Windows 7 EOL
Just got this on my netbook:
Looks like M$ wants people to upgrade to Windows 10.
IMO, Windows 10 is a good OS, but it is way too bloated. I have an Inspiron dated 2009 which performs Windows 10 like shit, I'm thinking of downgrading to Vista x64 and upgrading RAM to the maximum 4gb.
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Windows 10 has the same stable NT core as Windows 7, XP, 2000 etc but some of the stuff on top of it is quite messy (there's an empty space where the M$ Edge icon is supposed to be on my school computers, my aunt's computer stuck on the win8-style start screen and settings crashing 90% of the time etc.). These kinds of bugs I'd never experience with Windows 2000 or XP.
It sucks on my HDD when it downloads apps and collects telemetry. Performance and privacy are improved when metro apps are nuked, the Destroy Windows Spying program does its magic, and the Diagnostic Policy Service is disabled.
The wording of system dialogs has also been dumbed down considerably. I just did an update reboot last night and as soon as it started it displayed the message "Getting Windows Ready". For what? User enslavement? Self-destruction? Windows XP, Vista and 7 would just say "installing update x out of y".
All in all, I call Windows 10 the worst of a good bunch. Worst with home edition and best with LTSC.
Windows Vista sounds like a good proposition to me with the nice Aero theme, but in terms of software compatibility it's much closer to XP than 7. It gets security updates for as long as 7 thanks to Server 2008.
Didn't Server 2008(not R2, which is based on 7) have support end last year?
Nope, Server 2008 updates will continue to be released (publically) until January 14, 2020: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search?alpha=Windows Server 2008 (scroll down to Service Pack 2)
A recent update a few months ago bumped up the build number to 6003. Unfortunately it broke some antivirus software on Vista.
Huh, read that support ended last year. Guess not.
And that laptop looks like it belongs in 1998, not 2010.
I forgot to say that Windows Embedded POSReady 7 will be supported until October 12, 2021 and the updates are available in the Microsoft Update Catalog:
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=posready 7
There aren't many but I expect more once regular 7 loses support. There are no modifications necessary to apply the updates to the standard W7.
They are at it with this popup shit again?
The really annoying this is I still have an unopened unused Windows 7 package that I paid good $$$ for. Since this stuff turns in to a hardware facehugger, I was waiting to build the "perfect" system for it, but I never found parts I completely liked.
I’m not surprised. They did it with XP back in the day and they’ll probably keep doing it.
But you have to understand these popups are for the average joe that doesn’t know their OS is out of date and to try and make upgrading as easy as they can. The problem is it doesn’t really work... they underestimate just how hopeless the average user is. Reading a popup is far too much of a challenge for them.
yeah, it's just like the copy of Norton on my father's old desktop (as old as the machine, so 2004).
In 2010 or so a popup appeared indicating that it had expired. At first, his reaction was to state that the computer was no longer safe to use. But it cost a fair bit six years earlier so he kept trucking along with the same old basic Norton.
So either you have people who are going to run out and get a new PC or stick with their present config until the end times (a.k.a. when a P4 can no longer comfortably browse the bloated web).
This summer I'm working at a small medical practice, upgrading all the PCs to Windows 10. This was formerly an XP shop, then a 7 shop. Ten years ago we got a donation of about 25 Dell Vostro 220s (s for "slim") computers, and they've worked pretty good, but Dell says they can't support more than 4 GB of RAM. So, piece by piece, we're replacing all those with refurbished PCs running Windows 10.
A few of them so far, I've been able to upgrade from 7 to 10. One of them gave me a hell of a time with unsigned drivers (it even turned up it's nose at the @#$%ing Microsoft XPS Document Writer -- a Windows component!).
Oh, and then I have to run ShutUp 10 on all the PCs to make sure that Microsoft isn't getting our practice's medical data. Part of me thinks that Windows XP would be more HIPAA-compliant than 10 is, despite being five years out of date at this point. But XP didn't have to phone home to Microsoft every time you pressed a key or launched a program.
From what I've read, Microsoft's endgame is that Windows 10 is the last version of Windows. They'll just keep updating Windows 10 forever and ever and ever (i.e. Apple's Mac OS X). And a small part of that is getting people to give up Windows 7.
(Oh, and by the way, they're dropping support for an OS which has 33% market share of Windows, and they'll keep support for an OS (Win8.1) which has 5.78% of the Windows market (7.53% if you include "8.0," which isn't even supported at this point).
They’ve stuck with the whole Windows 10 being the last version thing so far. Windows 10 (1903) now is not the Windows 10 (1507) that was first released in 2015.
That popup might've been part of a Windows update, as with one that came about months ago. There's no way that would appear out of nowhere. As someone who still uses 7, I still refuse to upgrade. Not sure if it would be safe to use it beyond its EOL but even if it isn't, I can just shut off the wired connection on this laptop and have a spare device make use of the wireless (which in this case a tablet that's lying around but chances are my internet use would be reduced, because of real-life demands and such).
And @win32, that would be handy to know about but, Microsoft doesn't want us to install these updates like what some people did for XP. Dunno if there's any harm on installing them but, is there?
