I hate microsoft

[98valk]

!@#$% making me buy a new computer.
after only ten yrs they are ending Windows 7 support on January 14, 2020.

great business model force people to buy your stuff every 10 yrs cause your stuff only last 10 yrs.

[sandy]

You can still use Win 7 but you won't get anymore weekly updates. Back up all your personal files on an ext hard drive and keep it unplugged when not in use.

[3W-lonerider]

i have 4 windows 7 computers and don't plan on buying any more till these die. so microsoft can kiss my rosey dairy aire.

[98valk]

You can still use Win 7 but you won't get anymore weekly updates. Back up all your personal files on an ext hard drive and keep it unplugged when not in use.

I always shut it off when not using it.

I'm thinking just install a great virus/malware program, and go from there.

[Oss]

people laugh at my backup 386 or maybe its a 486,  computer running 3.1 dos and word for dos and a hard "floppy disc" reader.

but it will never get a virus as it isnt on the internet and it is well over 20 years old

and I can play chuck yeagers air combat with a real joystick

Oss

I am with 3W Gates can kiss my tush
My desk has a computer running xp (I think) Is that the same as 7?

[Jess from VA]

I'm still on XP too Evan.  I like and know XP (7 came later).  I don't need anything better than XP (and I doubt anything since is really better, it's just different, and I don't want different).

Screw their new software every few years program.

It's barely supported anymore, I've slowed down some, and there are a few things that no longer work.  And that's fine with me.

I'll give up my XP when my machine blows up. (and not before) 

[Patrick]

I hate Microsoft too, so 10yrs ago I bought a Mac.

[Bighead]

I don’t do windows

[F6Dave]

To be fair, you got a lot for the Windows license fee that was built into the purchase price of your PC.  Microsoft provided years of monthly security updates and bug fixes for no additional cost.  The cost of developing those updates doesn't go down, so as the user base dwindles at some point it makes no financial sense to continue to provide them for free.  It's not unlike Honda deciding to discontinue Valkyrie parts as our numbers fade.

The older PCs are also harder to protect against newer, more sophisticated malware.  As great as XP was, it had major security holes, like a file system that gave unlimited access to critical system components.

You probably have a few options to keep Win 7 running without disconnecting from the net.  If you were careful about the sites you visited you might be able to get by with a safer browser than IE, like Chrome, and a good security product like Malwarebytes.  You'd still want to back up frequently to an external device, and disconnect it after backing up.  Alternating between multiple external drives might not be a bad idea.

Since many businesses use software that simply won't run on a newer operating system, in the past Microsoft has offered fee based extended support for older systems.  Many retailers utilized this for point of sale systems that required XP.  I assume MS will offer such a service for Win 7.

Having said all of this, I'm no fan at all of Windows 10.  The software as a service model bombards you with unending updates, giving you little control over how and when they get installed.  To make that worse, some of the updates are buggy, like the one last year that deleted user files.  Microsoft seems to have forgotten its consumer focused roots.  Their early products, along with licensing that encouraged competition (unlike Apple), brought affordable computers to the masses.  Today they only want to sell cloud computing to businesses.

[hubcapsc]

I changed my uncle Dan's computer over to Linux (Fedora) a couple of years ago... his
computer is ancient and slow, and everything works...

Free operating system, free updates, forever... the same operating system that
runs all the computers in all the giant machine rooms at Facebook, Google, Amazon
and all the other big places...

-Mike

[F6Dave]

I just read that a third party will offer Windows 7 security updates after Microsoft ends support in January.  I don't know how well these will work, but it is an interesting development since something like 30% of PCs are still running Win 7.  The price is around $25 per year, with a free option to provide critical updates for non-business users.  The company's name is 0patch.

[The emperor has no clothes]

I changed my uncle Dan's computer over to Linux (Fedora) a couple of years ago... his
computer is ancient and slow, and everything works...

Free operating system, free updates, forever... the same operating system that
runs all the computers in all the giant machine rooms at Facebook, Google, Amazon
and all the other big places...

-Mike

Mike, I realize this is an old thread. But I’m curious about a couple things. Do you uninstall the windows system ? And if so, can you keep the windows email program ?

