Sooo advice on win7 support expiring in a month or so?

Uh well I think win7 monopolysoft support is ending soon I think. I was reading through the win10 tweaks thread and it's exhausting just to read through it lol I do have 2019 LTSC on my other laptop and easing into it but already had it "update" and restart right in the middle of installing a heavy cad program, wonderful. I mean it's feasible to just continue on with win7x64 ultimate right? What can really happen, it's not like I'm going to wake up the day after and my computer will explode. What about going to 8.1? Never used it at all though. Is the support that much of a blow? 3rd party firewall , vpn, browser plugins, bleepingcomputer virus stuff if I need it, what else? Linux isn't good for most games right? Any advice here?

 

You might wake up one day and have ransomware installed, or just be a part of a botnet...

Driver support will cease to exist, so you will end up being stuck with some driver for ever.

Browser support might be deprecated as it was for Vista and XP.

Also, I dont know how you managed to have it reboot mid something, my Win10 never did that...
Did you postpone a reboot for 10 days straight?

 

I don't know what they'd ransom, the computer itself? I guess if they happened to compromise my external backups it might be a worry though. I do worry about drivers but as we can see there are still support for older OS too like XP,Vista in a lot of places. Mainly gpu related worries, so nvidia. Maybe printers but with those just put it on flash drive and print it elsewhere anyways. Browsers I'm not worried too much about but yeah I can see that. Idk I've got the programs I need for normal use and a lot of specialty ones, games would most likely be what the compatibility issue would be for.

My win10 install on my other laptop I rarely turn on so it must have been once I turned it on and had the internet win10 phoned home and updated, but yes right in the middle of installing a heavy cad program it went into the updating and restarting, it's not an out of the ordinary thing, I've read about this all over and it's one of the most hated parts about win10. I reinstalled OSO stuff and will just turn off the wifi switch when I'm installing in the future.

 

Seems like a good measured article on it: https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-7-end-of-support-guide.html

https://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/419270-what-should-we-do-after-january-2020-a-27.html

Since this is a fixed laptop now that I've done the 980m thing the plan is to just keep it until the gaming aspect is a problem, maybe printer when I get one and it's a problem. It's not that I have a big problem with win10 I've been using it more on my other laptop since I picked up some work that utilizes it, I have the standard 3rd party control stuff on there I'm just not keen on going to an unstable OS and I'm just fine with what I have now on my main laptop.

I've noticed that a lot of the offline on my external drive programs I have had for years win10 just won't run bc they're not new enough like Daemon Tools, old portable CCcleaner so far. Found out I don't even need DT for mounting ISO's, didn't know it's built in to Windows since 8. Based on my typical usage the m6700 would be fine for 2-3 years+. So when I get something new I'd just move over.

 

Windows 7 isn't going to magically stop working.

Everything you do today will work the exact same way it does after support end, except no more security updates. Browsers such as Chrome, Opera, and Firefox will probably still support Windows 7 until 2021 or so.

Don't forget Windows 7 POSReady exists and is supported until October 2021. Maybe we will get the same thing happen where people spoof their systems as Windows POSReady 7 to get updates.

Windows 8.1 is the ultimate middle ground. Windows 8.1 + startisback or classic shell should give you the 7 experience with modern improvements.

Windows 8.1 is also supported until 2023.

I was running windows 7 on my M4800 but decided to just go to 10 and tweak it to my liking. All I do is use startisback and winaero tweaker.

 

Yeah it's really software based bc hardware ain't changing on this laptop. Would seem more natural just to go win10 since there are so many 3rd party free software to control it esp update control. Already got it on my backup laptop so getting used to it. Yup just sticking with win7 for the foreseeable future.

 

Win 8.1 and the great driver support the coming years? Micro$lope sleep in same bed with all the hardware manufacturers.



