Is anyone still using Windows 7?

spapakons said:

I would rather use Windows XP than Linux...

I'm writing this from a Linux machine. Been using Linux for some years now. That's why Windows 7 is the last version of Windows that I own. And will only use this Windows 7 that I have because of the software that I bought to use with it years ago. Other than that, I'll never go back to Windows. I find that Linux is very nice, and that Windows really sucks. Speaking from experience.

I recently updated one of my Haswell machines to XP (I'm writing this post). RacoonPal is a good browser.

You can run "regular" Windows for x86-64 CPUs on an Apple Silicon Mac using EMULATION in UTM (virtual machine based on Qemu) but this will have a performance penalty. I don't know how much it will slow down, but it is a good compromise if you are stuck with Apple Silicon. I would rather spend the same money to get a MUCH better Windows PC or laptop.

UTM | Virtual machines for Mac

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sebs said:

I'm writing this from a Linux machine. Been using Linux for some years now. That's why Windows 7 is the last version of Windows that I own. And will only use this Windows 7 that I have because of the software that I bought to use with it years ago. Other than that, I'll never go back to Windows. I find that Linux is very nice, and that Windows really sucks. Speaking from experience.

With the known exception of Intel graphics drivers that are locked by Intel not to install in Windows 8 or higher, almost any other Vista or newer driver works in Windows 8/10/11. Of course the newer the better, but Windows 7 drivers should work if no newer are available. Also almost all applications and games also work on Windows 10/11. For all the deprecated features (Windows Media Center, gadgets etc) there are workarounds to bring them back on Windows 10 and 11. This is in case you want to try Windows again and for anyone else it might concern.

I still use it !! Don't care for 8, 10 or 11.

In my work we have some old computers still running Windows 7 32-bit. I use one Intel Quad Core and one Intel Celeron socket 478 (contemporary and slower than Intel Pentium 4 socket 478). The latter had only 512MB RAM running Windows XP. Finally I found some spare DDR RAM modules and managed to increase the RAM to 1.5GB (wow!) Then I decided I had enough with the limitations of Windows XP and it was about time to upgrade. In order not to lose any data and avoid reinstalling all our applications, I first upgraded to Windows Vista and then to Windows 7 32-bit which is the last OS it can run. I installed all the available updates, updated Firefox and Chrome to the latest compatible version (109) and now it is much better than running Windows XP. Since we can do our job, I see no reason to upgrade the Quad Core to Windows 10 yet. If it works, don't fix it, as they say. I even installed patchpae3 in the Quad Core to enable Windows 7 32-bit access the whole 4GB RAM. It is an improvement from 3.25GB to 4GB RAM, not much but noticeable. I wish I could install more RAM.

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Where to find patchpae3: GitHub - evgen-b/PatchPAE3: PAE patch for Windows 2K/XP - 10

I'm using Windows 7 for 14 years, and currently trying to switch to Windows 11.
I'm experimenting with W11 in a VM, but the interface is really bad. I had to ask ChatGPT in order to locate the control panel, as I could not find anything about it in search engines.
My main concern, though, is Windows 11 updating firmware for the BIOS. The region I live have constant power outages, so a real risk of having my MB bricked if the power goes off during one of these silent updates. I considered a nobreak but they are too noisy.
Some people reported changing the user policies to not update drivers but W11 defaults it after a normal update. I find this very invasive and disrespectful to the user.

Wolfstorm said:

My main concern, though, is Windows 11 updating firmware for the BIOS. The region I live have constant power outages, so a real risk of having my MB bricked if the power goes off during one of these silent updates. I considered a nobreak but they are too noisy.

Check with your motherboard manufacturer. Ever since motherboards implemented UEFI Capsule Updates, the only role of a properly designed "BIOS flasher" like Windows Update is to download and unzip the new firmware file into a special "available updates waiting to be installed" section of the motherboard's flash memory.

The motherboard is responsible for noticing that an updated version is available during boot-up and actually installing it and flash memory is cheap enough that a responsible motherboard manufacturer should be doing the same kind of A/B updating that things like Android OTA use.

(A/B updating is basically the fully automatic, "all in a single chip" counterpart to Gigabyte DualBIOS, where it has space allocated for two copies of the UEFI firmware (A and B) and a bit that acts as a "Which copy should I try to boot using?" switch. To do A/B updating you overwrite the copy you're not using and then only flip the switch to point to it after the update has completed and you've run all your safety checks. If you know how double-buffering works in graphics, think double-buffering but for firmware updates.)

...though, personally, I'd recommend buying a UPS. I live in the countryside and, while power outages are infrequent, I can't remember how I lived without a battery to ride over power flickers and give me the ability to save my work and cleanly shut down during extended outages. (Well, that and I'm glad that my needs for PCs with Internet connectivity can be met with Linux and my needs for gaming can be met with my stable of Internet-less Windows 7, XP, and 98SE PCs. Windows 11 is indeed bad.)

Nope, this is my old account I just found looking in my emails! So cool to be back on my old account I forgot about :P

I now use Windows 11.... and my PC is way better than it was back then -- though, my rtx 3070 is not what I want. I ordered a 5090 and I guess someone stole it because UPS can't find it. I guess I'll accept the refund and be happy with what I have.

I been using windows 7 embedded in pro mode since 2018, never had it crash on me, and i been to some shady websites. Why said windows 7 is not secure, when it works flawlessly for years and years on the same laptop. My laptop hardware is probably going to die before windows 7 becomes too corrupt to boot lol. My laptop originally came with 10 and i crashed it with in a week, that's when i knew, there is no way i am going to deal with such horrible made windows. I am still using it, the only problem, i cant update browsers data so now credit card websites block me. lol. (I usually use my laptop for downloads and sometimes leave it on for 12 hrs online at a time) so this is not a ones a week online, this is everyday i go on the internet, still stable since 2018, not a single reinstall.

Which brings me to my question. Is there is a older browser that can support internet radio player, like there player on there website, but has the ability to resume playback after system resume? i used to be able to do that with no problem, but as the browser got updates, it no longer works and it stops the player when system goes into hibernate mode.

I still use windows 7 along with windows 10 dual-boot. I like it because its highly stable and simple and it has no ads, almost no telemetry. I regularly use the internet on it, watch videos, run software and browse the internet. It works pretty well, although you can't play new games with a rare exception and most new non open source software. I should add I am able to a nvme drive on it as well although its not natively supported by using a tool by msi which adds this. This works for non-msi motherboards as well!