*Sob, Sob* My Last Windows 7 Update

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I agree that I should get rid of the computer, at least disconnect it from the internet. I may get Opera 36, still available for download. When I downloaded Firefox, it still supported XP (couple of years ago) and I took off Internet Explorer. We really don't use that computer, but it has some photo files.
 
I don't have to worry about Windows 7 being EOL, because I use Ubuntu Linux. My wife uses macOS Catalina on her MacBook Air. I haven't used Windows (personally) since college, if you don't count the ancient copies of Windows I run on my vintage PC collection or a seldom-used Windows virtual machine on my main PC.

My wife, however, has been telling me all kinds of horror stories when the hospital where she works as a CICU RN, upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10. They were unable to do their charting a week after the rollout and had to do all of their charting on paper, the old fashioned way. Then the hospital IT thought the problem was "fixed" until charts on patients weren't coming up -- they disappeared and apparently didn't get synchronized to a server or something. My wife told me that they had to have some engineer of the software company (Epic) come to the hospital -- apparently they caught a flight and was there at the hospital the same day to fix the problem.

After the charting fiasco was settled, she told me that she and all the other nurses would try to print something and it would never print, but they could print just fine at the other nurse station. They later found out that their print jobs done at nurse station #1 was printing a couple floors above the CICU. Then the Pyxis machine (basically a computerized locking medicine repository) decided that it wasn't going to work and none of the nurses or doctors could get access to the Pyxas as it wasn't loading or something -- apparently it runs Windows 10 too. The CICU charge would have to unlock the Pyxis manually with a key every time meds were needed. Happened on other floors as well. The vendor of the Pyxis needed to come down for that one too.

According to my wife, they very seldom had any technical issues when everything ran Windows 7. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Windows 10 decides when it's going to update -- it can be delayed, but it'll eventually just do it without asking. The issue is that many large companies and organizations like hospitals use the Professional version of Windows, which has worked fine in the past. However, realize that the Professional version of Windows 10 does not give end-users -- and in the case of companies and organizations like the hospital, IT support techs/systems administrators -- complete control of certain things, including updates. It's Microsoft's way of getting larger businesses and organizations to buy the Enterprise versions. I think a lot of IT people, like those at the hospital where my wife works at, are finding out/have found out the hard way that they can no longer rely on the Professional version of Windows if they need to have control over updates and what the OS needs to do.

Fortunately for me, my only interaction with Windows 10 is with a laptop issued by the company I work for (residential and commercial HVAC). Everything is done on a web app through Microsoft Edge -- retrieving service calls, closing service calls, updating service calls, ordering parts... hard to screw up in my opinion and everything works fine for me thus far, but like I said, that's because I can do everything through Edge.
 
SSD is DEFINITELY recommended.

When I converted over around 2014 they were still pricey and you could buy smaller ones like 30 and 60 GB. At the prices they're at now, why would you want anything smaller.

What a difference though. No noise, no vibration, no fear of bumping your computer and it ruining your hard drive. I've never had an SSD go bad but when I had the old platter type, numerous times lost data to them being damaged.

And you can't even sell the old style anymore. I have a new 500 GB one that came in a security camera system I changed out for an SSD.
Got it listed for $10 = no takers.

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If you like 7 it will continue to work till something crashes. Make a hard backup and store it somewhere safe and be happy. There's a way to get get extended support for free if you look around to some of the geek sites that do hacks and work arounds if you're really worried about it. I use one win7 64 box to run windows media center has it's still the only os that fully supprts cable card tuners like the HD Homrun Prime 3 tuner HDTV cable card I run. 8 and 8.1 supports it too but I don't have a license for them and I like the 7 layout. I was running wmc on 10 with a hacked version but they finally changed things enough it quit working so I updated my old 7 box and transferred everything to it and I use 10 for everything else. It works quickly and has run as modes so that you can make most programs made to only run on earlier versions work. I set the home screen to look very similar to 7 and I'm happy other than not working with media center anymore. They always try to say when your older OS is no longer supported it will magically explode and stop working the next day, not true, just no new updates. As long as you're running a decent firewall and anti virus software you should be fine till it crashes and like I said make a backup and keep it up to date. I have fixed totally not booting setups with some of the free boot repair softwares out there, saving me from burning it down and starting over. My 10 box I bought a new ssd drive and did a fresh install from scratch but USUALLY the upgrade from 7 will work fine and allows you to go back if you don't like it for a while. As long as you have a legit key for 7 you can still upgrade to 10 for free even if they claim it doesn't work now. They never actually blacklisted the upgrade to this date. If you have 7 ultimate you can upgrade to 10 pro etc.
 
