How will everyone deal with Windows 7 EOL? (In less than a year now!)

Windows 7 will stop receiving updates on January 14th, 2020. I'm curious here how everyone will be personally dealing with this situation.


Me, I'm gonna keep using 7 even after this happens. All of my mission critical machines (like my servers) run Linux, and I keep frequent backups of my Windows machines. So I'm not too worried what happens to my main PC. Besides, I've been playing around with Windows XP machines since XP's support died back in 2014, usually I always have a XP machine running and connected to the internet because I have a early 2000s gaming PC. I have yet to encounter problems with XP, so I'm not worried about 7 in that regard.


Only problem with that is, software support will start to die down after this too, as 7 becomes obscure. Before you know it, all the latest games will not be running on 7 (as more games adopt DX12), popular applications like Discord will drop 7, etc. Sure, this is still most likely years away, but it's inevitable.


So as I see it, here are the options:





I've already got it decided. I'm sticking to 7 as my main OS, but I already have Linux installed to my second drive and I will slowly be migrating to it over the next year or two. If the need arises, I will switch my Windows version to Windows 8.1. So basically, I'm doing options 1, 2 and 3.


Here's a pretty good video on the matter:
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There will be updates until 2023, but they will be a bit tricky to get. I'm sure people will get a hold of these updates and make them available to us, so that's interesting, 7 could stay up to date for another 3 years in that case. But again, updates aren't my main concern. What would be REALLY exciting is if someone made a program like KernelEx (a patch for 98/ME that allows you to run XP software on 98/ME) for Windows 7 to fool W10 software into running on 7. Now THAT would be cool, and probably a lot simpler than what went into the making of KernelEx considering 98/ME was DOS based and XP was NT, they were completely different worlds. Meanwhile, under the hood, 7 and 10 have a lot in common!

Also, a huge thank you to the SevenForums community for all your help over the years. I've visited this site every now and then since 2009, and it's always been great. Hard to believe it's been 10 years... Thanks everyone! I'll probably be returning a lot more than I used to considering I have 7 on the brain now.

Hi irnatman,

Welcome to SevenForums!

There have been quite a few discussions on this forum about this topic. This one is worth a read => Beyond Windows 7.

I don't even use updates. No issues here. Even have a netbook running XP Pro that's on 24/7. No issues there either.

The sky won't come crashing down like Microsoft would have you believe.

Most updates are crap. You really only need the criticals, and at that, if you know how to to run your machine then it's a fallacy you need that latest and greatest.

The biggest problem lies with new hardware, like printers,scanners etc.
I have one dual boot machine with XP and 7 and one machine with just 7.

My HP scanner wouldn't work on my 7 machine because HP wouldn't make the new drivers. It's a common problem..I finally got it working but for most people it would be difficult for them to figure out a workaround..

Anyway, I run multi layer protection so I am not that concerned at this time when the support stops.
I also make regular weekly images which I would suggest everyone do.

I haven't updated my Win 7 machines in a year because I got tired of the broken updates. Downgrading to Win 10 won't help since it's also getting bad and broken updates. I'll eventually switch over to Linux, probably Mint Cinnamon.

F22 Simpilot said:

I don't even use updates. No issues here. Even have a netbook running XP Pro that's on 24/7. No issues there either.

The sky won't come crashing down like Microsoft would have you believe.

Most updates are crap. You really only need the criticals, and at that, if you know how to to run your machine then it's a fallacy you need that latest and greatest.

Click to expand...

Definitely agree, I also run a Windows XP machine 24/7 with internet access, 0 issues. Like I said my main concern is software support drying up after official support dies. I also have a Windows ME gaming machine that I dust off from time to time, it's also connected, 0 issues. Windows 2000 as well. (Last year I spent a bunch of time toying with Windows 2K, got it running 720p Youtube videos at full speed with a recent Chromium and guess what? 0 issues!)

Yeah, essentially a computer and its old hardware and OS is like playing an old Atari or Odyssey. It's not gonna run what's out there at present, but it still functions and does what you want it to do. It will remain hacker proof, malware proof providing you don't use the computer like a complete moron. I scan all downloads at Virus Total and use Sandboxie for my browser which helps mitigate disaster. I also clone my computer's periodically so if something were to happen be it a malware infection or computer "melt down", all I do is clone back and it will be for the most part like nothing ever changed.

I'll keep running W7, which I dual boot with Linux Mint 19.1 MATE.

If necessary I'll get Macrium to create a VHD and run W7 as a VM in Linux Mint MATE.

I run W10 that way, although I haven't started it since my Software Development course ended.

F22 Simpilot said:

I don't even use updates. No issues here. Even have a netbook running XP Pro that's on 24/7. No issues there either.

The sky won't come crashing down like Microsoft would have you believe.

Most updates are crap. You really only need the criticals, and at that, if you know how to to run your machine then it's a fallacy you need that latest and greatest.

