windows 7 reinstall question

[iknowjohnny]

I have a laptop with 7 and i want to do a reinstall to fix some issues but from what i have read 7 is no longer supported. I have read things that seems to suggest that if i do a reinstall the MS activation servers will no longer activate a new W7 install. Is this true ? It's a old pc that i do not want to update because all i use it for is a couple old programs that won't work right on newer OS's but i fear if i reinstall it it won't activate. Thanks.

 

[pbcopter]

Don't worry, it will be activated as long as it is a legitimate copy of Windows 7.
While main stream support ended Jan 2015, extended support won't end until Jan 2020. Even then you will still be able to activate it.

 

[mrjimphelps]

Before you do anything, you should do a full image backup of the computer. Many of us use Macrium Reflect Free for this purpose. You will need an external hard drive for this purpose -- that's where you will put the backup. And you will need to create a copy of your backup software's emergency boot disk, so that if your hard drive crashes, you can do a restore to the replacement hard drive.

Once you have a good backup, you can do the reinstall, to try to fix the issues you have described; because if things get messed up, you can restore the backup and be right back in business.

Also, in case you aren't able to reactivate Windows 7 for any reason, all you need to do is restore the backup, and you're back in business.

 

[iknowjohnny]

Great, thanks all.

 

[townsbg]

7 is supported but only for security fixes. That changes on 1/14/20 at which point there won't be any updates to windows but that doesn't mean that there won't be updates to individual components such as office, .net, MSE, etc.