--------------------------

 

Just on a side note... not sure what version of win10 you had when it randomly rebooted to update, but there have been fixes in the last one or two major releases to prevent this inconvenience from happening. I have win10 pro so it may be different from home versions but you can choose to pause updates easily or just disable windows update in services temporarily. Could you maybe look into settings -> update&security -> advanced options -> see if there is an option to "Restart this device as soon as possible when a restart is required to install an update. Windows will display a notice before the restart...." and whether this could possibly be checked? That would be the only time windows 10 would mess your install up this way as far as I can tell.
Good luck on figuring out what to do with your win 7 machine ^^

 

My Win7 machine works fine so don't worry about that, the hardware is still very competitive, all in my sig below.
It's win10 LTSC 2019 which I think is still 1809, it didn't mess up the install as it started up and finished by itself once it restarted but it's an annoyance I could have done without. I have since researched and dl all the win10 update control 3rd party stuff, which really should not be necessary if I pay for and theoretically "own" it, but the megalomaniacs have decided I'm just a renter(that's the case in more and more things btw). Effem.

 

For those of us that do not care about Windows 7 support (I haven't for years) this is a non-issue. But, there may be a solution for those that do fret over it. MDL frequently has solutions for the stupidity of the Redmond Retards and this situation is no exception.

Someone found a way to bypass Windows 7 Extended Security Updates checks | gHacks.net

Posted by Martin Brinkmann on December 07, 2019

Someone discovered a way to enable Extended Security Updates on all machines running Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system.

Support for Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system ends after the January 2020 Patch Tuesday. Small businesses and Enterprises may extend support by up to three years for a price.

Devices or users that participate in the Extended Security Updates program need to install an update that verifies eligibility to receive updates after January 14, 2020. Extended Security Updates must be installed online on live systems; they cannot be integrated or installed offline, at least not right now.

Users on the My Digital Life forum discovered a way to bypass the Extended Security Updates check. The bypass works with Microsoft's test update but it is unclear if it will also work with "real" updates that the company releases after the January 2020 Patch Day.

All that needs to be done currently is to download a small archive from the My Digital Life forum and extract it. The package includes two batch files that enable or disable the bypass on the system, executable files, and the source.

Basically, what happens behind the scene is that verification checks return true all the time through manipulation of these checks.

One interesting aspect of the hack is that it enables support for all Windows 7 editions, even those that Microsoft does not want to support after January 14, 2020. In other words: Windows 7 Home, Starter or Ultimate editions would be able to receive updates provided by the Extended Security Updates program when the bypass is installed.

The developers plan already to extend support to Windows Vista and to support the POSReady 7 SKU which will receive security updates until 2024.​

Bypass Windows 7 Extended Security Updates Eligibility | MDL

Long live Windows 7! May the Nazi control freaks rot in hell.

 

thx for that, almost just easier to get an unofficial version every year that has all the extended updates already installed, not a big deal to reinstall OS every year. I have not had updates turned on for win7 for at least 6 months anyways.

Edit: all this is just based on absolute need anyways, regardless of virus/ransom scare tactics which are just guerilla marketing techniques by M$ and other manuf who want to keep up the quarterly paper profits etc It's pretty obv when they even restrict installing certain OS' on new hardware. So if the majority of games are dx12 only and don't have the "patch" that allows it to work then switch, or if manuf all conspire,( imagine that lol), to restrict os drivers like printers, or if 3rd party software won't run like browsers etc then no choice othw effem.

 

Priceless for those of whom still worry about security updates. Just, meh for me. Driver support is much more important in the long run. Trying to stomach Windows 10 LTSC in a dual boot config, and I can barely keep from dry heaving. I need to stop procrastinating, and really delve into a Linux distro,

 

This is Pop!_OS with Cinnamon desktop on the Tongfang turdbook. Seems pretty decent. I haven't figured out how to span desktop wallpaper across all displays, but I haven't spent much time looking (hence the same wallpaper on both desktops).

 

I use win10 LTSC everyday on my secondary backup workstation for an onsite job and I get crashes using solidworks(2016) much more frequently than I remember when that was on win7(did a year long remote contract using win7/solidworks same machine). At least once a day. Idk could be the firepro m4000 though, had a stock quadro 1000m in there before. The major reason for switching on that one was that I was going to sell it at the time and I needed to wipe it. May as well try win10 there. Glad I kept it though good workhorse for onsite work and much easier to move lol.

