Windows Vista?

Peter B

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Had a search and couldn't find an answer, so here goes. Computing Which? says that Vista will no longer be able to use IE or Chrome as browsers as support for them has ceased. They say that Vista users should now use Firefox until Microsoft withdraws all support for Vista in 2017. So far, so good, but my Vista laptop is about as old and slow as myself and definitely not worth spending money on, plus I have a Windows 10 laptop for work anyway. Am I right in saying that the Vista laptop will still have an offline life after 2017 and will be safe for photo downloads and editing, plus writing to CD and copying CDs?

Thanks, Peter
 
Why not do the free upgrade to Windows 10?
 
Unfortunately not free for Vista, only Win 7 and 8.
 
Win 7 will run on it, probably quicker than Vista, I use 7 on my laptop, it came with Vista, works fine.
 
Win 7 will run on it, probably quicker than Vista, I use 7 on my laptop, it came with Vista, works fine.

Thanks David, but I think this is where life starts to get complicated. A quick Google gets me the following site selling Windows 7 for £18.99 with an upgrade to Windows 10 and it looks a bit more legitimate than some of the cheaper and/or "free download" sites, but are these reputable and worth trusting with my credit card details?

https://softwaregeeks.co.uk/product...8p9A0RAOuYKK08tmd-RE6mNB3fxr3-xOCMRoCUpjw_wcB
 
Vista wasn't very good, a very slow operating system.
There's no reason not to use Firefox rather than IE, I prefer Firefox.

Your computer isn't suddenly going to stop after 2017, well, it might :) It's getting a bit old.

Have you thought about Linux?
 
Vista wasn't very good, a very slow operating system.
There's no reason not to use Firefox rather than IE, I prefer Firefox.

Your computer isn't suddenly going to stop after 2017, well, it might :) It's getting a bit old.

Have you thought about Linux?

Hi Ken, I'm a simple sort and Windows is amply complicated for me without starting on Linux. :eek: I've got a fully functioning desktop on Windows 7 that I'll eventually upgrade to 10, but it's been working so well recently that I'm reluctant to upgrade when I see quite a lot of info about problems. My work laptop is an i5 upgraded from 8.1 to 10 and it has been behaving itself mainly, so I'm well enough catered for. I guess it's just annoyance when deliberate corporate obsolescence turns things to scrap. :mad:
 
Hi, agreed on your lappy working after 2017.
Me, I have a DELL tower from 2007 I think and it had Vista on it, 4GB ramm and a 64 bit processor onboard but not a 64 bit OS so a little digging and my machine was 64 bit upgradable, dont know if your is.
I spent 30euros on ebay (I live in France) and I got myself a original win 7 64 bit disc and code, worked a treat and its so much faster too, my o/h had a 900 euro machine from DELL and mine is faster than hers (maybe just my luck)
Yes its worth it to buy these disks and upgrade, £20- 30 aint too much to lose if your lappy gives up the ghost in a year or 2 but its still cheaper than forking out for a new one now.
And BTW I dont use Firefox or IE, havent done for years, OPERA is good enough for me, not had any problems so far.
 
Cant you do the free upgrade to Win7, then free upgrade to Win10 from that?
Not possible Carl. only free upgrade is from win7 or 8.
 
Thanks David, but I think this is where life starts to get complicated. A quick Google gets me the following site selling Windows 7 for £18.99 with an upgrade to Windows 10 and it looks a bit more legitimate than some of the cheaper and/or "free download" sites, but are these reputable and worth trusting with my credit card details?

https://softwaregeeks.co.uk/product...8p9A0RAOuYKK08tmd-RE6mNB3fxr3-xOCMRoCUpjw_wcB
I have found this supplier reputable, they delivered the licence key & links immediately by email within seconds of clicking 'pay'

Also, if you want to give an old laptop a new lease of life, stick a 120gb SSD in :)
 
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I would think IE and Chrome will still work fine on your PC, it just means they won't update or have any so-called "security" fixes.
 
I would think IE and Chrome will still work fine on your PC, it just means they won't update or have any so-called "security" fixes.

I think that's probably right as Microsoft won't be supporting anything older than IE 11 and it can't run on Vista, while Google has withdrawn support for Chrome on Vista. This makes them vulnerable to security threats apparently, so I think you take that at face value and decide whether it's worth the risk. I'm happier now that I can still use it safely offline as it stands once support for Firefox runs out in April 2017, so it'll still get used on hols for downloading photos and using older versions of Lightroom and Elements to play with the photos.
 
I did a complete reinstall of Vista which sped it up considerably, not fast now but faster than it was :)
The reinstall clears a lot of the junk that builds up and also makes you think if you really need to reload some of the programs that you never use.
 
Many companies are now starting to turn off SHA-1 SSL and TLS1.0 support which means if your OS does not support SHA-2 or the browser does not support TLS1.1 and TLS1.2 you will have problems accessing secure sites.

Chrome on Vista will still work fine, but secure access may become an issue.

IE on Vista does not support TLS1.1 or TLS1.2
Chrome does support TLS1.1 from v22 and TLS1.2 from v30 but SHA-2 is OS dependent.
 
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Thanks guys. Elliott, I'm afraid that could well be a foreign language as it doesn't mean anything to me at all. I've got a pal who it will mean something to, so I'll run it past him when I see him in a couple of weeks. (y)
 
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