Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

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mercalia
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by mercalia »

kwackers wrote:I think folk are simply looking for problems.

I have a number of W10 pc's which I use for ten hours or so a day with no problems at all. They don't do anything untoward, don't force me to do anything differently and just work.
I also have W7 machines and even XP machines which I use regularly with no issues.

I also have machines that I occasionally install Linux on just to see if it's usable yet - the answer is always no.
It doesn't run what I want and open source substitutes for some of them (and Linux itself) feel clunky and user unfriendly, it makes me feel like my hands are tied behind my back.
I'm sure it's possible to get used to the feel of it but I personally can't see any reason to invest that much effort tbh.

However, if you just want an easy/cheap machine to run a browser and a few simple tasks then Linux might be a good choice.
Buy a Raspberry PI (pref a 4) and install it. You get a tiny machine for very little cost that's ideal for 99% of what people want.
Another alternative is a Chromebook.


As I said above the problem with W10 is getting a new version every 6 months or is it now a year. with new security issues due to the new features ( that no one wants). People just want the old W7/XP policy of just solving security issues, certainly business does? Yes W10 works well enough
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
drossall wrote:
NATURAL ANKLING wrote:My windows seven and eight was still receiving Microsoft Security update all the way up to the end of last year.

Windows 7 support only ended today and Windows 8 support has not ended, so that's the expected result.

Well I received win7 pro sp1 64 bit security important updates a few days ago and again this afternoon?
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
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mercalia
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by mercalia »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
drossall wrote:
NATURAL ANKLING wrote:My windows seven and eight was still receiving Microsoft Security update all the way up to the end of last year.

Windows 7 support only ended today and Windows 8 support has not ended, so that's the expected result.

Well I received win7 pro sp1 64 bit security important updates a few days ago and again this afternoon?



I follow a security podcast and it seems there has been in the last few days a very serious security flaw has been made public. Possibly MS put out an extra patch for that. Remember MS also did some thing like that with XP after it fell out of support as the issue then was very serious?
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bigjim
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by bigjim »

i'm using an ancient Dell latitude D520 XP machine. I've changed the hard drive for an SSD and installed Linux Mint. It runs superbly and I find it a nicer machine to use than more modern stuff. I've kept the old XP harddrive as things like Mapsource don't seem to work on Linux. It takes a minute to pull out the hard drive and slot the XP one in. These old machines are very user friendly as I can change HDs, memory, keyboards and even the screen very easily.
Must admit though I tend to use my MotoG3 smartphone quite a lot now to surf the web, check the weather, news and emails rather than boot the laptop up. I imagine Google will stop supporting my smartphone software soon and I'll have to splash out another fifty quid on a more modern secondhand phone.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
So should I be worried if I am on w7?
8 is pants!
Its like an old car it might be antique but never goes wrong and you don't need a box of tricks or a manual to get it running :)
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
mercalia
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by mercalia »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
So should I be worried if I am on w7?
8 is pants!
Its like an old car it might be antique but never goes wrong and you don't need a box of tricks or a manual to get it running :)


8 is only pants if you have to use the silly tile menu, but most people use the classic start menu then you have a better version of Windows 7
pete75
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by pete75 »

kwackers wrote:I think folk are simply looking for problems.

I have a number of W10 pc's which I use for ten hours or so a day with no problems at all. They don't do anything untoward, don't force me to do anything differently and just work.
I also have W7 machines and even XP machines which I use regularly with no issues.

I also have machines that I occasionally install Linux on just to see if it's usable yet - the answer is always no.
It doesn't run what I want and open source substitutes for some of them (and Linux itself) feel clunky and user unfriendly, it makes me feel like my hands are tied behind my back.
I'm sure it's possible to get used to the feel of it but I personally can't see any reason to invest that much effort tbh.

However, if you just want an easy/cheap machine to run a browser and a few simple tasks then Linux might be a good choice.
Buy a Raspberry PI (pref a 4) and install it. You get a tiny machine for very little cost that's ideal for 99% of what people want.
Another alternative is a Chromebook.


Linux has been usable for years. I implemented a large Oracle Financials database with Red Hat Linux running on Sun boxes back in 2006. Initially the OS wasn't quite as stable and reliable as the previous set up running on Solaris but after a couple of new OS releases it ran just as well. For the most part Linux is much the same to use as Unix - anyone used to the Bourne shell or one of it's derivatives will take to Linux quickly.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
drossall
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by drossall »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote: So should I be worried if I am on w7?

There will be increasing risk because security issues that are discovered in future will not be addressed. You should upgrade if you can.
kwackers
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by kwackers »

pete75 wrote:Linux has been usable for years. I implemented a large Oracle Financials database with Red Hat Linux running on Sun boxes back in 2006. Initially the OS wasn't quite as stable and reliable as the previous set up running on Solaris but after a couple of new OS releases it ran just as well. For the most part Linux is much the same to use as Unix - anyone used to the Bourne shell or one of it's derivatives will take to Linux quickly.

