# MS Support For Win7 Ending ?



## fordy (Sep 13, 2003)

............Been reading about Win 7 support ending , soon ! What will this mean if I continue using Win 7 ? , Thanks , fordy


----------



## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

fordy said:


> ............Been reading about Win 7 support ending , soon ! What will this mean if I continue using Win 7 ? , Thanks , fordy


Update support ends in about 10 months. What that means is that vulnerabilities found in Win7 won't get patched. That will make it dangerous to use online.


----------



## fordy (Sep 13, 2003)

Nevada said:


> Update support ends in about 10 months. What that means is that vulnerabilities found in Win7 won't get patched. That will make it dangerous to use online.


........................................................................
...............I've been using Webroot and haven't had any virus incursions ! IF I keep Webroot after MS support ends won't this mitigate any potential problems while I still use Win 7 ? , Thanks , fordy


----------



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Most attacks to windows are to/through integrated software like browser, not the actual operating system. Browser and email is easiest way to get into your computer from outside. If you have an uptodate third party browser and some common sense and most likely you are fine. The death knell for any operating system is when there is no longer an uptodate browser available. Ask those holdouts still using XP/Vista..... No update to IE for them of course, but also Firefox and Chrome stopped providing a new version that would install sometime back. I suspect some outside pressure for them to make sure their newer browsers wouldnt run on XP/Vista, but who knows. Last updated Vista especially really wasnt that different than win7/win8/win10 so kinda think it had to be intentional that current version of Chrome/Firefox wont install. 

If you prevent win10 from phoning home for the constant marketing updates, then its really not bad. It seems slow cause it uses lot resources for its spying and marketing instead of being an operating system. Once locked down (prevent it phoning home with firewall) and only serving YOU then it actually doesnt take any more resources than Vista/win7.

Nobody seems to want to consider the linux option, but there are small versions of linux like Puppy that I use that can run on quite old hardware, though seriously just cause of needs of modern browser you probably want at least 2GB RAM. It can run latest Chromium or Firefox. If you dont need to run some windows only software (like gaming software) then its FREE and works quite well. Course I went from win98 to linux as my day to day operating system way back, win98 sucked IMHO, seemed like I was reinstalling it every two or three months!, so am very used to how linux works under the hood so to speak. Those were kinda horrible old days when Netscape was only full fledged browser for linux. Netscape was kinda in its death throes as M$ was pushing IE and lot websites required IE. Netscape was originally based on idea people would BUY it and thats how they would make a profit. IE just came free with windows. Nobody bought Netscape. Remnants of Netscape morphed into open source Mozilla (Firefox) that made much better linux browser. Then Opera came out with a linux version of their browser. Things got better. Then rise of Google with its Chrome browser. Now Chrome and Firefox dominate the browser market and you can get same latest greatest version of either for linux, looks and acts same in linux as it does in windows.


----------



## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

I have/had, a computer running XP, in at the church that did one thing, on sunday morning, and it would still get updated from time to time, 

I had one computer guy tell me ever time he saw that computer on, that I dealing with disaster, it has been fine, or it was up until two weeks ago, I am no longer involved with that area, and if it was hacked all they would get is a lot of old videos of the messages over the years,


----------



## TroyT (Jun 24, 2008)

A side effect of MS dropping support for Win7 will be that most other software companies will follow suite. This may or may not be a problem depending how the Win7 system is used. Eventually MS will release a version of .net that will no longer run on Win7 and as software vendor migrate to that version of .net the pool of software that will work on Win7 will dry up.


----------



## weaselfire (Feb 7, 2018)

Most software dropped Windows 7 support years ago, as well as 32 bit support. You can still get paid support from Microsoft for a couple more years if you want it .

Or run unsupported. Nobody is making you change, that's your choice.

