Should we say RIP windows 7 now?

[Clector]

I don"t think that Windows 7 is dead yet, it is only in extended support so it"s notmal to expect they to don"t want to give it official support, they should with Windows 8.1 but they didn"t.
As for using Windows I personally recommended (if one needs to use it) to use Windows 7 or 8.1, but really skip over Windows 10 as long as possible, not because the Start button or any of that. But because it gives an horrible privacy to the user, it limits a lot of options of the system that it shouldn"t, run a lot of things in background to backtrack user information, it silently installs "sugestted applications" without asking the user at all and a lot of more things. Yes, you can dig in the system and get rid of most of them, but for a lot you can"t directly and to begin with all of that kind options shouldn"t be activated by default to begin with; and also the sytem usually tends to activate some of them again when one updates it and Microsoft just keeps adding things like that with the new updates, so it"s kind of an endless cycle at the end.

One of the Windows 8 betas had a really sexy Aero theme, I just forget which build number it was. It had the flatness of 8/10, but still kept the blurred glass effect from 7/Vista. I think it was built mid-Metro UI transition. But god-damn it was sexy. And I'm sad the beta This PC and Networking icons got scrapped, they looked modern as hell. They were only in a build or two. Wish I had screenshots.

Yes,it could be nice if they included a theme like that in the final Windows 8; I think that it may be the build 8102, I think that there are videos of it, you can check a video and see if is that one, it still has the Start button with the classic Windows logo.

 

[BlueFox gui]

Hey OP, ever heard of unofficial service packs/updates?

wato
i never heard about it, this is interesting

 

[Lacius]

At the latest, everyone should upgrade to a new operating system after Windows 7 stops receiving security support in January of 2020. Legally upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is still free if one knows what he or she is doing.

 

[BlueFox gui]

At the latest, everyone should upgrade to a new operating system after Windows 7 stops receiving security support in January of 2020. Legally upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is still free if one knows what he or she is doing.

my lappy came with windows 8.1
my brother tried to install windows 10 and it was weird and slow, and my old brother after format installed windows 7 ultimate lol
i guess i will have to install windows 8.1 again xD

 

[Lacius]

my lappy came with windows 8.1
my brother tried to install windows 10 and it was weird and slow, and my old brother after format installed windows 7 ultimate lol
i guess i will have to install windows 8.1 again xD

There's no reason for Windows 10 to be "weird and slow." If I were you, I'd backup anything important and do a clean installation of Windows 10 1709.

Nobody should be using Windows 8.1 after it loses security support in 2023.

 

[astrangeone]

As someone who stayed with Windows 7 on purpose. Yeah, I rather use something that doesn't have the UI of a tablet on my laptop. This is sensible and it looks cleaner, plus my laptop is older and probably runs like shit on anything newer than that (so much bloatware).

 

[FAST6191]

Also, I find it hilariously ironic that people here, on a homebrew oriented forum of all places, still don't know about UX style patching.

Barring the likes of classic start that whole world kind of went out with Vista though. I am not entirely sad to see it gone either, certainly makes setting a new machine up far easier when it is just install, https://ninite.com/ and install adblock as well as copy bookmarks rather than having to make something custom with nlite or dick around with tweak ui.

That said I like the windows 2000/xp classic look so I probably should stop here.

 

[jefffisher]

i'm still using windows 7 and plan on continuing until it's no longer possible.

 

[Lacius]

i'm still using windows 7 and plan on continuing until it's no longer possible.

Do you mean when it loses security support, or do you mean sometime beyond that?

 

[jefffisher]

Do you mean when it loses security support, or do you mean sometime beyond that?

until my hardware is no longer compatible whether that be before or after who knows.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

I'm still on 7 and I don't plan to go to any newer windows version. Once the EOL support time has come then I will be running linux only on my machine. I don't trust microsoft. They have made far too many mistakes over the years and they continue to do stupid shit that affects the end user far too much. They are no longer a company that makes great software that they sell, they now are an advertisement firm hence why they give windows 10 away for free while still shafting everyone with this telemetry bullshit.

 

[DinohScene]

wato
i never heard about it, this is interesting

Google Win 98 unofficial updates.
Or Win 98 Kernel extension.

 

[brunocar]

No.
Well, it depends on how you look at it, you can't get a 100% yes or no answer. But from me, no.