 

I figured it out. Looks much neater spanned.

 

I will still continue to use Win 7 until will be forced to downgrade to Windows 10 due to PC hardware upgrade...

 

This is gonna be me tomorrow:

 

Lol I didn't realize it was tomorrow, not worried at all, my hardware ain't getting any newer anytime soon. I'm entering pc laptop senility until some upgrade down the line when I really have to. I really like the portability of a laptop and it fits my needs for now. I only got an m4600 a few years ago as a cad box/workstation for onsite/flexible contract work and it has worked out great for that. Then decided to ditch the tower(rolling stone phase of life now) but still wanted decent gaming so the m6700/980m is here now for that, works fine for my modest gaming settings needs. And I couldn't imagine getting those 3.5 hdd monsters anymore, really like the modular wd passports with no separate power adapter needed and very small physically, 4tb in my pocket lol Huge heavy towers with those psu's, lots of dust, big milk carton gpu's etc lol

 

Fine with me as well. I think the most recent updates I have installed are like from around 2015-2016, or something like that. I really don't care. I will continue using Windows 7 until I can no longer get drivers needed to support my hardware. I am also booting two flavors of Linux, so if Windows 10 continues on its path to notorious suckfest fame I may just have to forget about using a PC for the things I enjoy using a PC for, which will eliminate any reason(s) to consider hardware upgrades going forward as well. It will all become pointless and of no further interest.

I can still remember the day when I used to get excited about a new Windows release. That all turned to crap when they vomited Windows 8.X onto the world, and it has remained in a progressing state of decline ever since.

 

Truer words have never been spoken. I feel the exact same way. I tried to rep you for that statement, but I have to spread some more around first.

 

A kind reminder from Microsoft

 

RIP Windows 7 the greatest Windows OS after XP


Also Microsoft is telling Win7 Users to buy a new PC instead of saying "upgrade to Windows 10" is very telling....

 

Lol yeah that bsod was kinda creepy when I fired up my computer, big brother telling me he's fully in control, even with updates turned off for months. It's funny how it says use win10 and NEW hardware for better security when it really depends on the user. My 85 yo grand parents win10 desktop was riddled with spyware, malware etc just bc they're not computer savy. Had to wipe the whole thing and they lost a lot of info. Ofc M$, adobe, etc wouldn't call that stuff malware, adware etc they'd call it just good business, fully protected except from the M$afia etc

 

Hakuna Matata... still blowin' and goin' boys.

 

I'm not ready to let go of 7.What are the odds of catching a nasty virus if I don't download any applications and use updated browsers like Firefox/Chrome and safe browsing habits?

 

Just a guess, but a reasonable one... like one-to-something in the 7-digits range. Lower odds than being in a car accident, plane crash or getting injured running with scissors. But, should still do like mom said and wear clean underwear, just in case you're in an accident.

 

It would not surprise me at all if suddenly we get some big vulnerability scare stories in the news, especially for non-win10 OS'. When I go over to ars technica it's like, oh this is what the zombies are thinking or what the NSA wants them to think, those comments sections have to be like 95% bots or we are in much bigger trouble than I thought lol

 

https://www.computerworld.com/artic...pport-separating-the-bull-from-the-horns.html

 

I got excited for a minute that I could use Windows 8.1, but then realized that Ryzen 3000 doesn't support Windows 8...
Now I'm sad again...

 

Neither do any RTX cards function with W8.X. There are only drivers for W7 and later versions of W10. The less crappy releases of W10 are incompatible with Turing. I don't remember exactly which version (and don't feel like checking, even though it's not hard to find,) but something like only 1803 or newer. I tried modding the INF and got drivers to install, but the GPU goes into code 43 status. (Code 43 means disabled because Windows found a problem and protected me LOL.. yeah, right... my butt. More like protecting their own interests.)

 

That's really sad...

 

Windows 8.1 is even less viable than Windows 7. Not only does 8.1 not get Turing drivers, it also doesn’t get DX12.