Click to expand...

Whole-heartedly agree. I have a latop with XP, no issues. I'm going to continue using 7 until I choose not to, not because some faceless corporation tells me I have to upgrade. Also agree that most updates are crap and only necessary if something is broken. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Yes, the issue of newer apps no longer working will be a problem but only if you need the latest version (90% of the time you won't, I can still open latest Word/Excel with Office 2007 on XP as well as Discord).

Legacy Windows games work better on legacy Windows - I use a Console (PS4) for modern gaming so I don't care about DX12.

Staying with 7. The biggest problem I foresee is that Firefox will no longer support it. I use Open Office, so I see no problems with MS Office.

RoWin7 said:

Staying with 7. The biggest problem I foresee is that Firefox will no longer support it. I use Open Office, so I see no problems with MS Office.

Click to expand...

Palemoon might still support windows 7 for awhile. However, not all Firefox addons/plugins work with Palemoon. Palemoon uses a different Mozilla engine.

On Firefox there is an ESR version that you could use. This would give you more time to find another browser.

I think you can always compile you own version of Firefox on windows 7 sp1 but it won't be easy. I think you can compile it on Linux for Windows 7 but I am not sure.

The problem I see is flash & antivirus not being supported in Win 7. I use MSE virus protection. I will have to look for alternatives.

groze said:

Palemoon might still support windows 7 for awhile. However, not all Firefox addons/plugins work with Palemoon. Palemoon uses a different Mozilla engine.

On Firefox there is an ESR version that you could use. This would give you more time to find another browser.

I think you can always compile you own version of Firefox on windows 7 sp1 but it won't be easy. I think you can compile it on Linux for Windows 7 but I am not sure.

The problem I see is flash & antivirus not being supported in Win 7. I use MSE virus protection. I will have to look for alternatives.

Click to expand...

I'm already using FF 52.9ESR, and no, I'm not capable of compiling my own version. But 52 keeps me from having to use Quantum, another corporate disaster. Mozilla and MS are both uncaring about the end-user.

Flash is becoming unnecessary, only used in some games now.

You will have to chuck MSE in favor of Avast or BitDefender

RoWin7 said:

Staying with 7. The biggest problem I foresee is that Firefox will no longer support it. I use Open Office, so I see no problems with MS Office.

Click to expand...

It will be years before that ever happens.

F22 Simpilot said:

I don't even use updates. No issues here. Even have a netbook running XP Pro that's on 24/7. No issues there either.

The sky won't come crashing down like Microsoft would have you believe.

Most updates are crap. You really only need the criticals, and at that, if you know how to to run your machine then it's a fallacy you need that latest and greatest.

Click to expand...

I concur. I never update either, unless it's necessary to. My windows 7 was last updated in 2015 and my Windows 8.1 was last updated in Aug 2018 and I don't plan to update them ever. So updating is not really the problem. However, software support will likely be as most of the softwares use Microsoft's components to render/work C++ .NET etc I had trouble with latest Photoshop 20 on Win 7 that needed to update .NET to 4.7.2 and an extra update for D3Compiler. Now this is the situation that worries me the most, after the EOL it will not be possible to update the system components to run latest versions of different softwares.


I think Windows 8.1 will get a hike after the 7 EOL, it's indeed the OS as it should be unlike Windows 10.

That being said, it's inevitable. Both 7 and 8.1 will eventually die. I'm just hoping Microsoft is done with their "Beta" program bullshit by then. I can't comprehend what got into their thick skulls to adopt this "service" model. Who would want to reconfigure their entire system every 6 months ? Who would want to have learning curve thrown at them every 6 months ? That's not it, every windows 10 update is broken in one way or the other. Latest Windows 10 update deleted personal data on some computers. Microsoft Warns Windows 10 Update Deletes Personal Data
Can you believe that? it's insane, even Beta softwares don't do shit like that. Couple it with forced telemetry and updates and you have a disaster.

I will get windows 10 after 8.1 EOL. Strictly LTSC channel and modified with all the telemetry and updates crap removed. It will not be a satisfaction like it is with Windows 7 and 8.1 but hay drivers will be available and softwares will run.

Cloud OS

ceo54 said:

That being said, it's inevitable. Both 7 and 8.1 will eventually die. I'm just hoping Microsoft is done with their "Beta" program bullshit by then. I can't comprehend what got into their thick skulls to adopt this "service" model. Who would want to reconfigure their entire system every 6 months ? Who would want to have learning curve thrown at them every 6 months ? That's not it, every windows 10 update is broken in one way or the other. Latest Windows 10 update deleted personal data on some computers. Microsoft Warns Windows 10 Update Deletes Personal Data
Can you believe that? it's insane, even Beta softwares don't do shit like that. Couple it with forced telemetry and updates and you have a disaster.

Click to expand...

IMO, the whole point of W10 is to soften you up for the inevitable pay-per-click Azure-based Cloud OS.