[Raion]

For the upcoming closure of Windows 7 from support, I have opened this thread to contain it in one place.

It's a bit nostalgic for me since Windows 7 has been a part of my life for nearly a decade, but at the same time, no anger really is in me for MS discontinuing it for a few reasons:

1. Windows 10 LTSB/C is not bad. Really, it's not. I also have 8.1 Embedded Industry Pro running on a few devices.
2. Windows 7 has aged pretty rotten, to compare it to a food or drink, I'd say it's like a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz (a cheap red wine) that aged into really nasty vinegar.
3. MS is in their right to do it, and has given people more than 10 good years.

I'll discuss some alternatives if you don't want to go to 10, which is understandable, and some things that in general are good to know about Windows 7 that MS never fixed:

1. Like Windows XP, there's serious failures in the native http libraries, like WINHTTP. Windows 7 only technically supports SSLv3 with many native apps because of bugs in the TLS code, that have never been fixed. Unlike Windows xp, though, these bugs cannot be patched without breaking those programs. You basically have to grab the Windows 8 version, hack some registry codes, and apply the update to force it to work, and this breaks apps older than the MS Office 2013 that use WINHTTP, like sharepoint and Outlook.

2. The Aero theme still has bugs. When I used 7 - I always turned it back to Classic mode because Aero requires hardware acceleration on the desktop, which never works right on Windows due to bugs in DX9/10

**My Recommendations**

If you're left stranded by this, and don't want Windows 10, do this:

Download Windows 8.1 Embedded Industry Pro. Yes, you will need to either pirate it or ask someone with MSDN to get it for you. I'm not encouraging privacy, just be smart and not retarded about it.

Install it, and then install OpenShell, follow this guide on turning off their telemetry:

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/02/11/blocki...7-and-8-1/

then add these to your hosts file on windows:

Code:

0.0.0.0    choice.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
0.0.0.0    telemetry.appex.bing.net:443
0.0.0.0    65.55.108.23
0.0.0.0    65.39.117.230
0.0.0.0    23.218.212.69
0.0.0.0    134.170.30.202
0.0.0.0    137.116.81.24
0.0.0.0    204.79.197.200
0.0.0.0    23.218.212.69

If you want to go even further, just ignore the start8 stuff in this guide: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/make-...-windows-7

Ultimately, though, it does seem ReactOS may finally be a bit of a more old school option as it continues to get updates.

(here's the link for OpenShell): https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu