Is anyone still using Windows 7?

[spapakons]

When you install certain updates (see link), you can also install dotNET framework 4.6 and 4.8. Since Windows Update is almost useless these days, you have to manually download some updates and install them, or you can use the WSUS offline updater. Download older version 1.9 for Windows 7:

Download Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6 (Offline Installer) for Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 SP2 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 from Official Microsoft Download Center

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 offline installer for Windows - Microsoft Support

WSUS Offline Update - Update Microsoft Windows and Office without an Internet connection

This tool downloads all updates in a folder and then you can apply them without being connected to the internet (hence the "offline" in the description). So you can use a much faster computer to download the updates, copy the folder to a USB flash drive and install them in the Windows 7 computer. If you have enabled ESU support for Windows 7 you get much more security updates than the last standard 2015 updates. Also Microsoft Security Essentials still works but lately doesn't update automatically the virus definitions. You can manually download them from here:

Latest security intelligence updates for Microsoft Defender Antivirus and other Microsoft antimalware - Microsoft Security Intelligence

 

[SIW2]

Or another possibility. You need to select what you want so its not the easiest way perhaps

DOWNLOAD https://github.com/Chuyu-Team/Dism-...wsusscn3_dfbfdb1c5bab3a6782937078878554ad.cab

INTO DISM++ config folder




take the hash off so it is just wsusscn3.cab



then mount install.wim whatver image you want to update

 

[Uitlander]

So did you actually try Ray's User Agent Switcher and Manager, as suggested?

No. As said, there is a limit to how many flaming hoops of the control freaks and Nannyites I'm willing to jump through, and that limit was reached. I simply no longer do online banking. Now it's in person or by phone. Out of curiosity, I just checked User Agent Switcher and Manager....it will not install on Waterfox, LibreWolf or Basilisk. I ditched Firefox some months ago, as none of the addons/extensions would install on the last version for Win7, making it a useless piece of drek.

 

[spapakons]

No. As said, there is a limit to how many flaming hoops of the control freaks and Nannyites I'm willing to jump through, and that limit was reached. I simply no longer do online banking. Now it's in person or by phone. Out of curiosity, I just checked User Agent Switcher and Manager....it will not install on Waterfox, LibreWolf or Basilisk. I ditched Firefox some months ago, as none of the addons/extensions would install on the last version for Win7, making it a useless piece of drek.

Try R3DFOX. It is a fork of Firefox patched to run on Windows Vista and 7. It is like running current Firefox version on Windows 7 with slightly different interface. You don't need to change the user agent to access banking sites.

GitHub - Eclipse-Community/r3dfox: r3dfox is a modern Firefox based web browser for Windows Vista & 7. SourceForge link for downloading with older browsers. https://sourceforge.net/projects/r3dfox/

 

[razorboy]

Do sites with financial leanings - banks, investing, etc. - tolerate R3dfox?
Thank you.

 

[dg1261]

Do sites with financial leanings - banks, investing, etc. - tolerate R3dfox?

Some do, some don't. Why not try it out for yourself? You can use the portable version of r3dfox without it making any changes to your system, and if it turns out not to work for you, just toss out the folder and you're right back to where you started, no harm done.

Success depends on how deeply the site in question sniffs out your underlying environment. I've come across one particular financial investment site that seems to use a java applet to query the underlying OS and the site will bail if it sees you're using Win7. Win7 will not work on that site regardless of browser.

More commonly, though, run-of-the-mill banks and credit card companies don't get that sophisticated and merely look at the browser's User-Agent string. For those companies you can spoof the UA string and fool the site into thinking you're using whatever OS, browser, and browser version you choose -- for instance, you can make it mimic Firefox 147 on Windows 10.

So do your own tests on the websites you're interested in. Download r3dfox portable, extract the portable folder from the download and temporarily place it on your desktop for convenience. Launch it, and install "Ray's User-Agent Switcher" extension in the browser. When installing the extension, don't forget to pin it to the browser taskbar in the last step so you'll have easy access. Then play around with the extension's choices and test visiting the websites you're interested in.

I've had excellent results with all of my financial sites except for that one aforementioned investment portfolio site.

 

[razorboy]

In reply to dg1261:

Thanks very much. I'm OK for now. I have three sites, they all work.

If it gets to the point where 7 does not work, I'll do Linux, period, and I don't like Linux because it has all kinds of flaws which are probably welcomed by people with PhD's in Digital Magic, but for normal people, it's a minefield. It's like having to learn DOS, in German. I'm happy to read this forum, with all its valuable information.

 

[RD Mercer]

I still use 7 Pro.... At times...like right now...

 

[spapakons]

Some do, some don't. Why not try it out for yourself? You can use the portable version of r3dfox without it making any changes to your system, and if it turns out not to work for you, just toss out the folder and you're right back to where you started, no harm done.

Success depends on how deeply the site in question sniffs out your underlying environment. I've come across one particular financial investment site that seems to use a java applet to query the underlying OS and the site will bail if it sees you're using Win7. Win7 will not work on that site regardless of browser.

More commonly, though, run-of-the-mill banks and credit card companies don't get that sophisticated and merely look at the browser's User-Agent string. For those companies you can spoof the UA string and fool the site into thinking you're using whatever OS, browser, and browser version you choose -- for instance, you can make it mimic Firefox 147 on Windows 10.

