Cycling UK Forum

So support ends tomorrow. Any here still using it?

I still have a number of Media Center pcs that will remain as W7 pcs until they fail, but then they dont need to connect to the internet

Yes, Windows updates have been turned off for two years and it's protected by Avast. No probs

Al

I simply object to the waste of throwing out a perfectly-good computer so, when the offer of free upgrades came out maybe a year or so back, I signed up. And failed to upgrade because there was no driver for my monitor. So I parked it and carried on with Windows 7.

More recently, the monitor started to lose pixels, and the deadline was coming up, so my wife kindly bought a new monitor as my Christmas present. Cue two weeks of repeated attempts to make the upgrade happen.

I finally succeeded this weekend, at which point I went on to find a way to nobble the annoying automated restarts for Windows updates. It's not that I won't be keeping up with them; it's just that I want to be able to leave it running overnight. It gets shut down each morning before I go to work anyway, so the updates will be installed, but under my control, not Microsoft's.

for my desk top I am actually using Windows 8.1 but with the classic start menu addon that makes it look like Windows 7. Windows 8.1 will be supported until 2023, so 3 years with a Windows 7 look-a-like pc, but with many of the advances that went into Windows 10 - but not that dreadful forced update nonsense.

I'm also using Classic Shell, of which Classic Start Menu is part (I also use Classic Menu for Office). Works in Windows 10 too. I was using it in Windows 7 - I've got it set to give me the previous interface to that. I like things to be where I know they are, and not scrolling around all over the place or changing order by themselves. Windows 8 is awful - we have that at work - though there's a clever fix that involves pinning a folder to the taskbar as a toolbar. If you do that with your Programs folder, you can get a proper, navigable menu, even in Windows 8, without installing Classic Shell (not really allowed at work!)

I tend to use a trackball rather than a mouse, as I was getting some wrist pain with the latter. The one thing a trackball won't do as well as a mouse is big jumps around the screen, which the modern interfaces, with their massive toolbars and large, randomised buttons, seem to assume. Compact, stable drop-downs work much better for me.

I've just mothballed my XP desktop, replacing it with a W10 machine (from which I'm posting now). I suppose all the techies amongst you will howl "about time too!" but I have to say I liked XP - but I took heed of the warnings about Flash, whether true or not. Now I learn that Flash is set to be dropped, but that's not the same issue.

I also have a cheapo W7 laptop which I'm keeping going, I find it useful from time to time, and don't see any reason to dump it. If support is ending so what? I don't have any sensitive stuff on it and all the files get backed up regularly.

Mrs. Copy has a laptop that is still Windows 7.
She rarely uses it to go online, usually just checking out health information and the occasional email.
Would it be safe to continue using connected online, or best to forget about it and let her use my Mac ( )

fausto copy wrote:Mrs. Copy has a laptop that is still Windows 7.
She rarely uses it to go online, usually just checking out health information and the occasional email.
Would it be safe to continue using connected online, or best to forget about it and let her use my Mac ( )

aslong as she is diligent about not clicking links in email from suspect emails I would think ok. I would back up any data from it to a memory stick and maybe make an image of the hard disk ( the means is built into W7) ( and a restore dvd! ) so that you could easily restore it to a known sound installation should some thing go wrong. Any one should do that what ever version of Windows they have any way?

Hi,

al_yrpal wrote:Yes, Windows updates have been turned off for two years and it's protected by Avast. No probs

Al

My windows seven and eight was still receiving Microsoft Security update all the way up to the end of last year.

Hi,
Can you still update from seven free?

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,

al_yrpal wrote:Yes, Windows updates have been turned off for two years and it's protected by Avast. No probs

Al

My windows seven and eight was still receiving Microsoft Security update all the way up to the end of last year.

Yes, but I was so fed up with updates taking over and interfering with my use of the PC I simply turned them off and relied on Avast foc

Thats why I use a Chromebook for practically everything. No viruses, boots up in a few seconds, lightning fast. However for the best photo editing the PC or Mac wins. Thus occasional use only.

Al

drossall wrote:I'm also using Classic Shell, of which Classic Start Menu is part (I also use Classic Menu for Office). Works in Windows 10 too. I was using it in Windows 7 - I've got it set to give me the previous interface to that. I like things to be where I know they are, and not scrolling around all over the place or changing order by themselves. Windows 8 is awful - we have that at work - though there's a clever fix that involves pinning a folder to the taskbar as a toolbar. If you do that with your Programs folder, you can get a proper, navigable menu, even in Windows 8, without installing Classic Shell (not really allowed at work!)

I tend to use a trackball rather than a mouse, as I was getting some wrist pain with the latter. The one thing a trackball won't do as well as a mouse is big jumps around the screen, which the modern interfaces, with their massive toolbars and large, randomised buttons, seem to assume. Compact, stable drop-downs work much better for me.

Classic Start Menu is no longer under development and has been replaced by OpenShell and strictly speaking it ( CS) working on Windows 10 is just luck eg

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/classic_start.html

Chromebooks are great but they do come with an end of life date (generally about 5 years from the models first sales ). After this point they are no longer guaranteed updates.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
Can you still update from seven free?

you should google the matter. It seems there might be ways. What I did when it was free was to install W10 thereby legitimsing my copy with MS ( they store the info in a database ) then returned my pcs to W8 or 7. I did this with my sisters W7 note book more than a year ago and moved her over to W10 a few months ago, finally

Bsteel wrote:Chromebooks are great but they do come with an end of life date (generally about 5 years from the models first sales ). After this point they are no longer guaranteed updates.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en

When they cost so little a 5 year life span isnt really an issue. Two of my grandkids are still using Chromebooks that were purchased in Feb 2015 and saw them right through University. We'll see if they fall over soon? I forgot to mention battery life, usually over 10 hours

Al