[Serk]

I changed my uncle Dan's computer over to Linux (Fedora) a couple of years ago... his
computer is ancient and slow, and everything works...

Free operating system, free updates, forever... the same operating system that
runs all the computers in all the giant machine rooms at Facebook, Google, Amazon
and all the other big places...

-Mike

Mike, I realize this is an old thread. But I’m curious about a couple things. Do you uninstall the windows system ? And if so, can you keep the windows email program ?

You can configure it to be a dual boot configuration, where the computer can boot into Windows or Linux but (Unless you really wanna dinker around with Wine) you'll have to boot back and forth between them.

When you say the Windows e-mail program, what do you mean? Outlook? Outlook Express? Or a web based e-mail system? There are e-mail programs available in Linux (Thunderbird being my preference if you don't wanna go cloud based) but most people will be well served by a web based cloud e-mail system...

[The emperor has no clothes]

I changed my uncle Dan's computer over to Linux (Fedora) a couple of years ago... his
computer is ancient and slow, and everything works...

Free operating system, free updates, forever... the same operating system that
runs all the computers in all the giant machine rooms at Facebook, Google, Amazon
and all the other big places...

-Mike

Mike, I realize this is an old thread. But I’m curious about a couple things. Do you uninstall the windows system ? And if so, can you keep the windows email program ?

You can configure it to be a dual boot configuration, where the computer can boot into Windows or Linux but (Unless you really wanna dinker around with Wine) you'll have to boot back and forth between them.

When you say the Windows e-mail program, what do you mean? Outlook? Outlook Express? Or a web based e-mail system? There are e-mail programs available in Linux (Thunderbird being my preference if you don't wanna go cloud based) but most people will be well served by a web based cloud e-mail system...

I assumed the Linux didn’t have email. Thanks for the info. I really don’t want to boot back and forth. I guess what I’m asking is, do you install Linux, then uninstall windows ? Thanks 

[Serk]

I assumed the Linux didn’t have email. Thanks for the info. I really don’t want to boot back and forth. I guess what I’m asking is, do you install Linux, then uninstall windows ? Thanks 

There are exceptions, but generally Linux would replace Windows.

Almost anything that the normal user can do in Windows you can do in Linux. E-mail, watch videos, browse websites, write documents, use spreadsheets, etc...

[John Schmidt]

I just want to know how to get my external 1TB hard drive to work with my W10. I got it when running XP, then 7, and it worked fine. Now on W10 it doesn't seem to like the company so refuses to allow a backup. Don't tell me to get out the original disk and reload it. Since I moved I can't find all my underwear, let alone a 'puter disk. 

[3fan4life]

I just want to know how to get my external 1TB hard drive to work with my W10. I got it when running XP, then 7, and it worked fine. Now on W10 it doesn't seem to like the company so refuses to allow a backup. Don't tell me to get out the original disk and reload it. Since I moved I can't find all my underwear, let alone a 'puter disk. 

I'm not a computer expert by any means and I can't remember the last time that i stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

I'm not a fan of Windows 10 either........

But, I just went from a Windows 8 computer to a Windows 10 computer and my portable hard drives are working seamlessly with the new computer.

Maybe, the problem is in something other than the operating system.

[cookiedough]

I still have a 12+ year old windows VISTA computer by HP.  NO software security antivirus supports on it anymore. 

If just doing basic stuff like checking websites (being careful going what you go onto of course) and emailing mostly, is still working fine, although a few of my keyboard keys are missing and fell off years ago. 

most new ones I would need basic stuff are 400-500 bucks tops, if that even, on sale.  I have a backup 15 inch laptop Samsung newer not used much I think got on black Friday sale for like 199 or 250 bucks about 5-6 years ago just in case......    I use it a few times per year is all but once you boot up, since not being on it for like forever, it takes forever to reload doing all kinds of system updates that have been missed all year long not being used.

[scooperhsd]

For those not wanting to use Windows - there ARE viable options now.
1. Get a version of Linux (Ubuntu seems to be pretty good). If your email is accessable by web browser - it's as easy as using Windows.
2. Use a Chromebook. This is really putting all your computing in the cloud, though.
3. The various tablet computers (Android, Amazon Fire Tablet, etc,). Again, pretty similar in concept to #2.
4. FInally - if you're already using a Smartphone - a good deal of stuff can be accomplished just fine on one of them.

