I want to use win7 "forever" and never upgrade to win10

[xwray]

I'm trying to find out for certain if I can keep win7 as my OS from now on and not have to worry about Microsoft forcing an upgrade to win10. My reasons for not moving to win10 are irrelevant to the question.

No matter how I word the question on google all of the answers are biased toward what I need to do to upgrade to win10. I figured someone here might have some insight.

I'd appreciate any feedback...

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Well I don't see why not as long as you don't download and install win-10 preparation updates :/

 

[whs]

I understand that Win7 will stay current until 2020. An 'automatic' upgrade to Win10 is unlikely without your consent.

 

[jamis]

I thought the same way about XP and ran beyond support, but the mother board on the old Lenovo Thinkcentre died and I bought this ASUS tower with W7 on it as W8 was coming out. Think I'll stay with W7 until this one dies. Notice I skipped Vista and am skipping the W8s. Intend to avoid W10 as long as possible. Just hide all of the W10 related updates. There's a thread here in the Updates forum that will guide you through them.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

You can stay with Win 7 after it's EOL (End Of Life) of 01/14/2020 but you will increasingly susceptible to malware intrusions since MSpy will no longer support it. The only practical way to avoid the malware will be to completely isolate Win 7 from the internet.

 

[jadinolf]

I wonder if M$ will continue to shove Win 10 down out throats after next July 31?

It would be soooooooo nice to be able to relax.

 

[jamis]

I wonder if M$ will continue to shove Win 10 down out throats after next July 31?

It would be soooooooo nice to be able to relax.

Of course they will. Remember MS stated that W10 is the "last version" of Windows. At some point in time, W10 will have an equivalent patch (update) level of "SP2" and should be well enough understood to consider "upgrading" to W10. As for relaxing, "eternal vigilance is the price of a stable system".

 

[RolandJS]

I'm keeping my 3 MS blue-pack Windows 7 Pro on my 3 computers also. First one to capitulate buys a round of rootbeer.

 

[xwray]

Looks like I might not be the only one with these sentiments...thanks for the replies.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Looks like I might not be the only one with these sentiments...thanks for the replies.

Believe me, you have plenty of company.

 

[unrealRage]

As many users have said that Windows 7 support will end in 2020,but you can use it even after EOL.All you need is a bit of knowledge and a common sense.Use it as far as you think you're doing the right job protecting yourself and as far as Windows 7 is compatible with your software.
Heck even my dad uses Windows XP every day on the internet ,no problems so far.

We have plenty time until 2020; a lot of stuff can and will happen!

 

[unifex]

Well, I'm also intending to use Windows 7 as long as possible. I certainly don't care for the 2020 end of support. This only means the end of updates. And in fact, this not necessarily so, since my XP machine still gets some security updates from time to time, even though it's way past EOL for it. In any case, I don't really believe those updates are actually crucial. Using a hardware firewall in the router and behaving sensibly around the internet provides just enough protection. For example, I am using the said XP machine specifically to download stuff from the internet. The hardware is already old and very slow, so it's not practical to use for anything else. For that reason I run absolutely no security software on it. I plan to retire it as soon as I get around to do that, but in the meantime, it does its job just fine and no malware is creeping in.

The real issue with keeping an OS far beyond the end of support is that eventually you'd need new hardware and there might not be any drivers for the old OS. I have recently bought an Acer laptop only to find out that they are not officially supporting Windows 7 on it, just 8 and now 10. So I had to manually search the Acer site for various drivers and helper software (the one that runs extra keys and so on) for a long time until I found stuff that works. But even though I managed in this particular instance, next time I buy a laptop - or indeed upgrade my main desktop - I might no longer be able to find drivers for Windows 7 and will have to get whichever OS will be current at that time.

That said, I see absolutely no reason to "upgrade" to W10 on my current desktop. I don't even know why anyone would call it an "upgrade" and I see absolutely no improvement in my user experience, while the UI is dumbed down and plain ugly.