 

Not to mention that it's uglier than sin. Takes way more aesthetic tweaking than Windows 10 to make me not want to vomit. I consider it to be the worst version of Windows ever released. It also had all of the CPU performance-killing cancer of Windows 10. There is a very clear line of demarcation showing where the CPU performance-killing and RTC errors started, which was with Windows 8.X and they've never fixed that.

 

IDK, but setting up Windows 8 to my liking was much easier and faster than Windows 10.
Plus Windows 10 is outright hostile with its drivers and updates which try to kill your PC every six months...

 

Use Windows update blocker and you're good. I'm still on 1809 build. No upgrade cycles and no clean install mess! 1903/1909 doesn't have any major feature that is worth while to upgrade to it!
EDIT: For Win 7 VM I always use Simplix update.

 

Unfortunately this is my point - you have to disable/remove so much from Windows 10 to make it usable to an above average user, who knows what he/she is doing, it's mind blowing...

 

Check my sig

 

You can still get Windows 7 updates without paying a penny to Microsoft betanews.com | Jan 23, 2020

It can hardly have escaped your attention that Windows 7 has now reached end of life. For companies and enterprise customers unwilling to pay for Extended Security Updates, this means there will be no more updates. The average home user who has decided to stick with Windows 7 has been completely abandoned by Microsoft, leaving them with an operating system that could be found to contain an endless number of security vulnerabilities.

But, actually, there is another option for home users, and it does not involve paying any money to Microsoft. We're talking micropatches. Specifically, we're talking about micropatches from 0patch. We've covered the work of this company in the past, including its recent fix for the Internet Explorer vulnerability.

 

And, don't forget this option...

But, my approach is...

We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.

 

Yeah, I know it's possible to have Windows 7 on Ryzen 3000, but with ended support, I though I could be able to coast on Windows 8 for 3 years, until it runs out of support...

Not saying Windows 7 is doomed without mainstream support, as there are other options like mentioned above, but I am afraid there will come time when we will have to move on. And for me it may come once my new shiny 3700X parts come next week...

But for now, I'm actually kinda interested to see figures of how Windows end of support affected user figures.

 

I really don't get it. If you're gonna go through the trouble of Windows 8.1, why not just stick with 7? 8.1 offers of little substance, and is a worse gaming OS due to lack of DX12 support.

 

One still having mainstream support while the other doesn't.

 

Why does that matter?

 

Sense of security, I guess.

 

not entirely accurate but "extended support" for Win7 ended on 1/14/2020 while extended support for 8.1 will end on 1/10/2023 as noted on this MS support lifecycle page about Win8.1. "mainstream support" for both W7 & W8.1 had already ended

the Toshiba 2013 C55Dt-A laptop that my dad has with pre-installed Win8.1 runs fine (don't care about DX12) and will continue to use that. it's a little tricky to install Win7 on there since that Toshiba laptop is UEFI based.

Win7 better suited for old non-uefi based machines than either Win8.1 or Win10

 

Windows 7 works flawlessly on a UEFI system as long as you have access to the CSM options in the BIOS. If you do not (which includes many laptops) it will often not work. Windows 7 requires VGA support and the default for UEFI (without CSM configuration options) is GOP output. Some laptops will automatically change over even though the menu option for Legacy video is hidden. Others will not. It's extremely unfortunate that so many laptops have an unacceptable lack of firmware configuration options. When it does not work, this is the fault of the laptop manufacturer for producing a defective product, not Windows 7.

 

DX12 isnt important. Only a few games uses it while still having DX11 support except for games like Forza for example

This^

Install Open Shell aka Classic shell and some other tweaks and you're good to go. Also still having the ability to control Windows updates.

 

There are games which are DX12 only which can run on W7 but not W8.1, such as Gears 5 and CoD:MW.

 

I'm running 8.1 without issues since my 980M upgrade. It's very stable, I disabled a few telemetry stuff with the RTM ISO and removed the Store and bloat with MSMG and it's flawless, very fast (I disabled the crappy fastboot and hiberfil.sys due to Ngreedia screw up non issue anyways) and it never had a BSOD since 6 years, My laptop basically never had a BSOD lol except those ridiculous 980M blackscreen lockups. Cannot run 7 due to above mentioned reason, the 980M won't boot with 7 very unfortunate as it needs full UEFI without CSM/Legacy boot. And also GOP driver missing unlike AW18 which can run on Win7 + 980M.