Nope. The POSReady updates should be mostly for IE and other core OS components. I don't think it would be any worse than installing updates on Windows 8.x/10 which have plenty of issues as it is. They could very well be identical to the paid updates that some Pro/Enterprise customers are to receive after January 2020.
Microsoft doesn't want us doing lots of stuff. They'd like it if we exclusively run Windows 10, subscribe to Office 365 and use Microsoft Edge all while drinking Microsoft Milk.
And that they can't do jack about it, no matter how much they can try.
It’s not all bad. Windows 10 is ok as long as it’s LTSC or enterprise. And office 365 is a decent product. Much better than it used to be. As for Edge? Well they basically admitted Chrome was superior by switching to it under the hood. So I see no reason to use it all.
Anyways, i'm thinking of downgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 2000 on my Inspiron 535s. Luckily there is driver support for it.
My main problem with 10 is that it removed many obscure things that were there even in 8.1(like the ability to make a DOS disk). I also wish that you could still get the Classic theme and the old, one column start menu. At least that didn't come with built-in advertising by default :P
Realtek audio and Ethernet, as well as Intel graphics will have official Windows 2000 drivers. SATA/AHCI and ATI graphics will be handled by BWC drivers (minimum of UR1/USP 5.1 and extended core respectively). The only iffy part is WLAN.
Open-Shell returns the classic start menu to Windows 7-10. It evens gives you the option of glassy and XP-style themes in addition to the grey standard.
Windows 7 market share was at 31.96% globally in June according to StatCounter. For comparison, Windows XP's market share was at 24.02% in September 2013.
I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my workstation on Sunday so I'm doing my part.
As of today, it's now exactly six months to go until Windows 7 is no more. Like the minority, I'll probably still be hanging on to it, and I don't give two shits of what Microsoft says or does.
But when it came to the installation of POSReady updates as mentioned earlier in this thread, has anybody done that yet? And if so, did it work for any of you? Just curious.
Along the lines of ending support, I am surprised Microsoft grouped Vista Server (2008R1) with 7 server (2008R2) in terms of support. They supported both this long even though they have their differences.
I will continue to run 2008R2 on my rendering computer. I have found that running Windows 2012+ increases render times substantially, costing me money. Even with all the "hacks" to disable DWM and optimize it, performance was still substantially degraded.
How much decay? 2012&R2 - add 5-10 seconds per frame. 10, you can add 20 seconds. Seems small right? Multiply that by 180,000 for a 5 minute 60fps animation. That's about a day longer of rendering than necessary. And with a machine that consumes over a kilowatt of power, the costs add up.
There comes a point where you should really just run Linux instead.
In reality, I really was considering it. A year ago I actually evaluated how well Debian with CDE (don't ask, I have my reasons) would work for my application. The 3D programs had Linux versions, and it worked very well thanks to their universal libraries. Thanks to the minimal install with required daemons and CDE's lightness, it ran obviously far better than any other Windows alternative.
The only reason I keep it on windows is for some programs that don't have Linux versions (and run poorly under wine). Sketchup, Marvelous Designer, and Alibre Design (now Geomoagic but I haven't purchased another upgrade in like forever) to name a few.
I may relegate those to my other computer and use ftp and vnc to work between the two.
You know I seriously should do this. Thanks for reminding me @calvinb.
It was probably some subconsicous trick to make Windows 7 (and the hardware it runs on) far more antiquated than it actually is. Just like the chromebook ads with XP-style error dialogs and 9x blue screens.
Not for me though, even though I did consider it in the past (more with Linux Mint). If anything, I'd rather have macOS especially when I know my way round it over the nearly 12 years of using it (through college and even volunteering).
I'm sure it's a very conscious effort by the graphics designer. It's also not that far off from reality. Windows 7 is a decade old at this point and when it was new, laptops were thicker, like the picture. Though the monitor bezel being rounded like that makes it look more like a 9x era laptop, so it looks older than it is.
I wish laptops were thicker. I hate these really paper-thin laptops that break so easily when you drop them. My T430 is about perfect for me.
I would love to use either Debian or Ubuntu with CDE. It was such a lightweight desktop environment, and the first one I used when I tried something other than Windows (Solaris 8 on a SPARC system, in my case).
Most DEs are fine, but I tend to prefer DEs that let me focus on one thing, then switch to another thing quickly while keeping the first task in the background.
Anyways, I really don’t know how many people will try the registry trick with the Embedded POS version to extend support this time around.
Personally I’d rather have a thin laptop but with really nice build quality. Which is why I tend to stick with Thinkpad’s. I love my T480s. But the one complaint I have with it is the ethernet port. I didn’t realize the T490 had a full size regular ethernet port, otherwise I’d have got that instead.
Another thing about thin laptops is that there are concerns of not enough ventilation in them. Same with computer towers that are the size of a hardback book.
Also, for that image in the initial post, it's as if Microsoft is trying to say that Win7 is ancient but I know others made comments about that already. Still and all, it's a petty insult directed towards said OS.