I recently stopped using XP and switched to Win 7. I hate Win 10 and have no plans to switch until stuff stops working. I would still use XP today if it was 64 bit and was more compatible. I know you can get 64 bit XP, but it's probably a hassle to deal with.
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Apart from the horrible data collection and the mandatory updates, I have to say Win 10 is pretty neat, strictly technically speaking. I'd recommend LTSB / LTSC though, to avoid all the crapware that comes with the standard versions, and to benefit from security-only updates.
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...and you guys know that literally everything (except, granted, linux) collects that same kind of data, right? Mac OS, Android, iOS...and God help you if you're using Chrome as a browser, use Facebook, or search for anything with Google.
Your data is being collected (mostly in a non-identifiable way by most reliable companies)...at least big, bad MS told you about it and gives you options to turn it off (well, most of it). Apple doesn't say jack, and they collect all sorts of interesting stuff...and yet no one says a thing about their data collection.
Win 10 really isn't doing anything particularly bad, what's collected is anonymous (associated with a generated code that is never associated with any PII), and it's actually less intrusive than most other things that people are using. Just sayin'... πππ
FWIW, I still have a multi-station install of XP64. I haven't used it in ages, but if I ever decide to build a retro machine for just running an emulator with tons of old vidya games, I might make that the base because then I'm guaranteed no connection to anything. :D
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Actually I have a gamer that runs XP64, its not much different from 32. I play the Stalker series on it. Does really well and no issues with a crossfire either.
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I haven't tried using it in 10 or 15 years, so it may not be as bad now as I remember. I only tried using it once and remember having issues getting drivers.
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It's not just the spyware, every time I try to use Win 10, things feel broken or changed to be worse. The same thing happened with switching from XP to 7. Things that use to work great and were designed to be productive are taken away or changed just for the sake of change to release a new version and now are less productive. Ever major software company seems to go through this. This is why I am currently using the old version of Steam and I only update Firefox once every 3 or 4 years when it stops working because of compatibility issues. Firefox use to be amazing, but with every update they seem to be getting more like Apple or Chrome where you have less and less choices and freedom to do what you want and they make decisions for you and lock you out.
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Ever major software company seems to go through this. This is why I am currently using the old version of Steam and I only update Firefox once every 3 or 4 years when it stops working because of compatibility issues.
Same same. I switched to Windows when Apple starting getting dictatorial. Steam won't convince me to use their massive advertising platform at the cost of my resources and the Firefox I'm running is years old and I'll run it until the moment I can't use it at all.
where you have less and less choices and freedom to do what you want and they make decisions for you and lock you out.
But it's for us customers, right? To make things easier for us. To know what we like and to prevent us from screwing up. Right?
</sarcasm>
When I first read Windows 10 was going to be "free" and the "last version of Windows", I knew we were in deep deep sh!t
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I may be forced to upgrade Firefox soon. I hate the new version of Youtube and my Firefox is so old that it causes the new Youtube to be extremely laggy and slow to load, so I have always edited the cookie to run the old version of Youtube and everything works great. Now I am getting notifications on Youtube that they are going to disable the old version soon :(
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Technically speaking, (mainstream) support for Windows 7 already ended 5 years ago, today marks the end of the extended support period.
In any case, given the current state of things, I wouldn't even consider "not receiving Microsoft updates and support" a downside...
The real downside I can envision in the long term, is third party software eventually dropping support for Windows 7.
That said, even without official support, Win 7 will keep being a perfectly usable OS, just as XP still is... that is, if you know what you are doing.
But I don't see any reasons to NOT consider switching to GNU/Linux, especially if still stuck to XP: it's been a perfectly valid alternative for a long time, you can simply install it alongside Windows, and if you're concerned about games, that's -mostly- not even a problem anymore, now that Proton is a thing.
Because, let's face it, the main reason we, as gamers, are still stuck to Windows, are games, and possibly professional software that you really cannot / don't want to abandon... which is what Microsoft wanted -and managed- to achieve, I guess.
Otherwise, you can do pretty much anything with any decent OS; most of us own Android smartphones, and are thus already accustomed to an OS that's also (partly) based on GNU/Linux.
I personally plan to install a Linux distro to use as primary, keeping Windows 7 around in dual boot for those few games that just won't play nicely with Proton (Windows 10 would obviously be the best choice in this case, but it literally refuses to work on my -relatively old- PC since the 2016 Anniversary update).
That's what I expect most tech-savvy users will do (possibly without the dual boot part), and that's what I'd suggest everybody to do, if you're not comfortable becoming an unpaid beta tester for life, your data being sniffed at every turn even if you take precautions, or Microsoft deciding what you can and cannot do with YOUR PC (and this is, at the very least, what you should really worry about, as they reserve the rights to uninstall anything they might deem "unsafe" from your machine - we know they're totally gonna use safety as an excuse).
Alternatively, for those who really want to consider this option, it should be relatively easy to find cheap 8.1 keys, extended support for that lasts 3 more years.
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or people who haven't updated their Win 7 in a while or on a habitual basis will not really notice anything out of the ordinary.
A bigger issue will be when Steam drops support for win 7 pro in years to come. At that point I'll stop updating steam's client and start dual-booting something else.
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But I don't see any reasons to NOT consider switching to GNU/Linux, especially if still stuck to XP: it's been a perfectly valid alternative for a long time, you can simply install it alongside Windows, and if you're concerned about games, that's -mostly- not even a problem anymore, now that Proton is a thing.
I personally plan to install a Linux distro to use as primary, keeping Windows 7 around in dual boot for those few games that just won't play nicely with Proton.
I can throw my 2 cents about my experience here as someone who switched from part-time Linux user (using it on my laptop since 2015) to full time earlier last year when I built a new PC. I have my old PC still set up still running Windows 7 and in 10 months I have booted it up a grand total of 5 times. Gaming on Linux it is actually that decent at this point and Proton has improved immensely in the past year it has existed. I would never switch back to Windows anymore.
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I use 3 different ones.
Mint - I have been using it since 2015, it has its flaws but I been satisfied with it.
Manjaro - I installed it on my laptop late last year because I was interested into switching my desktop to it but I wanted to test it out first on my laptop. A lot of people love it but so far I am not convinced yet.
Ubuntu - just for servers, I have no idea what the experience is using it day to day.
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I second, or third this. I use Windows 10 about three times a year, usually because my scanner is acting up, and I ended up getting an open source program for that anyway.
Steam support for Linux just keeps growing, and unless you use some specific software (I have Office 2010 working fine on Linux), you're covered for all the basic usage (browsing/downloading/video watching) with Linux, and it makes running any niche programs (like bioinformatics) much easier as you can always easily compile it yourself. Plus the opportunities for customization are so wide that you really make it your own PC. Change the buttons. Change the fonts. Change the whole desktop theme. Change the entire desktop.
Anything you like vs. Microsoft's "hey here's a Candy Crush ad on your own paid-for menu screen".
Anyone still curious, you can find an old USB stick or SD card and try some out. You'll usually only need 2GB. Or get Virtualbox and check it out through those. I herd you like to operate systems so you just load an ISO file and you can Operate system inside yo Operating System.
A beginner's tip that took me awhile to understand - while there are "distros" that differ in their underlying systems and/or installed software, focus more on which desktop environment you prefer first. In the end, as a beginner, you won't really notice what's going on anyway and they'll look similar if they have the same environment. Gnome, mate, xfce, cinnamon, kde, [budgie]. Figure out which works best for you before you decide on distro.
Look into anything ubuntu-derived (or ubuntu itself), for your beginner-friendly distro. Distrowatch can help you choose. You can always switch later, that's the fun of it. Elementary, deepin or zorin are also quick to get up and running. Ignore comments about Arch or Gentoo. Seriously at this stage it's like suggesting someone learning to drive start by building the car. Useful for longer term usage and maintenance but don't you just want to get to the city easily?
Have fun!
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TLDR: forced updates, requires connecting to the net to get all of it working, privacy issues, the fact that you cannot turn off the phoning home to MS with your data
I hate ads (SG is whitelisted) and don't want my OS to give me ads.
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which allow me to run my old 16-bit programs without needing a VM
Isn't this simply a limitation of 64-bit Windows, that you can't run 16-bit applications anymore?
Just using one of those Dosbox-ish tools to run 16-bit stuff.
(I'm pretty sure my 64-bit Windows 7 had no idea how to use 16-bit software, either. If you have that, perhaps you have a truly prehistoric 32-bit Windows install?)
Cortana cannot be turned off.
There's whole editions without Cortana, like LTSB/LTSC or Education.
10 is more resource-heavy than 7, this is an issue for older computers.
I suppose you have some Meltdown/Spectre mitigations forced that you can simply not install on Windows 7 (and you'd also have to avoid BIOS updates). These would mainly hurt file I/O performance and to some degree CPU performance. But Windows 10 has RAM compression features that are sorely lacking on Windows 7, and many software developers don't really account for this.
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In nearly all circumstances, 64-bit cannot run 16-bit software, but Win 7 Pro 64 with XP mode (free from MS) integrates 16-bit support via an integrated..I guess it counts as a VM? It does require the hardware to support hardware Virtualization. Link 1 Link 2
I know for a fact that I have 64-bit Win 7.
Good to know that about Cortana. Unfortunately, if I upgrade, I will get 10 Pro, with cortana.
That bit about RAM compression is nice to know, thanks! Unfortunately, I did not understand the two preceding sentences. π³
Also, of interest specifically to me, I have games which do not run on Win 10.
