Is anyone still using Windows 7?

my Rule is simple

Any device with SSD, then ok to run Windows 10/11. Otherwise. very low. Slow boot. slow start. slow search. . . slow forever.
non-SSD device (IDE PATA , , ,) better stay with W7. good support on drivers. good performance. This has been proved by many W7 users.

siliconbeaver said:

non-SSD device (IDE PATA , , ,) better stay with W7. good support on drivers. good performance. This has been proved by many W7 users.

That's what $3 Aliexpress IDE-to-SATA converters and inexpensive SATA SSDs are for. Ensuring that every computer, whether DOS, Windows 3.1x, Windows 9x, Windows XP, Windows 7, or the newer "got fed up and migrated to Linux" era can enjoy the benefits of SSDs. :P

(And IDE-era macs too. For the earlier stuff, you'll need one of those SCSI-to-SD Card converters.)

There are rare IDE SSDs for old computers but cost too much. The best is to upgrade to a SATA SSD with a SATA-to-IDE adapter if the motherboard is too old to have SATA ports. I have done it with a SATA HDD and it worked great. I haven't tried with a SATA SSD, but it should be OK and work at the maximum speed allowed by the IDE 80-pin port. Much faster than any IDE disk. Just make sure you use a 480GB or less capacity, it might not work with very large disks, and always set it to master for best performance and compatibility, not slave.

Yes. It does nearly everything 11 does except AI and doesn't come with spyware.

spapakons said:

There are rare IDE SSDs for old computers but cost too much. The best is to upgrade to a SATA SSD with a SATA-to-IDE adapter if the motherboard is too old to have SATA ports. I have done it with a SATA HDD and it worked great. I haven't tried with a SATA SSD, but it should be OK and work at the maximum speed allowed by the IDE 80-pin port. Much faster than any IDE disk. Just make sure you use a 480GB or less capacity, it might not work with very large disks, and always set it to master for best performance and compatibility, not slave.

There should be no need to use IDE drives anymore. I have a 20 year old computer that originally only came with IDE ports. I installed a PCI card that has 2 SATA ports. I have 2 SATA drives connected to them. I boot from one of them. However, the SATA ports on this card don't support ATAPI which means I have to use a IDE port for the CD/DVD drive.

Note I have two old computers that I boot from SATA drives instead of their original IDE ones. They are running Windows XP instead of Windows 7. Their CPUs don't support SSE2 which is required for Windows 7 updates beyond a certain date. The updates will try to install but crash. I have to run system restore every time that happens which is a real pain.

BTW, I tried a SATA to IDE adapter but it trashed a perfectly good SATA drive when I tried to format it.

Can SSD work well on XP? no trimming?

I wouldn't try new technology on very old computer. my XP will run what it has. DDR2, SATA II HDD, NIC , , , I was using PCIe slot for CLOVER Windows 11 boot. but no longer. native XP is good and stable.

However, my Windows 7 will be upgrading. DDR4, NVMe SSD, WIFI, , , no old technology any more. If needed, could switch to Windows 11 in second.

According to SIW2's note, those old items (8th gen CPU or older) will be land-fill soon when Microsoft ends support on Windows 10.

Buying new PC - what hardware won't allow Windows 7?

MisterEd said:

There should be no need to use IDE drives anymore. I have a 20 year old computer that originally only came with IDE ports. I installed a PCI card that has 2 SATA ports. I have 2 SATA drives connected to them. I boot from one of them. However, the SATA ports on this card don't support ATAPI which means I have to use a IDE port for the CD/DVD drive.

Note I have two old computers that I boot from SATA drives instead of their original IDE ones. They are running Windows XP instead of Windows 7. Their CPUs don't support SSE2 which is required for Windows 7 updates beyond a certain date. The updates will try to install but crash. I have to run system restore every time that happens which is a real pain.

BTW, I tried a SATA to IDE adapter but it trashed a perfectly good SATA drive when I tried to format it.

siliconbeaver said:

According to SIW2's note, those old items (8th gen CPU or older) will be land-fill soon when Microsoft ends support on Windows 10.

Not necessarily, it's easy enough to bypass the compatibility checks when installing or upgrading to Windows 11. The only hard requirement for W11 24H2 is that the CPU must have that SSE4.2 instruction set. For Intel that started with the 1st gen CPUs. I have W11 24H2 running well on a 1st gen i5.

Hi all and thanks for the ad. I have today returned to Win 7. Simply all above it is rubbish, I have gotten 99% of the updates from MS so all good. I had forgotten how good 7 was/is. I have put it on a dell Optiplex 9020 and it runs beautifully. 16 gig of ram and a 1tb ssd. The os came from Dell. Thats it for now i guess. I am a 69 year old Aussie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUngQcyOXIw

i luv it,
running it on my old Acer 6930, only got 4gig of ram, but with a 500 ssd, little bit slow of course
bitdefender free AV, Opera GX and Palemoon browsers, wifi is a 300mb card (5ghz)
Man my 6930 is the best laptop i've ever had, its a beast if i could hack the Max Ram i'd use it as my daily
(had Xp/Vista/10/11/Mint on it give me 7 anyday)