What should we do after January 2020

machines

maxseven said:

...what I've learned as the years go by is that I am busier in retirement than I ever imagined I would be...

Tell me about it...

When W7 stops working to my satisfaction, then (and only then) will I consider how best to solve whatever problems I might have.

Not everyone's MO but that is mine at least insofar as either learning W10 or migrating to another OS are concerned.

I took the free upgrade on one W7 machine back in 2015. It took about 2 weeks to get over the 'culture shock' after which I could swap between W10 and W7 without hardly noticing.

If/when your W7 stops working to your satisfaction, trying W10 would probably be the easier option.

Just a quick note here to give a big "Thank You" to Lady Fitzgerald, poorguy, and Rokkor for your respective follow-up replies to my initial inquiry, and the numerous links to Linux-related sites & info!
(Also, my apologies for this unusually-delayed reply. Wasn't feeling too well & had to lie down for a bit).

There's certainly a lot to learn...and enough reading to occupy me for at least a couple of weeks. Thanks very much again!

Cheers!

Bree said:

I took the free upgrade on one W7 machine back in 2015. It took about 2 weeks to get over the 'culture shock' after which I could swap between W10 and W7 without hardly noticing.

If/when your W7 stops working to your satisfaction, trying W10 would probably be the easier option.

Yeah, I'd probably break-down and do that, but honestly at this point it feels like W10 might actually break (become untenable as an everyday OS option) before W7 does.

But I have an especially bad attitude about W10 today, as yesterday I wanted to do something ridiculously simple on the wife's W10 Acer laptop i.e. download the owner's manual for her new vehicle to it, and was flummoxed. Instead I got it on her MacBook and left the W10 alone!

All she does mostly with her Acer W10 is play games anyway!

SIW2 said:

Here is what Dedo has to say

Windows 7 end of support - What to do next guide

Love it, thanks for the link. I like first his Rule #1 which is Don't Panic! He concludes that new hardware will force the issue and I agree with that as well. I did purchase a 2nd identical laptop to the machine I use most critically, but... my brother-in-law got a new laptop with a high res screen--I will want to do that at some point for sure. Maybe by then MS will be up to W12 or something.

Hi All, I figured I'd throw my two cents in here and offer a suggestion that has worked great for me the last few months. I have about 30 years experience in the computer hobby, and have tried Win 8.1 and various Win10 versions (LTSB and LTSC in particular) and always come back to Win7 for it's performance and stability and great looking UI. Unfortunately I have found that using WSUSOffline, the Simplix Updater, or a very cool update script I found here, that when you get Win7 current on updates performance and stability really go downhill.

Over on askwoody I found a poster that supports a lot of PCs out in the field and he has put up a compelling article on his blog, that I decided to follow. He basically installs no updates after May 2017 as that's when he feels that update quality really got bad. I figured I'd try this out, and have been running my system a few months now this way. I use Waterfox with ublock origin, and privacy badger installed and obviously am careful where I go on the internet. I also tweak services and what not for performance/security. My system is mostly used for browsing and single player games. After following his procedure and only updating to May 2017, I have been rewarded with a very fast and very stable Win7 experience. I have been watching my system like a hawk with various utilities and I have seen nothing that suggests any security issues at all. And the best part is no longer worrying about what Microsoft will break next with the poor quality updates these days.

This may not suit all people, but for me it has been working fantastic!

Rebuild — Windows Update (September, 2019) | Canadian Tech

SIW2 said:

@Optiplex Owner
UpdatePack7R2-17.5.15.exe
654mb updates to may 2017, both bit versions, all languages, telemetry omitted.

The Simplix Pack is a very nice piece of software, as is WSUS Offline Update, and the update script found here: Integrate7 script – automatically download and slipstream all updates!

The various update methods above are huge time savers, it's too bad Microsoft has had so many quality problems with updates the last few years no doubt.

So having a Simplix Pack up to May 2017 that matches the CanadianTech article is perfect, thanks!