Windows 7 End of Support

It's super weird still seeing some familiar names around here, even the admins (totally missed all of you guys ).

I keep coming back to SF for the Focus Rectangle Remover thread I posted years and years ago, 'cause I've been working with a lot of computers over the past two years and, like the idiot that I am, I keep forgetting to keep a copy with me on a thumbdrive and instead just come here to directly download it to the computer I'm working on every once in a while. BTW it totally works on W10... most of the time lol

I'm honestly not surprised the forums are still up and about, and users are still active. I finally ditched Win7 two years ago, and I still kind of miss its simplicity and ease of customization (in terms of third party themes, compared to which 10 is an absolute mess) - but some basic improvements in 10 that resolved my gripes with 7 and even 8.1 made me stick with it.

And let me just say, I avoid the regular Home and Pro version like the plague - I use and will recommend LTSB 2016 (don't ask me about licensing, Microsoft doesn't deserve my money anymore; I don't want to comment on that further because, IIRC, it's against SF rules) to anyone. No Cortana, no Edge, no Store, just the Xbox DVR shell (no app) and that horrible Settings app. And I like it. I mean, I don't like it, but I can live with it. The old, basic transparency options look horrible in LTSB 2016 and there aren't plenty of third party themes to choose from these days, but I've grown used to the look of 10 - mostly because I disabled literally everything - app notifications, task view (don't need it, and will definitely not use it once LTSB 2019 comes out with that timeline thing lol), search icon is hidden, everything I need is pinned on the taskbar and I literally only use the start menu to shut down or restart.

I did at one point use elementary OS for a few months and had settled into it quite nicely, but the lack of support for my Steam library (even recently with Steam play) did not keep me on it, and I've started to avoid dual booting because grub is terrible and I have no patience to tweak all that spaghetti code.

And I absolutely still hate the update process on 10, even on LTSB which only gets security updates. Every new monthly update takes longer to install than the previous one, it sometimes fails and rolls back and then I have to re-download everything and waste, like, two hours of my free time dealing with this crap. Windows Defender is more intrusive than how MSE worked on 7, still sending me loud notifications in the middle of the night ('cause my PC is always on and I sleep to music), and after every update I find some of the options reset to default that I have to change again. Ugh!


I've said it many times before, and I'll say it again - I honestly wish Apple bit the bullet and allowed OSX to be installed on any computer - they could easily just put out a statement saying that they will not offer official technical support for the OS that is not installed on their own machines - and Microsoft would be DONE! Even gaming developers having easier (and much cheaper) access to an alternative OS to work on (which still has a bigger userbase than all Linux distros combined, AFAIK, might be wrong on that one) would bring more games to Apple's ecosystem and, Steam or no Steam, would probably make them more money (app store integration, anyone?)

Windows 10 is still a mess, years after release and with all the feature updates so far. MS cast a wide net, then tried to store liquid in it - everything they do seems to sip through, meaningless and more annoying than useful; they STILL haven't lined up their UI. All that talk about fluent design made me laugh at loud.

And I would still be on 7 if the updates offered weren't absolutely terrible, bogging down my performance and being annoying to work with these days. I don't want to play a game of hit and miss with OS updates anymore, I've had enough of that with 10 already.

Brds7t7 said:

Wonder if I can keep running Windows 7 for the next 20 years?

I don't see why not.

My XP install is still going strong and I haven't noticed any issues with my XP VMs either.

Gornot said:

And I would still be on 7 if the updates offered weren't absolutely terrible, bogging down my performance and being annoying to work with these days. I don't want to play a game of hit and miss with OS updates anymore, I've had enough of that with 10 already.

The simple solution to that issue is don't install MS' W7 updates and use Backup Images instead.

My W7 PCs are updated to December 2017 and I create Macrium Reflect Images every month (All of my personal files are stored on separate partitions).

It works for W10 too.
My W10 1703 installs (Pro VM and Home laptop) have run flawlessly since I blocked/disconnected them from our network.

I'm forced to use 10 at work and I've disabled Cortana although I still have the search box but I've simplified it to just the magnifier icon. I haven't tried customizations because it isn't my computer. I don't have to worry about windows update since they use a managed update system. I can use 10 at work but I don't like it. I have a copy of 2016 on a virtual machine but I don't really use it. I really don't want to go with 10 ever. I don't trust it and I don't trust M$ with it. If I do downgrade from 7 it'll be to 8.1 or 2012 r2 with classic shell. After that I'll probably go back to mac. Of course M$ wants everyone to use it that way that can trap people into using it before doing whatever it is that they plan on doing. Be it integrated ads, renting it out, and/or selling user's information or something even worse. I can't think of what could be worse but it wouldn't surprise me if they come up with something. They would have to overhaul it drastically and change policies before I would even consider using it and I find that highly unlikely.

townsbg said:

I'm forced to use 10 at work and I've disabled Cortana although I still have the search box but I've simplified it to just the magnifier icon. I haven't tried customizations because it isn't my computer. I don't have to worry about windows update since they use a managed update system. I can use 10 at work but I don't like it. I have a copy of 2016 on a virtual machine but I don't really use it. I really don't want to go with 10 ever. I don't trust it and I don't trust M$ with it. If I do downgrade from 7 it'll be to 8.1 or 2012 r2 with classic shell. After that I'll probably go back to mac. Of course M$ wants everyone to use it that way that can trap people into using it before doing whatever it is that they plan on doing. Be it integrated ads, renting it out, and/or selling user's information or something even worse. I can't think of what could be worse but it wouldn't surprise me if they come up with something. They would have to overhaul it drastically and change policies before I would even consider using it and I find that highly unlikely.

Even if the did overhaul it drastically and change policies, there is no way I could ever trust MS again.

mrjimphelps said:

The "icing on the cake" for me was when, in spite of the GWX Control Panel being installed on his computer (and set to block a Windows 10 upgrade), Microsoft upgraded my father in law's computer to Windows 10, bricking his computer in the process.

Yes that was a terrible way to handle it but how did it get installed without any action taken by him? I blocked it on my Mom's computer and she never got 10.