Also I noticed these, the Nvidia cards have INFs enabled for 8.1 support in their drivers but never released official drivers for Turing I guess, still they work. Here's more info on that
( EVGA Forums 1, 2nd link)

8.1 has WDDM (dxdiag will show you) 1.3 and 7 has 1.1 and Win10 has it's always updated BS, eventually you will be FORCED to upgrade to a latest one once the next gen drops, you cannot simply stay on older version of Win10 after 18 Months officially EOLed and then this WDDM BS drama, games will demand you to run that particular SAC version.

But the biggest problem for 8.1 is once 7 support is dropped by a game developer / software maker 8.1 automatically loses support due to it's similar architecture (8.1 basically has both 10 and 7 elements everyone was forced to 10 sadly, else 8.1 would have been optimized with another SP, technically the windows 9 is 8.1 IMO). Period. So this is like niche to niche use case. I doubt anyone in the Desktop arena will use 8.1, because it has 2023 Extended support, when their machines can run Win7. Anyways the USB 3.0 xHCI driver is dead for both 7 and 8.1, sabotaged by Intel and M$ and AMD alike, thus we cannot use the latest machines with them, ASUS Z390 and EVGA Z390 Dark and a few mobos can only take Win7 I think that's the last we will ever see. Forget AMD as their BIOS needs always updates when it comes to a new release or all buggy bs of turbos and etc, so even if you install I suspect issues are likely to rise (ASMedia didn't make the X570 chipset so no drivers for USB 3.0 for them and no chipset level ones either, X470 is last and X470 mobos lack features)

I cannot stand to Win10 UI (Control Panel and other win32 going obsolete) and it's ever changing bs of the 6 Month SAC releases, LTSC is great but still it's not like install and forget for 6+ years esp with the new DCH drama going. Also at Microsoft if you guys remember or not, the main head honcho of Windows left the company, Terry Myerson 21 Year old vet It's now run by investor greed, old era of beautiful computing and ownership is gone, It's is going away from Google's Android too. All of them inspired by that crappy Apple corporation.

Read these quotes from that article, also he led that failed Lumia/ Windows Phone project and failed, their major mistake was to kick in the nuts off the developer scene and locking the OS out, Android grew exponentially while M$ was dreaming bricks.

Is it surprising ? no, the Win10 OS shows it clearly also the shame is how Macbooks saw rise despite their engineering flaws, BGA bs, cheap components, failing KBs with planned obsolescence, and feeble chipset design tons of anti repair bs they made a specific IC sold by Intersil only to Apple and not to any market or Mouser and its prone to fail and people still buy it, I think this is what Hell is, stupidity at rampant levels and koolaid drinkers all around and losing control on everything that we own, look at ChromeOS glorified OS without Filesystem Access, now Huawei the Chinese Orwellian state funded corporation made a Filesystem which blocks access to the user EROFS and guess what ? google copied it to Android 10 and Pixels, here if you are interested to read on them and Scoped Storage disaster as well which no Youtube shill mentions.

Scoped Storage, issuetracker plus links 1 and 2
EROFS Huawei BS
Android 10 Filesystems one and two (TWRP lead dev)

With the latest cancer, Stadia the GaaS platform (There's this discussion at the gaming subforum, man I lost my mind seeing it) and Xboxgame pass -> Worst DRM on the planet, UWP (I think no intro needed, the sandboxing and all bs just crazy) + GaaS and the PC drivel at the tech companies from Gaming to the Software IT (esp Google). Even Amazon the master conglomerate corporation is looking to start GaaS.

The future is going to be worse for computing, here's a hint of the madness

 

Yup. Every aspect of the tech world (hardware and software for PC, Mac, Windows, Andriod, iOS, Chrome, etc.) is run from the top down by retarded syphilitic monkeys.