 

[gizmo78]

I plan to use WIN 7 as long at least two of my five '7' machines keep running. I've tried '10' and neither Mrs. Gizmo nor I like it. I think that as long as I use any browser other than I.E. [and I DO use OPERA 34], and run the VM program "Sandboxie" I can/could safely run without ANY Microsoft Important/Critical Updates...which means that I could replace a HD or reformat these 'factory built' computers indefinitely........which is exactly what I intend.

Giz

 

[bigmck]

I'm trying to find out for certain if I can keep win7 as my OS from now on and not have to worry about Microsoft forcing an upgrade to win10. My reasons for not moving to win10 are irrelevant to the question.

No matter how I word the question on google all of the answers are biased toward what I need to do to upgrade to win10. I figured someone here might have some insight.

I'd appreciate any feedback...

One thing you can do is to download Macrium Reflect Free and make an image of your system each week. If one day you wake up and find Windows 10 icons all over the desktop, just restore the Macrium image and you are back with Win 7.

 

[jadinolf]

Good idea except I do it every day.

 

[lehnerus2000]

You can stay with Win 7 after it's EOL (End Of Life) of 01/14/2020 but you will increasingly susceptible to malware intrusions since MSpy will no longer support it. The only practical way to avoid the malware will be to completely isolate Win 7 from the internet.

I suspect that will depend on how successful W10 is.

If W10 has 60% of the market in 2020, I suspect that most malware will be targeting it.

I didn't hear of a massive outbreak of XP malware after it went EOL, despite claims that "XP Armageddon" would occur within days of that event.

I did notice recently that MS has claimed that "W7 Armageddon" is about to happen to everyone who hasn't upgraded to W10 already.

Windows 7 is Unsafe according to Microsoft's Marketing Chief
Microsoft Warns Windows 7 Has Serious Problems

The only problems with W7 are the ones that MS is deliberately causing.

 

[bigmck]

You can stay with Win 7 after it's EOL (End Of Life) of 01/14/2020 but you will increasingly susceptible to malware intrusions since MSpy will no longer support it. The only practical way to avoid the malware will be to completely isolate Win 7 from the internet.

I suspect that will depend on how successful W10 is.

If W10 has 60% of the market in 2020, I suspect that most malware will be targeting it.

I didn't hear of a massive outbreak of XP malware after it went EOL, despite claims that "XP Armageddon" would occur within days of that event.

I did notice recently that MS has claimed that "W7 Armageddon" is about to happen to everyone who hasn't upgraded to W10 already.

OH GEE, I guess I better download Win 10 right now to be completely safe.

 

[jadinolf]

You can stay with Win 7 after it's EOL (End Of Life) of 01/14/2020 but you will increasingly susceptible to malware intrusions since MSpy will no longer support it. The only practical way to avoid the malware will be to completely isolate Win 7 from the internet.

I suspect that will depend on how successful W10 is.

If W10 has 60% of the market in 2020, I suspect that most malware will be targeting it.

I didn't hear of a massive outbreak of XP malware after it went EOL, despite claims that "XP Armageddon" would occur within days of that event.

I did notice recently that MS has claimed that "W7 Armageddon" is about to happen to everyone who hasn't upgraded to W10 already.

OH GEE, I guess I better download Win 10 right now to be completely safe.

Anybody know where I can download Windows 3.1?

 

[bigmck]

I suspect that will depend on how successful W10 is.

If W10 has 60% of the market in 2020, I suspect that most malware will be targeting it.

I didn't hear of a massive outbreak of XP malware after it went EOL, despite claims that "XP Armageddon" would occur within days of that event.

I did notice recently that MS has claimed that "W7 Armageddon" is about to happen to everyone who hasn't upgraded to W10 already.

OH GEE, I guess I better download Win 10 right now to be completely safe.

Anybody know where I can download Windows 3.1?

That was the first one I purchased. I had been DOS before that. It came on the 1.44 MB floppies. I think there were six floppies. That was top of the line stuff then along with the 300 baud modem. It seems so primitive now.

 

[jadinolf]

OH GEE, I guess I better download Win 10 right now to be completely safe.

Anybody know where I can download Windows 3.1?

That was the first one I purchased. I had been DOS before that. It came on the 1.44 MB floppies. I think there were six floppies. That was top of the line stuff then along with the 300 baud modem. It seems so primitive now.

Yep, same here.