What To Do After Jan 2020

[RoWin7]

I'm planning to stay with 7, as I stayed with XP 3 safely years after updates ended. I still have that machine. The real problem starts when A-V's stop supporting 7.

 

[Barman58]

3rd party security support should not be an issue, as the commercial/Business sector are only now switching to Windows 7 from XP.

There are many reasons for this including an IT industry that got overly comfortable with XP due to it being the only choice for far too long and did not want to change.

There is also the more understandable reason that the state of business over the last twenty years has not been the best for investment in operating systems, and the expensive computers and hardware to run them.

The new rolling system model of Windows 10 should be much more "Business Friendly", than other as it lends itself to the preferred hardware lease policy of business, Industry and Government and Education, and indeed some are already moving to Windows 10.

Although the situation with Windows 7 and the business world means that software and compatible hardware and their drivers, (most important), should continue to be available, the pricing model will likely change considerably, as the balance of usage changes more to Business.

It is possible that we may see the amount of free software in the security field dropping drastically as Business does not trust free stuff and are prepared to pay full price, or the dreaded Lease system that allows the seller And the Buyer to better plan expenditure. This will also affect the type of licence available in the security field - many are already moving from the old perpetual, (lifetime) licence to the Leased annual licence as the software must, due to its basic function, be continuously updated and this is an expensive process. My Commercial Bitdefender is updated hourly to give an example of what is expected by business.

So Yes staying with Windows 7 is a perfectly viable option for the individual, but, and it's a big "but", users must be prepared to pay for the choice

 

[RoWin7]

TMI. Are you saying there will be security software for those of us not in business, but the free versions might disappear? For 2 machines, I don't use the same versions as businesses do. XP no longer has A-V support, does it?

 

[Barman58]

I do not know how the software industry will react but expect them to react in the best way for them and their shareholders.

If the "market" for free versions of software, the "Loss Leaders" of the industry, reduces then it may well become less viable to provide these and to change to another sales model, these companies are trying to make money and will look at the financial results of an OS becoming obsolete and unsupported, and act in their best interest.

The work, and cost, involved for the third party software developers in supporting Obsolete Operating Systems is always going to be considerably more without the regular input from the OS developer, this cost has to be met by someone and so the Free options are likely to reduce or disappear.

If you look at options for XP you will see that they are not as great as they once were, Microsoft stopped AV/AM support back in 2014 and thus all vulnerabilities in the OS discovered after that point are still there unpatched, (With some famous exceptions), but some security companies still support it at a basic level, Avast and AVG that I know of, ( Good news for XP users is that Mcafee is no longer available for the OS ).

I do not expect the reaction to the EOL of Windows 7 will be any better than to XP which of course was around for a lot longer.

Support is not going to disappear at the exact moment of the EOL of Windows 7 but it will change at some time after this, If there is a possibility to make money for the security industry from Windows 7 they will support it but with reduced usage the Free offers will not be a viable option for the companies and so will cease.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Backup Images

I'm planning to stay with 7, as I stayed with XP 3 safely years after updates ended. I still have that machine. The real problem starts when A-V's stop supporting 7.

Loss of AV support just means you need to makes sure you have plenty of Backup Images.

It will only be an issue if someone releases a "super worm", like the one people claimed would infect XP during the installation process (before you could install an AV).

As a result of those claims, I've always installed Windows with the network disconnected.
Doing that saved me from the online MS accounts, during my W8 testing and W10 installations.

Of course you could just keep W7 disconnected from networks.

 

[Deleted690]

try Windows 8.(if you don't like metro tiles or whatever, install classic shell.)
if you didn't like windows 8, you may stay with windows 7, once after i revived my old winXP machine, Windows XP still works fine without support. While using windows 7, you may have some good AV(antivirus)/AM(antimalware), then it's possible to contuine using windows 7.
You may try using Ubuntnu, it's always better than windows, as mrphelphels said.

Windows 10 sucks! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

 

[tetraps]

8.1 with Classic Shell is very close to Windows 7, along with many improvements.

I just with I could use OneDrive on 8.1 without using an MS account for logging into Windows.

 

[Barman58]

The Microsoft account or Microsoft ID is a reasonable requirement for Microsoft to provide free Cloud Storage - There are other free services such as google which also requires an appropriate Google ID or Account.

There are other options that do not require a specific email or account but they do need you to provide certain details if only so they know how to bill you for use of their Cloud storage.

There were many more free access cloud sites in the past , which also required an email address to use - unfortunately most, if not all, have been closed due to their use by the users to store pirated media and software

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...There were many more free access cloud sites in the past , which also required an email address to use - unfortunately most, if not all, have been closed due to their use by the users to store pirated media and software

Or, far more likely, due to a lack of profit. People can use the paid sites to store pirated media and software just as well.

 

[lehnerus2000]

The Microsoft account or Microsoft ID is a reasonable requirement for Microsoft to provide free Cloud Storage - There are other free services such as google which also requires an appropriate Google ID or Account.

Obviously if you want to use various online services you need an account (login/password).


The issue in W8 & W10 was that MS tried to make it seem like you had to use an online account.

If your network was connected, the installer sequence was cunningly setup and the descriptions were worded in such a way as to confuse ordinary users (crapware & malware tactics).

Notice the installers don't mention "Local Account".
The W10 installer was even worse than the W8 one.

​

If you weren't connected to a network the installers took you to the "Create Local Account" screen.

 

[tetraps]

The Microsoft account or Microsoft ID is a reasonable requirement for Microsoft to provide free Cloud Storage - There are other free services such as google which also requires an appropriate Google ID or Account.