So do your own tests on the websites you're interested in. Download r3dfox portable, extract the portable folder from the download and temporarily place it on your desktop for convenience. Launch it, and install "Ray's User-Agent Switcher" extension in the browser. When installing the extension, don't forget to pin it to the browser taskbar in the last step so you'll have easy access. Then play around with the extension's choices and test visiting the websites you're interested in.

I've had excellent results with all of my financial sites except for that one aforementioned investment portfolio site.

For Greek banks, I just tested Eurobank. I put my credentials and it asked for confirmation using my smartphone Eurobank app. It then let me use ebanking. Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank also worked. National Bank of Greece also worked. However, I hope you have a faster computer because it is rather slow using an old Intel Celeron with just 1.5GB RAM. You need a lot of patience.

 

[townsbg]

I haven't had any issues with my banks yet.

 

[spapakons]

Since R3DFOX is a fork of current version Firefox (modified version to run on Vista and Windows 7), it should open the same websites as regular Firefox. This compatibility is welcome in Windows 7 where the latest regular Firefox supported is 109 and ESR version 115. Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome standard versions also stop at version 109. My Pal is a fork of modern Chrome but I find it as slow as regular Chrome and several versions behind. So I will stick with R3DFOX which loads faster and opens all sites.

 

[townsbg]

Windows 7 is the furthest use of $100 that I've ever spent when I ordered it during the pre-release sale. I didn't initially use it much (not for a few years) but over the past 10 years or so it's the version of Windows that I've used the most.

 

[adonios77]

I don't think I'll ever leave Windows 7. I'm only worried about my browser's updates [Waterfox G6.0.20 (64-bit) (v115)] but so far everything is working and I don't have any unsolved problems.
I'll stay on Win7, mostly because Win10 consumes a lot of resources (CPU etc.) also is loaded with a lot of useless weights and garbage (bloatware etc.) which ultimately makes usage very laggy, even on modern computers. I don't even want to think about 11 which is even worse, and it looks like MS will continue like this.

 

[spapakons]

In theory you can disable all visual effects (transparency, animations, fades) and all startup applications and useless non-Microsoft Services to make Windows 10 and 11 faster. Not as much as Windows 7 but much better than without these changes. Of course this implies that you take the time to manually download all drivers from manufacturer including the chipset driver and install them. It makes a huge difference in performance compared to core-functionality drivers from Windows Update. You can even disable some features you don't use. However, I would avoid some clipped versions such as Tiny11. I prefer to manually disable or remove features so I know how to get back if I need them or if I break something. In the clipped versions is not easy to restore missing functionality and compatibility. I hate to sacrifice functionality and especially compatibility just to make my PC a little faster. That's why I upgraded my netbook from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit and then manually disabled some stuff to improve performance.

 

[Cskully]

I think a better question is how does anyone use Windows 11? Took me a better part of an hour just to turn it on without signing up for a microsoft account. Could not stand it so returned it to Microcenter. It was unusable. If you don't want to be tracked, surveilled or psychos coming to your door it is unwise to connect to the internet with Windows 11 as it puts out your identity everywhere and the Trump administration is selling your info and destroying net neutrality.
How do I use Windows 7? On a 14 year old pc with a decently fast 4 core I7 and Nvidia video card and SSD which boots in about 20 seconds always on a user account, firewalled and virus protected. Windows defender handles malware. Also have Microsoft Security Essentials for occasional virus scan.

 

[spapakons]

You can install Windows 11 and force a local Administrator account instead of using your Microsoft account. One easy way to do that is to create the Windows 11 Setup USB flash drive with Rufus and check the respective check boxes to bypass compatibility check and to create a local account. If you upgrade from Windows 10 to 11, then you are using your current account, you are not required to use a Microsoft account. Of course, Windows will ask you to convert your local account to Microsoft account, but you can deny and use your Microsoft account only for certain applications and games.

If you create Windows 11 Setup USB with Media Creation Tool and you manually bypass compatibility check or have a compliant PC, then you must NOT connect to the internet while configuring Windows 11 for the first time. You can then press SHIFT+F10 at any point and run this command to immediately go to the local Administrator account creation:

start ms-cxh:localonly

Running this command will also skip the rest of the OOBE (Out Of the Box Experience) configuration. Don't worry, you can configure these from Settings later.

Also you can use several utilities to disable unwanted telemetry in Windows 11. Such as Winaero Tweaker and O&O Windows 10 Shutup (it also works in Windows 11).

Winaero Tweaker

O&O ShutUp10 - O&O Software GmbH

Download Windows 11

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

 

[townsbg]

I installed AtlasOS on Windows 10 and I would do so again. Its a set of scripts that disable a lot of fluff. AtlasOS - Optimized Windows, designed for enthusiasts.
The software used to deploy the scripts has others available. I haven't really looked into them though. I found that after installing AtlasOS. One is called privacy+. I would look into that. Ameliorated.io

 

[spapakons]

I prefer to manually disable/remove features so I know what to restore back in case of incompatibility or missing something I want. I don't like automatic scripts I don't know what they do and have no control of the process.

 

[townsbg]

Actually there are some options during installation and afterwards you find all kinds of bat files to enable and disable the kind of things you'd likely touch.