[Jess Tolbirt]

if you have expensive windows programs like sony pro tools, and other music programs, linux will not work, wine is not designed to work with programs like those.

[Serk]

if you have expensive windows programs like sony pro tools, and other music programs, linux will not work, wine is not designed to work with programs like those.

If you're tied to a specific piece of legacy software, but you still wanna get away from Windows for day to day operation other alternatives to explore (Which may or may not work properly for you) would be to run a virtual image of Windows inside your main Linux desktop OS (Which would require a beefier PC CPU/RAM wise) or to configure a dual boot setup and boot back to Windows when the specific piece of software if required...


...or just suck it up and stick with Windows (Which is what I admittedly have done.)

[scooperhsd]

I'm just now exploring the idea of switching to Linux (hence the Ubuntu comment above), but there is some software that runs only on true blue Windows (Garmin Express I think, although there is a Mac version). My wife uses Corel graphics package. I might think about doing a dual boot scenario, But it's been a while since I worked with Windows at that level.( would need to shrink the Windows partition by 1/4 to 1/2, then setup other partition for Linux).

[Serk]

I'm just now exploring the idea of switching to Linux (hence the Ubuntu comment above), but there is some software that runs only on true blue Windows (Garmin Express I think, although there is a Mac version). My wife uses Corel graphics package. I might think about doing a dual boot scenario, But it's been a while since I worked with Windows at that level.( would need to shrink the Windows partition by 1/4 to 1/2, then setup other partition for Linux).

Take a good look at running a virtual instance of Windows inside your main Linux desaktop. The environment I support for work is a little over 99% virtualized at this point, only a very few specific special needs situations still run directly on raw hardware.

[scooperhsd]

I'm just now exploring the idea of switching to Linux (hence the Ubuntu comment above), but there is some software that runs only on true blue Windows (Garmin Express I think, although there is a Mac version). My wife uses Corel graphics package. I might think about doing a dual boot scenario, But it's been a while since I worked with Windows at that level.( would need to shrink the Windows partition by 1/4 to 1/2, then setup other partition for Linux).

Take a good look at running a virtual instance of Windows inside your main Linux desaktop. The environment I support for work is a little over 99% virtualized at this point, only a very few specific special needs situations still run directly on raw hardware.

Actually - at this time I would run Linux as a virtual PC inside of Windows, since I would be using the same laptop I'm using now with Win10. Getting the Windows10 OS software would be a pain, since it came with Win8 and I did the upgrade .

[Serk]

I'm just now exploring the idea of switching to Linux (hence the Ubuntu comment above), but there is some software that runs only on true blue Windows (Garmin Express I think, although there is a Mac version). My wife uses Corel graphics package. I might think about doing a dual boot scenario, But it's been a while since I worked with Windows at that level.( would need to shrink the Windows partition by 1/4 to 1/2, then setup other partition for Linux).

Take a good look at running a virtual instance of Windows inside your main Linux desaktop. The environment I support for work is a little over 99% virtualized at this point, only a very few specific special needs situations still run directly on raw hardware.

Actually - at this time I would run Linux as a virtual PC inside of Windows, since I would be using the same laptop I'm using now with Win10. Getting the Windows10 OS software would be a pain, since it came with Win8 and I did the upgrade .

Getting a little more advanced, but if you have access to another computer, could  install VMWare Workstation, then run a P2V (Physical to Virtual) process to transfer your existing Windows PC into a VM on the 2nd computer, then install Linux on your main machine, put VMWare Workstation on it and copy the VM Image of your original machine back over...

But admittedly, that's getting a little convoluted, but it is doable... And has many other advantages too (Once the Windows machine has been converted to a virtual computer, you could back up the entire thing to an external hard drive, and if there's a failure, just copy it back to another computer running VMWare and you're back up, for instance.)

(I used VMWare specifically because it's what I'm familiar with, there are however other options, just not ones that I've dealt with nearly as much.)