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Also, of interest specifically to me, I have games which do not run on Win 10.
Curious, which? (if they're on Steam)
Unfortunately, I did not understand the two preceding sentences.
Pretty sensationalist but perhaps easily understandable: https://meltdownattack.com/
Attempts to protect against this make computers slower (because they were too fast to begin with)
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First off, thank you for the link. I appreciate the information. I think I remember those patches coming out. (I have manually installed the "critical-install-these-updates-or-the-world-might-end-yesterday" updates).
I don't recall steam titles off the top of my head, but I have definitely seen (within the last 2 months) steam pages with a banner (similar in design to the "This game requires VR" banners) proudly proclaiming "this game requires XP, Vista or 7 to run and will not run on newer OSs."
Offsteam games include anything that is dependant on CD-based DRM, including the Microsoft games:
Combat Flight Sim 1 & 2, Train Simulator 2002, and a few others. I am sorry that I cannot recall more names atm.
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Switched to Win 10 from 7 on autumn mainly because i wanted to play through Game Pass and cant understand the hate. Of course new interface takes some time to adjust but i don't miss it and overall performance improved in comparison to 7 for me.
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Win10 is really not that bad after getting used to it :)
For people who have Win7 or 8 and want to switch:
It's still possible to upgrade for free, I just did that a few weeks ago :)
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-7-is-done-heres-how-to-get-windows-10-for-free/
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I've been using Win10 on my laptop for quite some time, but I was hesitating to upgrade my main pc for a while :D
Mainly because I was afraid of all the software & games that I had to reinstall, but then I saw it's possible to do the upgrade without deleting anything :)
Worked pretty good overall, only the VLC player kept freezing but a re-install fixed that too :3
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Thanks for that! :)
Was about time i should upgrade. Worked like a charm without any files or apps loss.
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oh no :( the baddies have been waiting for this. Win7 Left 4 Dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTNchgZjufE
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but it becomes very vulnerable to security risks, viruses and other threats
Tries to think of the last time I updated anything on my Windows machine.
But seriously, I only use my PC for gaming, my biggest concern is Valve/Origin/Uplay/etc dropping support by ceasing to update their apps to be compatible with Win7.
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Wow, time is like literally moving so fast. It seems like yesterday support for XP was ending. I'm just waiting for grey hairs now
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I've been considering switching to win 10 for some time but still haven't done so, the fact that I have yet to run into something that doesn't work in win 7 is the main reason that I keep putting it as a low priority thing. I recently played through Sunset Overdrive, a game that doesn't support win 7 and besides one specific glitch that caused the shadows to flicker (usually solved by quiting to menu and loading the game again) it worked as expected.
That said I'll probably have to make the switch before the year is over cos I can see many programs will use this as an excuse to end support.
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it becomes very vulnerable to security risks, viruses and other threats
That's wrong. Just because it's out of support it does not become vulnerable. I would say, even less vulnerable, as attackers will most probably not target it specifically, so new vulnerabilities may be discovered only accidentally. And on top of it, new updates often bring new vulnerabilities, so windows 7 has less chances to get vulnerable than windows 10. All this "more vulnerable" bullshit are just lies from microsoft marketers.
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Absolutely serious. Vulnerability is the last thing windows 7 users need to worry about, they are more safe that windows 10 users (but still not as safe as linux users. Not because linux is safe by design, but because nobody cares about linux on desktops, user base is too small to target). Real problem is when third party support. As in:
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from the moment the support for it ended it became the golden goose - if you find a way in you can do whatever you want and nobody will ever stop you.
windows 10 had a market share of 50% 2019, windows 7 almost 25% and i guess that many haven't or won't upgrade to 10 so 7 will be the main target for a very long time
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if you find a way in you can do whatever you want and nobody will ever stop you.
It does not works like this, it's not a sliver bullet. Most exploits require either user interaction, or another exploit in browser, or at least direct access via internet (which you won't have if you are behind a router or modem, that is - in most cases). So, even if you found new exploit, that works on win7, you won't have this 25% of market share. Look at windows xp - it's not supported for about 5 years, and yet people use it, and don't get instantly hacked. And this 25% only going to drop, so every possible hacker have to consider before even trying to find a new exploit - is it even worth it?
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Look at windows xp - it's not supported for about 5 years, and yet people use it, and don't get instantly hacked.
Isn't XP famous for getting instantly hacked if you ever connect to the internet directly, or with DMZ, instead of being behind NAT?
Like, IDK, https://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/hack-like-pro-exploit-and-gain-remote-access-pcs-running-windows-xp-0134709/
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You just proved my point, you know. Your link proves that there are known vulnerabilities in Windows XP. And yet many people (including me, lol. I have one old netbook with windows XP) use it and DON'T get instantly hacked. Of course you are right, and exposing it directly to the internet is very bad idea, but even then - you need someone to actually scan network for windows xp PCs to find and attack you, and if someone do - they are really strange, as share of windows xp is ridiculously low now. I'm too lazy to look for a way to connect my netbook to internet directly just to check how long will it last, sorry.
