[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

[Trippynet]

It'll be sad when Windows 7 does finally go. I still use it as the primary OS on my PC (with the wufuc patch to enable Windows updates as MS tries to block them on Ryzen systems). I have Win10 LTSC on a separate partition, but I just don't like it as much. Even with a multitude of hacks and 3rd party utilities to disable telemetry, wrestle full control of Windows updates, replace the hideous start menu, replace all the annoying "bingy-bong" sounds plus a few other tweaks, it still feels very rough in places.

Personally, I don't mind Aero on Windows 7. Never really had any issues with it, and it feels a lot more polished, finished and consistent than the smorgasbord of mis-mashed interface paradigms that is Windows 10. I do agree W7 isn't perfect, there's the folder jumping bug in Explorer for example. Still, it'll be sad when it goes given that it was the last OS designed by MS with the primary emphasis on usability.

[shrek]

This is the off topic section, so my post is a little opinionated.

I haven't used Windows in years and I really can't stand it just from a technological standpoint, so I'm not exactly shedding any tears for Windows 7. My biggest concern with this is the security issues that will follow. I am NOT looking forward to cleaning malware out of the Windows 7 installs and doing data recovery for relatives who refuse to upgrade. It's gonna be Windows XP all over again. Windows 10 forced updates are terrible but at least my parents aren't able to click "not now" indefinitely when security updates become available. I'm about to just get them Chromebooks anyways so that I don't have to babysit machines that are otherwise capable of being automatically maintained by someone else if loaded with better operating systems.

[commodorejohn]

I skipped over 7 as a daily driver entirely because I hated that Vista and 7 started removing the options to un-dumbify the UI that XP had (HTML file + folder pairing can go straight to hell.) 8 only continued the trend of removing as many user configuration options as MS felt they could get away with, and by the time 10 rolled out I'd already seen that this wasn't ever going to get better and jumped ship to *nix.

That said, 7 was a good runner for years in many respects, and it was a reliable alternative during the copious bullshit of 10's early days. In fact, it's still less bullshit than 10 everywhere except under the hood. I'll be sorry to see it go, but oh well, I got no skin in this game anymore.

[biigD]

I ran 7 on my main desktop until a few months ago when I finally bit the bullet and went to 10. Figured I might as well get used to it before January. Honestly 10 wasn't as horrible as I thought it'd be, especially once I got things configured the way I like. That said, I don't require much from the Windows partition - it's mainly there for Office and some games, as well as for my wife to use. If I want to nerd out, I boot into Linux or BSD.

Probably gonna treat myself to some new hardware soon and wipe it and start over anyway - my Haswell stuff is getting a little long in the tooth. Waiting to see what AMD does with the new Threadripper announcement on Monday.

[Gamefan]

Been running 10 since it came out. Lately been using POP OS instead to learn more Linux and Terminal commands. Hate it how Windows 10 forces updates.

[Raion]

Yeah, if Windows tries to go to subscription I'll throw a few hundred at ReactOS .

[Raion]

Indeed I'm disappointed their progress is slow.

[Raion]

4 days to go. The eleventh hour, moreorless.

[weblacky]

Hi All,
In regards to Windows 7 and 10, I used Windows 10 the month it was released, and updated every machine that would be workable to Windows 10. I did use Windows 8 heavily at work, but not really at home. I only buy new computers every 7-10 years, laptops normally every 5-9 years, If the hardware would work fine on newer OSes, I do upgrade within a machine’s lifetime, several times. I don’t stay on Old OSes unless I have to.

I upgrade hardware when the next OS will run horribly on my equipment (MacOS and Windows).

So I didn’t realize until 2 years ago the horrible, dark secret of the Windows 7 -> Windows 8/8.1 transition (that Windows 10 has as well).

Aside from the ENORMOUS graphics card driver drop (perfectly good, high performance graphics card don’t work under Windows 8 and therefore 10, some driver hacks work – but for how long) there is one technology drop that is outright devastating…Parallel SCSI…is GONE under Windows 8 and higher.

Some of the LAST U320 SCSI cards have Windows server 2012 drivers that might work in Windows 10. But not many.

Go ahead and look for yourselves, there are 0 Parallel SCSI adapters for Windows 10, you won’t find one (if you do, PM me ASAP). That means, Scanners, Optical drives (MO, WORM, DVD, CD), Tape, ZIP (other old removables), Enclosures and SANS, and older Hard drives are not unreachable! Only SAS is available now, Parallel SCSI has been quietly killed off.

Had a $1,500 film scanner….nope can’t use it. Had an old storage array….nope can’t use it.

XP to Vista was heavily advertised as the loss of nearly all direct attach connection technologies (Single XP VPN Server (incoming), PLIP, SLIP, Parallel Scanners and ALL Parallel drives, and IRDA). Which was bad, but doable…Vista dropped all that so MS could start pushing people toward Onedrive and cloud storage…to one day force relying on it…then start billing. It was so slow, I didn’t even see it happening. Just found the dropping of all those features stupid.

Windows 7 is the LAST Windows to support Parallel SCSI standards going back 30+ years. Gone.


And as SGI collectors, this should worry you as you cannot easily hook devices and drives between old and new computers now. There are work arounds, but nothing is as good as disconnecting the device and simply plugging it into the computer you want and it works.

Windows 8 caused this, but Windows 10 accelerates it.

That’s the true loss of Windows 7, 30+ years of SCSI bus technology, gone…now we’re left with serial, some parallel (printers only), USB, and Thunderbolt. I really hate USB because it’s locked down (standard didn’t go far enough), we were lucky to get a storage, HID Input, and Audio standard driver interfaces, but NOT serial or Parallel, NOT video I/O, NOT Scanners, NOT anything else. All those are some BS proprietary communication, that without a company driver, don’t work. Nice standard…


It’s a controlled herding, I do have machines that don’t ever need those, so I’ll always have the latest and greatest software. But as someone how knows computing history, we have less choices then we used to. You have to struggle to maintain the functionality you had offline in the old days, then what you can do in your home (without internet) today.