Windows 7 End of Support

Exactly, some people need certain products that are dependent on telemetry, but I think people should get the choice in settings how much telemetry they want to go back. then if it is on the expense that the product may not be as user-friendly. But we all should have the choice, companies should not make the choice for us.

I got a smartphone the first years when android came, but I disliked the tracking so I stopped using it and went back to my dumbphone. I have a newer smartphone lying around and also a tablet. But this only to keep up with technology so I can help family and friends with their stuff.
I have also tested, dissected, manipulated and ripped win10 to pieces on my lab computer so I will be able to help others.. everything modified will be restored at the next major update of win10.... so me and win10 are still not friends. Hahaha.
win10 Enterprise seems to be the best because it requires the least modification to get rid of spyware and bloatware. But it is also the most expensive.

yes i know about volume licenses. even private individuals can buy them, but it is expensive. If you are 20-50 people you can buy one together and share the cost, the first is the most expensive then I think it is 10-15 dollars per computer/device
the difference between pro and enterprise is that pro has bloatware and more telemetry/spyware. Enterprise does not have cortana, or microsoft-store etc.
and this is why i dislike win10..
it is possible to modify the pro install iso so that the installation becomes an enterprise scaled version. The problem is that everything will be sabotaged at the next big update as win10 is now more of a rolling release and what you have removed and changed will be restored. So all the work/tweek is useless

I thank you for the tip about Winaero Tweaker if anyone in my acquaintance wants to modd win10
For my part, I will probably never have to get a win10 computer. I have been running linux as my main OS for almost a year now. and during that time I have only had to use windows8.1 three or four times, that I haven't solved in linux yet.
I have multiboot win7/linux/linux and win8.1/linux/linux on four of my computers in case I end up in a situation where I need windows.

but I have my retro computers with windows 3.1 up to win7 so I will keep windows even if I don't have it for everyday use.

Barman58 said:

I started on Unix and cp/m and moved to a lot of other basic monochrome text systems until MS-DOS then Windows appeared and switched more or less at the same time as the rest of the technical sector of British industry.

I did a lot of programming and systems design on operating systems for user interface design that only a few people in the industry would even recognise or remember, I found after a while that the Systems admin side of thing meant I saw my kids more than a few times a year, and although the financial possibilities were less attractive - money is not everything.

In the end I did the locally based admin work as a main job and just occasionally went to site work when requested and it suited me - Obviously the Systems side of things was windows based with a Workstation and server base. Before long even the programing/design was running of a windows base with even graphics being drawn and then auto-coded to make the system work - Some even allowed the design to be drawn and the system itself wrote the background code in a language such as C or C#, which could then be manually fine tuned in the code

Basically with my history there is not much that worries me, especially since I went independent a few years ago ...

Okay. I started with MS-dos back in 1987 and my first experience with windows was 3.1
I am completely self taught with hardware and software, I did a bit of hacking software and also online hacking of corporate servers between 1994 up to 2005 when one day the police came and took me by the ear. Hahaha
After that experience I stepped back on the right side of the law and I started studying 2009 and getting education and grades on my IT skills.
I think it was 1999or2000 I tried linux for the first time, but I gave up after a month when linux at that time felt a bit like old ms-dos in my eyes and I wanted the graphical interface. In 2018 I tried linux again and since almost a year back I use linux as my main OS.

So I, like you, do not worry much about computers and operating systems either. Most things can be modified to your own needs.
The only question is how much time it's worth spend on modifying something.

Simplix 23.1.11 Update (the last one, we expect) is now released.

Simplix (the author, that is) is a true Win 7 hero in my view. For quire some years, month after month, a simple method of updating a live Win 7 system with MS' protection against hacks (at least, that is MS viewpoint) without the spyware, telemetry and other snoopies was on freeware offer to a well-forecast timetable. Update stuff-ups were rare.

Not too many programmes can offer that sort of history. Yes, from one viewpoint, the programme simply bundled monthly MS updates into one applicable executable while removing the attributes we didn't want or need. But it worked - almost flawlessly.