What To Do After Jan 2020

I'm planning to stay with 7, as I stayed with XP 3 safely years after updates ended. I still have that machine. The real problem starts when A-V's stop supporting 7.

3rd party security support should not be an issue, as the commercial/Business sector are only now switching to Windows 7 from XP.

There are many reasons for this including an IT industry that got overly comfortable with XP due to it being the only choice for far too long and did not want to change.

There is also the more understandable reason that the state of business over the last twenty years has not been the best for investment in operating systems, and the expensive computers and hardware to run them.

The new rolling system model of Windows 10 should be much more "Business Friendly", than other as it lends itself to the preferred hardware lease policy of business, Industry and Government and Education, and indeed some are already moving to Windows 10.

Although the situation with Windows 7 and the business world means that software and compatible hardware and their drivers, (most important), should continue to be available, the pricing model will likely change considerably, as the balance of usage changes more to Business.

It is possible that we may see the amount of free software in the security field dropping drastically as Business does not trust free stuff and are prepared to pay full price, or the dreaded Lease system that allows the seller And the Buyer to better plan expenditure. This will also affect the type of licence available in the security field - many are already moving from the old perpetual, (lifetime) licence to the Leased annual licence as the software must, due to its basic function, be continuously updated and this is an expensive process. My Commercial Bitdefender is updated hourly to give an example of what is expected by business.

So Yes staying with Windows 7 is a perfectly viable option for the individual, but, and it's a big "but", users must be prepared to pay for the choice

TMI. Are you saying there will be security software for those of us not in business, but the free versions might disappear? For 2 machines, I don't use the same versions as businesses do. XP no longer has A-V support, does it?

I do not know how the software industry will react but expect them to react in the best way for them and their shareholders.

If the "market" for free versions of software, the "Loss Leaders" of the industry, reduces then it may well become less viable to provide these and to change to another sales model, these companies are trying to make money and will look at the financial results of an OS becoming obsolete and unsupported, and act in their best interest.

The work, and cost, involved for the third party software developers in supporting Obsolete Operating Systems is always going to be considerably more without the regular input from the OS developer, this cost has to be met by someone and so the Free options are likely to reduce or disappear.

If you look at options for XP you will see that they are not as great as they once were, Microsoft stopped AV/AM support back in 2014 and thus all vulnerabilities in the OS discovered after that point are still there unpatched, (With some famous exceptions), but some security companies still support it at a basic level, Avast and AVG that I know of, ( Good news for XP users is that Mcafee is no longer available for the OS ).

I do not expect the reaction to the EOL of Windows 7 will be any better than to XP which of course was around for a lot longer.

Support is not going to disappear at the exact moment of the EOL of Windows 7 but it will change at some time after this, If there is a possibility to make money for the security industry from Windows 7 they will support it but with reduced usage the Free offers will not be a viable option for the companies and so will cease.

RoWin7 said:

I'm planning to stay with 7, as I stayed with XP 3 safely years after updates ended. I still have that machine. The real problem starts when A-V's stop supporting 7.

Loss of AV support just means you need to makes sure you have plenty of Backup Images.

It will only be an issue if someone releases a "super worm", like the one people claimed would infect XP during the installation process (before you could install an AV).

As a result of those claims, I've always installed Windows with the network disconnected.
Doing that saved me from the online MS accounts, during my W8 testing and W10 installations.

Of course you could just keep W7 disconnected from networks.

The Microsoft account or Microsoft ID is a reasonable requirement for Microsoft to provide free Cloud Storage - There are other free services such as google which also requires an appropriate Google ID or Account.

There are other options that do not require a specific email or account but they do need you to provide certain details if only so they know how to bill you for use of their Cloud storage.

There were many more free access cloud sites in the past , which also required an email address to use - unfortunately most, if not all, have been closed due to their use by the users to store pirated media and software

Barman58 said:

...There were many more free access cloud sites in the past , which also required an email address to use - unfortunately most, if not all, have been closed due to their use by the users to store pirated media and software

Or, far more likely, due to a lack of profit. People can use the paid sites to store pirated media and software just as well.

Barman58 said:

The Microsoft account or Microsoft ID is a reasonable requirement for Microsoft to provide free Cloud Storage - There are other free services such as google which also requires an appropriate Google ID or Account.

Obviously if you want to use various online services you need an account (login/password). :)


The issue in W8 & W10 was that MS tried to make it seem like you had to use an online account.

If your network was connected, the installer sequence was cunningly setup and the descriptions were worded in such a way as to confuse ordinary users (crapware & malware tactics).

Notice the installers don't mention "Local Account".
The W10 installer was even worse than the W8 one.

If you weren't connected to a network the installers took you to the "Create Local Account" screen.