Jeff


----------



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

weaselfire said:


> Most software dropped Windows 7 support years ago, as well as 32 bit support. You can still get paid support from Microsoft for a couple more years if you want it .
> 
> Or run unsupported. Nobody is making you change, that's your choice.
> 
> Jeff


Sure, you can still even use DOS, there used to be couple browsers for it. But try using them. Even that Arachne guy in eastern Europe finally gave up trying to support it. If you havent noticed, their is no DOS version of latest Firefox or Chrome. Last Firefox and Chrome that would run in XP/Vista is several generations back. But hey no problem right? Just write your own browser from scratch! Its your choice, right? Trivial inconvenience, right?


----------



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

HermitJohn said:


> Sure, you can still even use DOS, there used to be couple browsers for it. But try using them. Even that Arachne guy in eastern Europe finally gave up trying to support it. If you havent noticed, their is no DOS version of latest Firefox or Chrome. Last Firefox and Chrome that would run in XP/Vista is several generations back. But hey no problem right? Just write your own browser from scratch! Its your choice, right? Trivial inconvenience, right?


I will add that I think that Arachne guy that tried to write and maintain a graphic browser for DOS found out, since DOS was no longer supported by anybody else, he ended up having to in effect upgrade DOS by adding lot extras to his browser. His browser in effect became a poor man's DOS shell much like win3.1 just not as well developed since just him doing everything. I am assuming neither Google nor Mozilla wanted to do this for XP/Vista. And they wont do it for win7 or win8 or earlier versions win10 (ones people have blocked automated upgrades) as they lose support from Microsoft over time. 

If I remember at the end he tried porting Arachne over to linux. But by that time there were lot better and more efficient browsers for linux. Linux didnt need all extra framework he had created that DOS needed to run a graphic browser. The only real use Arachne had as a linux browser might been for one of those super minimalist linux on a floppy type distributions. Pretty difficult to be a one man band operating system. Just too many parts that have to be constantly fixed and upgraded. There are lot of linux distributions, but thats cause they all share linux kernels that are being constantly modernized and upgraded. Linux distributions are not truly that different, just different feel cause of options and scripts they hang on existing bare bones framework.


----------



## Meinecke (Jun 30, 2017)

Its still 10 month...and after that it will be at least a year before it really goes down with win7...
I will stay as long as possible, and might change to Linux than, cause i hate hate hate software as a service...
I buy it, i OWN it...basta


----------



## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Meinecke said:


> Its still 10 month...and after that it will be at least a year before it really goes down with win7...
> I will stay as long as possible, and might change to Linux than, cause i hate hate hate software as a service...
> I buy it, i OWN it...basta


Do as you wish, but since Windows 10 is free to use now I don't see the point.


----------



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Meinecke said:


> Its still 10 month...and after that it will be at least a year before it really goes down with win7...
> I will stay as long as possible, and might change to Linux than, cause i hate hate hate software as a service...
> I buy it, i OWN it...basta


If you are serious about linux, why wait, now is the time to experiment with it and find out if it meets your needs. Win10 if you lock it down so its not constantly updating and phoning home, isnt horrible. If you use it the way Micosoft intends you will need more powerful computer than if you lock it down so it cant phone home. When it serves two masters, guess what, your interests come second.

Personally I have used linux a long time and its just easier than constantly fighting windows. I figured out I didnt want to use windows on daily basis back in win98 days. I actually went to a system called BeOS for daily use for while in there, then it just got too long in the tooth when they went bankrupt waiting for lawsuit appeals against Microsoft. They won the law suit but by then they were bankrupt. So Microsoft actually won. I moved to linux.

Honestly the only reason to run windows IMHO is if you need to run some specific windows only software on regular basis and then might be worth having two computers, one with win10 just for that software. Or dual boot or run windows virtually inside linux. Most anything you can do in windows, you can do in linux, but it wont be same software you are used to unless it works under WINE or if there is a linux version. I messed with it until I got Kindle app to work in WINE cause I use it daily. Tax software on other hand I use once a year, its not worth spending lot time getting it to run in WINE. Firefox and Chrome browsers look and act same whether windows or linux.


----------

