Beyond Windows 7

[msalton1]

On the link MS releases SP2 for Windows 7 you will find all the offline updates

Thanks for the link...and for your work in keeping the thread current.

 

[msalton1]

Anything beyond Kaby Lake and it won't work. The motherboard manufacturers only have Win 10 drivers.

If you use Kaby Lake then updates won't work without a hack from Github.

Is there any advantage to using Kaby Lake & hack over going with Skylake or older?

 

[Pete4]

My new Coffee Lake cpu laptop has 6 cores, compared to my older Haswell 4cores and is almost twice as fast in Cinebench15, so yes there is a reason to go with newer cpu. I bite the bullet and learned how to fix most of the major flaws in Win10, so actually it's not that bad and for everything else is Linux. My Win7 computers should run fine with or without MS support for at least few more years as well, so I'm not too worried, since by then PC will become irrelevant, being replaced by phone. As a matter of fact my phone can do about 60% of things my PC can already and some things PC can't at all.

 

[townsbg]

It is not possible to hinder Windows 10 from leaking all the mentioned data. Finding and using the offered options to minimize the amounts of shared information is difficult and time consuming even for experienced users. On top of that, the majority of user-made changes towards privacy is reverted with every Windows update.

I suspect that it'll be very difficult for 10 to phone home if you never connect to the internet. But who's going to do that.

 

[file3456]

You can stop all that with a hardware-based firewall like a nettop and Pfsense. That's my plan when I do go Win 10. I will be blocking all of MS's ASNs. If I need MS I'll use my VPN. I'll also watch the SNMP port and make sure the OS isn't communicating with other IPs it shouldn't.

No updates, but as it stands now, I don't use them. I do have about 4 for certain things, but that's it.

 

[SIW2]

Is there any advantage to using Kaby Lake & hack over going with Skylake or older?

Not really.

UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-3570 vs i5-7400


Ivybridge board with decent Quad core ( e.g. i5 -3570s) and ssd is more than most people need.
Adventurous types can use use bios mod to boot from pcie nvme - nearly all ivybridge boards will support it.
That will keep you going for many years.

It is possible to use win7 with coffee lake, it requires a separate graphics card. But only a tiny number of people need 6 or 8 cores.

 

[file3456]

.

It is possible to use win7 with coffee lake, it requires a separate graphics card. But only a tiny number of people need 6 or 8 cores.

The motherboards for a Coffee Lake CPU are 300 series and I've looked and the MOBO manufacturer only supplies Win 10 drivers. So whether those work in 7 I don't know.

 

[file3456]

For me personally, I require damn good single threading capability for Flight Simulator FSX. FSX is only single threaded and to make matters worse CPU orientated. The highest CPU I could do without going Xeon is the i7 7700K. My board is only a 200 series board so Coffee Lake is out. And I just built this computer two years ago. No way I'm replacing this perfectly good working board. And there's no way in hell's half acre I'm going Win 10 yet. Maybe in seven to ten years I will. LOL

 

[SIW2]

The motherboards for a Coffee Lake CPU are 300 series and I've looked and the MOBO manufacturer only supplies Win 10 drivers. So whether those work in 7 I don't know.

ASUS select win7 in the dropdown - win7 bios, audio, lan,usb, chipset,sata
H310M-E R2.0 | Motherboards | ASUS USA




Gigabyte, example:




No graphics drivers- separate graphics card needed.

 

[SIW2]

Win7 with 16 core Ryzen Threadripper:

 

[offgrid]

I believe the support end date for Win 7 is what...Jan 2020? So what are people planning to do beyond that? I have 5 machines here, all running win 7 except for one win 8 machine that I've configured to be pretty much like win 7.



Is win 10 still the privacy crippled dumbed down smartphone-like OS it was when I tried it (pre-release)?



Can the settings be secured to maintain privacy and security? Can one get under the hood?


I'll probably think about going with Linux for some machines, but I need windows for some of my business software. I guess I could run it in a VM, but would want good performance and a no-hassle operation.


I'm rambling. Is win 10 "doable" for us diehard win 7 users? What are others here planning after it's over?

As someone who has tried Windows 10 for 2 years and scrapped it completely please allow my input, based on my own experience. Windows 10 is an exercise in frustration, don't take my word for it, read some of the articles from How to Geek. Even noteworthy Windows diehards like Leo Notenboom have castigated Windows for their feeble efforts to make a decent workable OS out of Windows 10.
Windows 10 has become what the Linux world calls a rolling distribution. Which means no new release, just ongoing updates. Some Linux distro's handle this well, others not so well, but all do it better than Microsoft.
After 2 years of frustration and problems with Windows 10, I sold my last Windows 10 laptop and bought a
MacBook which I have been using for one month. My only regret it that I ever went with Windows in the first place. I am posting this using my old trusty Windows 7 laptop, slow as snails but rock solid stable. I would stay with Windows 7 forever if they would support it (which they wont). Given Microsoft's arrogance and disdain for the end user, there is only one option for computer life after Windows 7, it's called Mac.
Most of the computer users in my immediate family have already switched and even the diehard Windows fans are considering it. Windows 10 is the best thing that ever happened, for Linux and Apple.