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when I had Windows 7, I regularly stopped reinstalling it because she began to work not very well.
when Windows 10 came out I installed it right there and it worked very stably, only I had to turn off the "tracking" function for a long time. After some long time my cracker leaked, and indeed Windows when seeing files, the vlos immediately deleted them.
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Used Windows 10 since it was officially released. No real issues besides the fact that its more boxed in.
Everything that worked on windows 7 works on windows 10. Never had any issues with apps or gaming. And I leaned how to get rid of stupid apps I don't need like groove...As someone who only recognizes Windows 98SE, XPSP2 and 7SP1 as versions of windows. I recommend it as a worthy forth.
That said, I discovered a very easy way to get Windows 10 for free...even if you have windows XP:
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I have done it several times already with 7. Did they just recently stop supporting it or what? There is no trick needed at all when MS is giving it out for free.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/
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You can still do the exact same with 7 and instead of piracy just buy a really cheap copy. Nothing requires 8 nor does it make anything better. It can be only worse if something remains of it after the upgrade. And after you've upgraded you can just do a clean 10 install.
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During a clean install you cannot proceed unless you enter your key...Windows never shows you your key unless you bought a copy or know how to look it up...How many people know how to look it up?
There is no piracy involved if you do not know or cannot find your keys. Here are some direct from Microsoft. Just get a KMS activator. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/kmsclientkeys
You cannot activate Windows 7 with KMS using the keys above. This is why I recommend Windows 8.1
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SP3 was too little too late. I still can't remember any real difference between SP3 and SP2 besides security updates (unlike SP1 and SP2). Windows 7 test builds came out not long after which I admit I had too much fun with (The only windows version I followed completely) I didn't ever really use SP3 and I doubt others did either. Unless those who stuck with XP after 7
And 16 bit support is still possible on Windows 10. Sadly you need a 32 bit version...lol
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/enable-16-bit-application-support-windows-10/
I personally went with Windows 3.1 on Dosbox instead. Windows 95/98 is too much work right now
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Okay, fair enough. I used Sp3 quite a bit before we had 7 (we had XP & Vista simultaneously), we only upgraded (and it was to Win 7) when the XP machine died, in I think 2009 or 10.
Lol, well...that isn't practical for most Win 10 users today.
Ah, I see. I never used Win 3.1 myself. :|
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That XP mode uses virtualization, actually (it runs a 32 bit WinXP VM). There's no way to run 16 bit code in 64 bit Windows natively, since Microsoft never implemented the 16 bit subsystem in 64 bit mode (running 16 bit code in other CPU modes requires a lot of work).
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Yes. Thank you for the concise explanation!
My understanding is that there was some law or reg stating that an architecture had to be backwards compatible one gen, eg 16-bit had to support 8, 32-bit had to support 16, and now 64-bit only has to support 32-bit, so they dropped 16.
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If you have a valid Win7/8 license, you can still upgrade to Win10 for free simply by doing a fresh install of Win10. When it comes time to put in your license, put in the Win7/8 license and it will simply convert you over to Win10, activated and everything. I had a couple of old Win7 Pro licenses left of from an old MSDN subscription, and I was able to use these to install both of my kids' PCs when I upgraded them. π
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also this XD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4k0Ctb4uT4&t=59s
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For those who have Windows 7 still and want to upgrade to Windows 10 it's still possible to do it for free. I've updated the OP with a simple step by step on how to do it.
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In case you weren't aware, Microsoft officially ends support for Windows 7 today. What does that mean for you if you choose to use this operating system still?
Your PC will still work but it becomes very vulnerable to security risks, viruses and other threats as you will no longer be receiving any security updates or fixes for Windows 7. You will also not get software updates or technical support for any issues from Microsoft. As time goes on you'll start noticing a decline on the overall performance and installed programs may start to have issues.
How To Get Windows 10 For Free
For those with Windows 7(licensed) currently, you can get Windows 10 for free still. If you have Windows 7 Home you will be able to get Windows 10 Home and if you have Windows 7 Pro you will be able to get Windows 10 Pro. The upgrade normally takes about 30 minutes to an hour to complete.
Just head to the official Microsoft page to download Windows 10 here.
Under the "Create Windows 10 installation media section" select "Download Tool Now" and then run the app.
Then chose "Upgrade PC Now" and hit "Next" at the bottom.
It will ask you whether you want to keep your personal files or start fresh. Just so you are aware that either choice means your apps and settings will be deleted for the Windows 10 upgrade.
Once the upgrade is compete you should receive your license for Windows 10 which will be found under "Settings" > "Update & Security" > "Activation".
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