 
A/V vendors will stop supporting "old" OSes at some point ... such as Mozilla did for XP and Vista.  That's somewhat more of a concern for A/V than for a browser.  Definition updates may continue for a while longer than program updates.  I use free Avast, the last program update (running on Win7) was 9/19/2019 which is much longer ago than usual.  Definitions updated 2 mins ago.

All my Win7s are Pro.  That doesn't provide a direct upgrade path to 10 Pro?
 
You can upgrade from 7 Pro to 10 Pro, however, 10 Pro is basically the standard version only with the ability to join domains, Remote Desktop functionality, the ability to have Group Policy restrictions applied to your machine if joined to an Active Directory domain and BitLocker encryption. Everything else -- the bloatware, the spyware, and forced updates still remain. For those who have 7 Home Basic/Home Premium, the standard version of 8/8.1, there really is no advantage to Pro unless you need those features as Microsoft has basically turned Pro into a home version with the ability to connect to a corporate network. You still have all the bloat, spyware through all the different tracking and telemetry settings (which often reset to "On" after updates and less control of how Windows 10 functions. You might as well upgrade to the standard version of 10 or just use Linux or macOS.

I suppose individual home users could deal with this but, unlike past Professional versions, using 10 Pro would be unacceptable to use in medium to large companies and organizations as IT admins are given less control over 10 Pro than they are with the Enterprise version. It's Microsoft's way of forcing IT departments to purchase the more expensive and volume licensed Enterprise version. The hospital of which my wife works found this out the hard way.
 
I recently upgraded two Win 7 machines here at work because an update to our ERP software mandated the OS upgrade. My workstation computer has been running Win 10 for a while now.

At first I thought I was going to have to buy a license for each machine but an IT buddy suggested I try the Win 10 Upgrade Tool. I Googled and clicked and shortly thereafter had both machines upgraded to Win 10 no fuss, no muss and no cost.

As for Win 10 I hate how it looks, a 1st grader could have designed the look of the GUI. But otherwise I really have near zero qualms with it. It runs just fine and hasn't really created any problems. As with most of the recent Windows updates, each successive one seems to make the computer more stable, I might almost say "Mac like" but they have a ways to go there.
 
>> As with most of the recent Windows updates, each successive one seems to make the computer more
>> stable, I might almost say "Mac like" but they have a ways to go there.

With how poorly Apple has been doing with software lately, Microsoft might have already passed them...
:-/
 
 
Another issue is that I use a lot of ancient and crucial 32-bit software that won't run on a 64-bit processor, which brings in potential performance issues for Win10 re: RAM limits.  Are new 32-bit desktop systems even a thing any more?
 
Windows 10 still comes in 32 and 64 bit versions.

64 bit windows will run 32 and 64 bit programs, but not 16 bit windows or dos programs

32 bit windows will run 16bit windows and dos programs, plus 32 bit windows programs.

macOS has abandoned 32 bit apps on the latest versions of MacOS.

I work in IT and I’m amused by all the fuss of windows 10 being the current is choice and apparently being a problem. It works fine, it runs most things from earlier versions and once you get used to the interface being different from windows 9x, 2000, XP and 7 it’s very usable.

It’ll run on most hardware without issue, just upgrade and enjoy.
 

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