There are other options that do not require a specific email or account but they do need you to provide certain details if only so they know how to bill you for use of their Cloud storage.

There were many more free access cloud sites in the past , which also required an email address to use - unfortunately most, if not all, have been closed due to their use by the users to store pirated media and software

I think you misunderstood or I wasn't clear in my previous post. Allow me to clarify.

I do have a OneDrive/MS account. I just don't want to use my MS account for logging into 8.1. I prefer a local login for a variety of reasons. For example, a couple months ago users who have MS logins were locked out of their systems after the monthly security updates. I have no need for things like the Windows Store, either.

The only way I can access my OneDrive outside of the web interface on 8.1 is to map it as a network drive, which I have done. That's obviously slow and not ideal for accessing big files.

I don't expect to be able to use such a service without a login. I just wish I could use a local account on 8.1 but still install or use OneDrive. As it is I'm locked out of the OneDrive desktop app unless I use my MS account to log into 8.1. Unless I'm mistaken this is not the case on Win 10 - you can use a local login with Win 10 but still install the OneDrive desktop app and use it as you would on 7.

I mainly use Dropbox for files I access every day, whereas I use OneDrive for less frequently accessed materials or longer-term backups. Also heavily depend on Google Drive and manage way too many sheets and docs in there. Still, it would be nice to be able to use the OneDrive desktop app on 8.1 without needing to use my MS account to log into the OS itself.

 

[Barman58]

As far as I am aware the major difference between use of a Microsoft Account to a local account is ...

With a Microsoft account when you sign in you are automatically signed in to any other service that requires signing, This includes Windows Apps and Cloud services.

With a local account you can still use the same apps and services but you will need to log in separately in each one, so it should be possible to use a local account and login to Onedrive using a microsoft account

I always use a Microsoft account so cannot confirm or deny this but it is as I say my understanding.

The other thing that logging in with a Microsoft account gives is the ability to Re-activate a system with major hardware changes, (Motherboard replacement), automatically

 

[tetraps]

With a local account you can still use the same apps and services but you will need to log in separately in each one, so it should be possible to use a local account and login to Onedrive using a microsoft account

It's not the case on 8.1, at least for OneDrive which is integrated with the OS in such a way that if you don't use an MS account to log into Windows you cannot use the OneDrive app. If you try to install the OneDrive desktop app separately in a local account, you still won't be able to access it. The OneDrive app in 8.1 is walled off unless you use an MS account to log into Windows.

onedrive wont install on windows 8.1 - Microsoft Community
Two big shortcomings of OneDrive on Windows 8.1 - Microsoft Community

 

[Barman58]

I've just checked - signed in with a local account (I always create one on all systems as a backdoor access), this had never been used so it went into the setups and then "Introduced me to Onedrive" - iI then signed in as Me using my Microsoft account credentials and it worked fine

This is on Windows 10 Pro FCU 1709 Fully patched

 

[tetraps]

This is on Windows 10 Pro FCU 1709 Fully patched

I've already explained this is an issue on 8.1 only, not 10. Your result is as expected because you are using 10.

this is not the case on Win 10 - you can use a local login with Win 10 but still install the OneDrive desktop app and use it as you would on 7.

The integration with OneDrive and 8.1 is different - see the links I posted above. You cannot use the OneDrive desktop app on 8.1 unless you sign into Windows with your MS account.

 

[RoWin7]

How does Linux compare in the number of programs it can run?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

How does Linux compare in the number of programs it can run?

Nailing it down to numbers would be kind of tricky. There are a lot of programs available for Linux but how many would depend on what kind of programs. For example, professional music engraving programs (programs used to professionally create sheet music for publishing), such as Allegro or Sibelius (actually, those two are the industry standard), are available for Windows and Mac but not for Linux. The same is true of some other professional programs. However, equivalents for more mundane programs are usually available, some of which also work in Windows and or Mac.

 

[mrjimphelps]

How does Linux compare in the number of programs it can run?

If you are asking, "How many can Linux run at the same time?", I think that depends on how much memory your computer has. I have Linux Mint 18.2 64-bit, with 4 GB of RAM in my computer, and I have never had any problem running a whole lot of stuff all at the same time.

My guess is that you could run more in 64-bit Linux than 32-bit Linux, but that is only a guess.

I haven't tried to push the envelope here by loading everything plus the kitchen sink all at the same time, so I don't know how far I could go with this. But so far, so good...

 

[RoWin7]

No, I was just wondering if Linux has substitutes for the most common Windows programs. I've never used it. But Lady Fitzgerald already replied.

I'll concern myself with it in 2020.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

No, I was just wondering if Linux has substitutes for the most common Windows programs. I've never used it. But Lady Fitzgerald already replied.

I'll concern myself with it in 2020.

Some you may want to look at now include PDF Studio Pro 12 to replace Adobe Acrobat Standard and LibreOffice to replace MS Office. Both have versions that work in Windows and Linux.

I'm still using Win 7 but I've already completely divorced me from Adobe, using PDF Studio in its place (along with Foxit Reader to regain PDF reading capability in IE11). I haven't removed Office 2010 from my computers yet but I'm already using LibreOffice pretty much exclusively. LibreOffice, with some limitations, can work with MS Office files and save work as MS Office file but I'm using LibreOffice files and PDFs with the LO files embedded to make editing easier to save my work. I've also experiment with VueScan to replace the native Windows software in my two scanners. VueScan is also compatible with Linux.

Using these programs in Windows gives me the chance to learn how to use them before I switch over to Linux, reducing the sudden learning curve I will have to deal with.

Other programs that work in both Windows and Linux include Plex media Server and FreeCad. I haven't had time to fool with either one...yet.