to say about Windows 10 for now. Last year, I remembered when I went in the department of foreign affairs, I was surprised because all their PC on the front desk were upgraded to windows 10. Wow! They trusted Microsoft. No doubt Windows is very productive OS. I'll give my support to Windows as we have the program requires it. And at the end of Windows 7 EOL, my old windows machine( laptop) will be the safest machine that I'll be working for my critical files because it cannot (should not) go online.

A late reply for the thread, I've been busy and the following months as well.

Regards,
Botard

I too have recently taken to Linux (dual booting with Windows 7). I have to say that some of these Linux forums (well at least one I'm thinking of) are not as helpful as one would expect. And I've seen plenty of incorrect advice given for areas I am already familiar with. Or complicated solutions for an issue seem to be given where a much simpler solution would have sufficed. Certainly once I'm sufficiently confident enough that I can do everything that I can already do with W7, and the latter becomes truly obsolete I will switch to Linux full time.

I'm still using Xp and when Windows7 will EOL , i will continue to use it.
All i have done is to have a good backup sw and store backups, so in case i can restore.