Why? Here. An OS that has 45.43% Desktop PC users using it wouldn't be "dead", in my opinion.

people said the same about XP when W7 came out

 

[Lacius]

until my hardware is no longer compatible whether that be before or after who knows.

It is highly recommended that one use an operating system that at the very least continues to receive security updates. For Windows operating systems, those would be the following:

• Windows 7 SP1 (stops receiving security updates in 2020)
• Windows 8.1 (stops receiving security updates in 2023)
• Windows 10 (stops receiving security updates in 2025, but it will almost certainly get a free update to the operating system that succeeds it)

 

[MrDavidPerson]

I got a duel boot set up on my computer so I can use windows 7 (witch I still prefer over 10) and use windows 10 for the few things that need windows 10.

 

[smf]

I'm still on 7 and I don't plan to go to any newer windows version. Once the EOL support time has come then I will be running linux only on my machine. I don't trust microsoft. They have made far too many mistakes over the years and they continue to do stupid shit that affects the end user far too much. They are no longer a company that makes great software that they sell, they now are an advertisement firm hence why they give windows 10 away for free while still shafting everyone with this telemetry bullshit.

If you don't trust them and plan to switch to linux, then why haven't you done so already?

Linux has too many exploits for me.

Windows 10 (stops receiving security updates in 2025, but it will almost certainly get a free update to the operating system that succeeds it)

Microsoft's official position is still that Windows 10 is going to be the last version of Windows ever. So either 2025 will be moved, or there will be some new technology that justifies throwing away Windows which may not work on your current machine anyway. They might not know themselves which way it's going to go.

 

[Joom]

rather than having to make something custom with nlite or dick around with tweak ui.

I'm talking about patching the UX style DLLs and using custom visual styles. I've never even heard of those tools.

 

[Lacius]

Microsoft's official position is still that Windows 10 is going to be the last version of Windows ever. So either 2025 will be moved, or there will be some new technology that justifies throwing away Windows which may not work on your current machine anyway. They might not know themselves which way it's going to go.

Yes, Windows 10 is supposed to be the last Windows version one buys. In other words, there are two likely outcomes:

1. The 2025 date is just a legal placeholder, and it will be moved.
2. A new version of Windows will come out (e.g. Windows 11), and it will just be another in a long list of yearly Windows updates that Windows 10 users receive automatically and for free. Like all other Windows 10 updates, it will also be required for one to continue receiving security updates.

One of the reasons a lot of technology companies are moving to the "OS as a service" model is so they only have around one iteration of their software being supported at a time, which makes things a lot easier. Google Chrome has only had to worry about supporting one version of its browser at a time, not including different OS support. Adobe moved to a service model, allowing them to only have to support one version of each of their programs and making people update to them. Apple moved to a similar system not long ago. It wasn't long ago that Microsoft supported five different operating systems at a time, and they had to worry about leaving people with an insecure operating system when they stopped supporting one. After Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 bite the dust, Microsoft only has to worry about updating and maintaining Windows 10, and with Windows 10 being supported indefinitely, they don't have to worry about leaving people with insecure operating systems since they will be automatically migrated to new versions. This also makes things easier for other software providers, since they only have to worry about making their programs compatible with one version of an operating system. Instead of making sure Firefox is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10, for example, they will in the future only have to worry about making sure it's compatible with Windows 10.

 

[330]

I will skip the first month or two of the new significant OS upgrade because I'm afraid of incompatibility issues and exploits. I don't care that they will get fixed very soon, I just don't want to deal with the hassle. Past that, I'm always upgrading.

I understand that there always going to be hardware incompatibilities, but this isn't 2006. If my everyday machine has major issues with an OS like Windows 10 then I shouldn't be using that machine at all.


To anticipate some questions:

- Yes, Windows Vista was great after a few tweaks. Have used it since the beta until 2013.
- Yes, I did miss the start button in Windows 8. Nothing that the good people from Stardock couldn't fix, though.
- No, I don't mind Windows 10's "privacy issues" because I can read what the OS is asking me to set up before the installation. I also use additional tools to protect my privacy.

 

[FAST6191]

I'm talking about patching the UX style DLLs and using custom visual styles. I've never even heard of those tools.

nlite is just a means to combine drivers (was nice when sata kicked off), service packs and a select bunch of registry and such tweaks into an XP install disc.

tweak ui was many of the same registry tweaks.

What you describe sounds closer to the full explorer replacements that also faded out with XP. For good reason most of the time as well -- so much incompatibility and annoyance...