 

[ian50]

Win10 privacy trash

Just a few words on what private data Windows 10 by default allow itself to send to Microsoft:

System Information

• unique advertising ID (shared with 3rd party to track the user)
• unique UUID (e.g. used by NSA to track and attack devices)
• system configuration
• programs crashes
• all installed programs

Users Data

• emails, text messages (e.g. Skype)
• video and audio chat (e.g. Skype)
• contacts from the address book (address, email, phone, etc.)
• precise location (Wifi, GPS)
• Bitlocker recovery keys (these keys decrypt encrypted data, so Bitlocker encryption is pointless)

Users Interest and Behavior

• full browsing history
• app interactions (e.g. a weather app sends locations often requested)
• usage time and frequency of programs
• typing input and behavior
• search requests

Microsoft even admits that the collected data can be tied to the unique user. As all big companies (e.g. Microsoft) have to share data with security authorities (e.g. NSA, GCHQ) on request and furthermore freely share huge amounts of user data, it is safe to say that every piece of data Microsoft has is available to e.g. the NSA as well. Meanwhile the NSA steadily exchanges their information with other agencies around the world. Furthermore most companies sell user data to tracking and advertisement firms.

It is not possible to hinder Windows 10 from leaking all the mentioned data. Finding and using the offered options to minimize the amounts of shared information is difficult and time consuming even for experienced users. On top of that, the majority of user-made changes towards privacy is reverted with every Windows update.

Sources:
Betriebssysteme: Windows

Windows 10’s privacy policy is the new normal | Ars Technica

Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft | Ars Technica

What Data Does Windows 10 Send to Microsoft? Techquickie - YouTube

Thank you for this information.


It is beyond terrifying.

 

[SIW2]

You think Google is any different?

 

[z3r010]

All out of date claptrap, MSFT is not spying, they collect telemetry from agreed insiders, the spying stuff you read now is just Luddite paranoia from people that do not know that they are talking about.

 

[ian50]

You think Google is any different?

Of course not. How does that absolve MS and Win10 ?


Lucky Zucky and his InYourFace Book is probably even more corrupt in leveraging privacy. That too does not absolve MS and Win10.

 

[offgrid]

Of course not. How does that absolve MS and Win10 ?


Lucky Zucky and his InYourFace Book is probably even more corrupt in leveraging privacy. That too does not absolve MS and Win10.

+1

 

[lehnerus2000]

I suspect that it'll be very difficult for 10 to phone home if you never connect to the internet. But who's going to do that.

That's the way I run my W10 Pro 1703 VM (using VMware Player on Linux Mint 18.3).

Not only do I not have to worry about MS' garbage code updates, W10 also can't send anything to them.

All out of date claptrap, MSFT is not spying, they collect telemetry from agreed insiders, the spying stuff you read now is just Luddite paranoia from people that do not know that they are talking about.

Ordinary users can't opt out of telemetry in W10.

Given the quality of MS' updates, it's obvious that they don't use telemetry data to improve W10 code.

Which leads to the inevitable question, "What is the data actually used for?"

 

[file3456]

ASUS select win7 in the dropdown - win7 bios, audio, lan,usb, chipset,sata
H310M-E R2.0 | Motherboards | ASUS USA

View attachment 406376


Gigabyte, example:

View attachment 406375


No graphics drivers- separate graphics card needed.

Well how be damned.

 

[feetand nches]

Not really.
Adventurous types can use use bios mod to boot from pcie nvme - nearly all ivybridge boards will support it.
That will keep you going for many years.

I would love to know a little more about this SIW2. I actually am using an old Windows 8 machine to run Windows 7 Pro, so maybe for me this will be even easier? Will you point me in the right direction? Of course my pc is a Dell 660S SFF, and sometimes the SFF part messes me up with so little space for adding extra devices.

 

[SIW2]

Nasty7

There are several mods already available on win raid forum - mostly for regular desktops. e.g. ga-b75m and ga-z77-d3h, and plenty more.

You can use SIV to find your mobo details, then see if anybody has already modded a bios file for your mobo.

It might be this one Dell motherboard Desktop 660 660S 270S 0478VN 478VN XFWHV

But I suggest you check to make sure

SIV - System Information Viewer


Otherwise, you can do it yourself, instructions:

HERE

I would love to know a little more about this SIW2. I actually am using an old Windows 8 machine to run Windows 7 Pro, so maybe for me this will be even easier? Will you point me in the right direction? Of course my pc is a Dell 660S SFF, and sometimes the SFF part messes me up with so little space for adding extra devices.