Windows 7 will go on!

[petersmart]

Although Microsoft has stated that updates and patches for Win 7 have now stopped, apparently virus definition updates for Windows Defender and Windows Essentials within Windows 7 will still be issued until 2023.

Saves having to install other anti virus software.

 

[MartynK]

I was very reluctant to abandon W7, given the number of issues I'd read about, but decided to take advantage of the free upgrade to W10 a few months ago. It went flawlessly and I've been very satisfied with it so far. We'll see...

 

[troutfisher]

Unless you are running legacy software that won,t run on win 10 and your existing hardware will cope there is no reason not to upgrade.
My win 10 has been running flawlessly for 3 years and has never fallen over or had any problems.
I would point out ( not that you do) that I don't run dodgy knocked off software which I think ,although I have no evidence, that this could be the cause of a lot of the reported problems.

 

[Caerus]

A few years back I was working for the MET office weather stations and they were only just upgrading from Windows XP. I don't know for sure but I would have thought XP was still being supported for them long after official support ended for the masses.

I don't know the details because I was on building maintenance but I could see XP Pro on all the screens.

Very odd how they clung on to XP for dear life.

 

[Mr Bump]

Although Microsoft has stated that updates and patches for Win 7 have now stopped, apparently virus definition updates for Windows Defender and Windows Essentials within Windows 7 will still be issued until 2023.

Saves having to install other anti virus software.

not realy the point, no other patches for security vulnerabilities will be released, basically you are banking on the front door lock being solid with no other protection behind it.

 

[petersmart]

A few years back I was working for the MET office weather stations and they were only just upgrading from Windows XP. I don't know for sure but I would have thought XP was still being supported for them long after official support ended for the masses.

I don't know the details because I was on building maintenance but I could see XP Pro on all the screens.

Very odd how they clung on to XP for dear life.

I still use XP - It's a lovely OS!

 

[petersmart]

not realy the point, no other patches for security vulnerabilities will be released, basically you are banking on the front door lock being solid with no other protection behind it.

I use a mixture, Linux Mint, XP, Win 7 and Win10, some on main machines and some in VMs and I've never been hacked.

 

[petersmart]

Unless you are running legacy software that won,t run on win 10 and your existing hardware will cope there is no reason not to upgrade.
My win 10 has been running flawlessly for 3 years and has never fallen over or had any problems.
I would point out ( not that you do) that I don't run dodgy knocked off software which I think ,although I have no evidence, that this could be the cause of a lot of the reported problems.

You can always run Win 7 in a VM and run legacy software in that.

 

[Mr Bump]

I use a mixture, Linux Mint, XP, Win 7 and Win10, some on main machines and some in VMs and I've never been hacked.

so you keep on telling us
time after time after time

 

[petersmart]

so you keep on telling us
time after time after time

And yet I'm STILL using Linux Mint, XP, Win 7 and Win10, some on main machines and some in VMs and I've never been hacked.

 

[Gremlin]

And yet I'm STILL using Linux Mint, XP, Win 7 and Win10, some on main machines and some in VMs and I've never been hacked.

How much of that do you think is down to the person using the PC ?
Some people are more aware and cautious then others,
I never open doggy emails let alone click on links, windows defender seem pretty good at
stopping stuff.
Did have a guy from BT trying to get into my laptop to "help" me with a problem, he got quite upset 15 mins
later when he was getting no where and I asked if it should be connected to the internet

 

[Tori_T]

Some people are more aware and cautious then others,

And some are just stupid.
I saw a guy at work clicking through the emails in his spam folder that were offering free porno pics (the firewall knew about those servers and wouldn't connect).
When I pointed out the foolhardiness of his actions, he got all huffy and defensive, claiming it's what any heterosexual male would do.
"That's why the scammers use porn as bait!" I told him. he didn't respond, just sat there looking like a kid who'd had his favourite toy taken off him.

 

[broc]

And some are just stupid.
I saw a guy at work clicking through the emails in his spam folder that were offering free porno pics (the firewall knew about those servers and wouldn't connect).
When I pointed out the foolhardiness of his actions, he got all huffy and defensive, claiming it's what any heterosexual male would do.
"That's why the scammers use porn as bait!" I told him. he didn't respond, just sat there looking like a kid who'd had his favourite toy taken off him.

Accessing such sites (or even attempting to) while at work using an 'employer' owned PC or network could be considered misuse of company resources, in some organisations this could be considered a disciplinary matter & could lead to sanctions including dismissal.

 

[Tori_T]

I said he was stupid.
A firm believer in "If you didn't see me, you can't prove it.", he was constantly baffled as to why web sites he could access at home would stop working within a day when accessed at work. Admin thought he was a bit of a joke.

 

[LongLensPhotography]

Although Microsoft has stated that updates and patches for Win 7 have now stopped, apparently virus definition updates for Windows Defender and Windows Essentials within Windows 7 will still be issued until 2023.

Saves having to install other anti virus software.

That would be a false sense of security.... it won't cover everything and hackers will be sure to exploit it.

MS would tell you the only way is to upgrade to Win10. The alternative is running Win7 inside a replaceable virtual box installation on a linux host for these few win-only applications....

 

[petersmart]

That would be a false sense of security.... it won't cover everything and hackers will be sure to exploit it.

MS would tell you the only way is to upgrade to Win10. The alternative is running Win7 inside a replaceable virtual box installation on a linux host for these few win-only applications....

Well I've got loads of VMs running Win 7, Win 10, Linux and XP in VMs.

In fact I'm actually inside a VM on Linux Mint 18.3 and it's running Win 7 right now with no problems.

And I can still go online using Firefox or Opera on XP - there I use Avast Free anti virus.

BTW I also have a VM running Dos 6.22 with QuickBasic installed - and that hasn't been hacked either!

 

[LongLensPhotography]

Well I've got loads of VMs running Win 7, Win 10, Linux and XP in VMs.

In fact I'm actually inside a VM on Linux Mint 18.3 and it's running Win 7 right now with no problems.

And I can still go online using Firefox or Opera on XP - there I use Avast Free anti virus.

You'll be fine with that as long as you can restore it from backup and don't use for banking or email... I don't like it when my contacts get hacked and start sending total spam; and it happens so often. Of course this is the best case scenario.

We have to be careful when discussing this as someone will take this like they can just still run base win7 machine and use all the credit cards on it like nothing happened. That is no longer a great idea.

In fact I wouldn't connect guest OS to net much at all, maybe editing hosts file to only connect to services like microsoft.com and adobe to get necessary activations. You can do all your internet work on linux host much better anyway.
I use win7 guest to run VCDS scan and other car things. It pretty much never ever connects to network.

BTW I also have a VM running Dos 6.22 with QuickBasic installed - and that hasn't been hacked either!

It will not. It is not popular so why would anyone waste their time targeting 5 people on the entire planet? They will go after win7, win10 and XP in that order.