I'm sure, but as always it's from my POV so the relevant bit is:
kwackers wrote:It doesn't run what I want and open source substitutes for some of them (and Linux itself) feel clunky and user unfriendly, it makes me feel like my hands are tied behind my back.
I'm sure it's possible to get used to the feel of it but I personally can't see any reason to invest that much effort tbh.


Having said that I stand by my view that it feels 'clunky' - but if I just wanted a simple computer to do web stuff and a few docs on then I'd put it fairly high up my list.
And if I wanted a server it'd almost certainly be my first choice.
kwackers
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by kwackers »

drossall wrote:
NATURAL ANKLING wrote: So should I be worried if I am on w7?

There will be increasing risk because security issues that are discovered in future will not be addressed. You should upgrade if you can.

Or hang on long enough and even the hackers wont support W7 so you'll be safe again. :lol:
pete75
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by pete75 »

kwackers wrote:
pete75 wrote:Linux has been usable for years. I implemented a large Oracle Financials database with Red Hat Linux running on Sun boxes back in 2006. Initially the OS wasn't quite as stable and reliable as the previous set up running on Solaris but after a couple of new OS releases it ran just as well. For the most part Linux is much the same to use as Unix - anyone used to the Bourne shell or one of it's derivatives will take to Linux quickly.

I'm sure, but as always it's from my POV so the relevant bit is:
kwackers wrote:It doesn't run what I want and open source substitutes for some of them (and Linux itself) feel clunky and user unfriendly, it makes me feel like my hands are tied behind my back.
I'm sure it's possible to get used to the feel of it but I personally can't see any reason to invest that much effort tbh.


Having said that I stand by my view that it feels 'clunky' - but if I just wanted a simple computer to do web stuff and a few docs on then I'd put it fairly high up my list.
And if I wanted a server it'd almost certainly be my first choice.


As I said the user interface is very like the Bourne shell. No messing about with menus or a mouse just type in commands and write shell scripts to tell it what to do. Coming as I did from Unix the learning curve was minimal. Admittedly it doesn't suffer fools. Type in rm -rf / logged in as root and it'll delete every mounted filesystem on the box. No asking if you're sure - it'll just do it.

It's not really a desk top operating system but there are some front ends which attempt to make it one. The most "user friendly" front end is probably Android but that's not really for desktops.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
kwackers wrote:
drossall wrote:
NATURAL ANKLING wrote: So should I be worried if I am on w7?

There will be increasing risk because security issues that are discovered in future will not be addressed. You should upgrade if you can.

Or hang on long enough and even the hackers wont support W7 so you'll be safe again. :lol:

I know I have to do something, although my question sounded naïve.
My lap top got's 8.1, need to sort out the alternative classic look, tried before and got nowhere but did not try for more than ten minutes.
I really hate laptops, I even got a mouse on mine.
Never liked XP that much, give me windows 2k any day, don't do media on my computers just email spreadsheets etc and here, you call that media I suppose :)
I hate redoing things that work.
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
kwackers
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by kwackers »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:I know I have to do something, although my question sounded naïve.
My lap top got's 8.1, need to sort out the alternative classic look, tried before and got nowhere but did not try for more than ten minutes.
I really hate laptops, I even got a mouse on mine.
Never liked XP that much, give me windows 2k any day, don't do media on my computers just email spreadsheets etc and here, you call that media I suppose :)
I hate redoing things that work.

TBH, despite what I posted above you could just try a Raspberry PI running Linux...

Buy the version 4, a decent sized SD card and download one of the distributions - which you can simply copy onto the SD card.
Plug in your mouse, keyboard and monitor and turn it on...

If you don't need much storage the SD card may well be enough, if you want more just plug a USB hard drive into it.

They are tiny though, I've a version 3 and 4 here in front of me and in the case they fit the palm of my hand fairly easily.
mercalia
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by mercalia »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
kwackers wrote:
drossall wrote:There will be increasing risk because security issues that are discovered in future will not be addressed. You should upgrade if you can.

Or hang on long enough and even the hackers wont support W7 so you'll be safe again. :lol:

I know I have to do something, although my question sounded naïve.
My lap top got's 8.1, need to sort out the alternative classic look, tried before and got nowhere but did not try for more than ten minutes.
I really hate laptops, I even got a mouse on mine.
Never liked XP that much, give me windows 2k any day, don't do media on my computers just email spreadsheets etc and here, you call that media I suppose :)
I hate redoing things that work.



There is an alternative to the free classic shell called START8 which costs I think £5 and has fewer config options to confuse, makes it look like W7 out of the box

https://www.stardock.com/products/start8/
free to try for 30 days. Does the same thing as the Classic Shell

There is also a START10, though I have used START8 on W10 with no problems
mercalia
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Re: Windows 7 support ends Tuesday 14th Jan 2020

Post by mercalia »

If you are still using Windows 7 and missed the free update to Windows 10 there is an offer of just £25 for Windows 10 home for a short time. Or widnows 10 pro for £40

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/buying-advice/windows/act-now-save-up-82-on-windows-10-upgrade-3781764/
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