Microsoft ends Windows 7 support one year from today

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by guest, Jan 14, 2019.

  1. huntnyc

    huntnyc Registered Member

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    Same here for now.
     
  2. guest

    guest Guest

    Microsoft ends Windows 7 support: What should you do?
    January 13, 2020
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51090407
     
  3. guest

    guest Guest

    Microsoft's Windows 7 end-of-life advice: 'buy a Surface'
    January 13, 2020
    https://betanews.com/2020/01/13/windows-7-end-of-life-buy-surface/
    Microsoft: Now is the time to shift to Surface
     
  4. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    "All PCs that are more than four years old can cost you more than you realize. PCs older than four years are 3x as likely to need repairs, resulting in 128 hours of lost productivity -- a cost of both time and money"

    I've seen many PCs far older than four years running without problems. And by the way, as of January 2020 the free upgrade to Windows 10 still works. If I was running Windows 7 I would try this before buying a new PC.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/
     
  5. Peter4667

    Peter4667 Registered Member

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    I am staying with Windows 7 a year or two more. After that if i haven't moved to linux i will upgrade to Windows 10.
     
  6. Beyonder

    Beyonder Registered Member

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    Why not upgrade for free to W10?
     
  7. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    If you're thinking of upgrading to Windows 10 down the road then it's worth considering just doing it now while it's still free.
     
  8. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    That's a very good idea. If you do it now while it's still free, you will get a digital license that never expires. So you could backup your system, upgrade to Windows 10 and then restore your backup. In the future you'll still be able to upgrade for free, as you now have a Windows 10 license.
     
  9. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    That statement is absolute nonsense. Might have been true 15 years ago. Today, hardware can soldier on 6-7 years easily. And with no massive changes in processor architecture, performance isn't an issue either.
    Mrk
     
  10. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    I've used this procedure to obtain license this summer. If I decide to move to Windows 10, when Windows 8.1 is not supported any more, I hope that license will be accepted.
     
  11. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    Just to lend some credence to this allow me to interject with at least one soldiering on result.

    While not running Windows 7, Windows 8.1 flawlessly is been percolating along nicely on all 3 Gateway Laptops with Intel Processors and......well 4 Gb memory is all they support.

    Since 2012 which would make it 8 solid years of uninterrupted Hardware use whatsoever and these machines are on 24/7 most of the time.

    Even I am absolutely astonished but pleased they've been running great with only an occasional Hard Drive change out that I actually do on occasion for additional storage capacity and not replacement due to another issue.
     
  12. emmjay

    emmjay Registered Member

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    Get as much as you can from your investment. Older systems will not rust, implode, explode or give you a nasty rash after OS is end of service. However, I think it is a prudent decision to grab a free W10 license while you can - if you are using a retail license. It gives you options for many years to come. The caveat is OEM licenses (they are not transferable). That new W10 license will only run on the old system. Even all new OEM hardware that comes with W10 pre-installed follows this ancient MS policy when it comes to transfer ability.
     
  13. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    To me that would mean taking the free upgrade. Run what you like, but it costs the same either way.
     
  14. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Same here, got laptops from 2009/2010, work fine, desktops from 2011/2012, work fine.
    Mrk
     
  15. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    people now get paniced, forums get filled with upgrade questions. now over weeks, months a year several channels told about EOL... and its wrong that win7 gets instant vulnerable - rubbish - until the next security patch arrives for win8/10.
     
  16. act8192

    act8192 Registered Member

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    I don't know where to post this. But it's a cool thing to do if anyone anticipates activation issues for the OEM windows 7 to 10 transfer.
    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials...10-directly-without-having-upgrade-first.html
    In 2016 I was clean installing Win10 to a separate partition. In Win7 I ran gatherosstate.exe to get GenuineTicket.xml. Followed the instructions in that tutorial and all has been working ever since.

    Additionally, in case you need to change your spinner drive for a new one (I did), make sure that whatever backup/imaging programs you use can include a transfer of the disk signature (Acronis can) so that the change won't affect any licenses tied to that hardware.
     
  17. BoerenkoolMetWorst

    BoerenkoolMetWorst Registered Member

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    I had an Acer laptop from 2007 that worked for 10 years. I admit, it was repaired 2 times, but that was related to the Geforce GPU and a known issue with that model. Still, quite a long lifetime for a consumer grade laptop from a cheap brand.
     
  18. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    Alternatively, you can activate your Windows 10 with your Windows 7 or 8.x product key.
     
  19. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    It can be problematic if the product key is embedded in the BIOS. I upgraded a machine a while back and was told by the OEM support that Windows 10 should pickup the key automatically from the BIOS, but it didn't and in the end we needed to purchase a retail copy to get a valid key.
     
  20. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I did a clean install a few days on a computer with a embedded Windows 8 key. Windows Setup obviously saw the product key in the BIOS, because I was not asked for a product key or to select what edition of Windows I wanted to install. When the install was finished, Windows 10 was activated. I presume it had been upgraded from Windows 8 previously and therefore already had a digital Windows 10 license.

    I would assume that if Windows does not recognise the key in the BIOS, you could use software to read the key and then use that activate it. Another option would be to install the edition of Windows 8 that came pre-installed on the computer, after which Windows 8 should be activated. Then you could then do an upgrade and Windows 10 would be automatically activated when it was installed. I don't have much experience with computers with an embedded Windows 8 license, as just about all the computers I'm dealing with currently originally came with Windows 7.
     
  21. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Roger,
    When you use the ISO to upgrade Win7 to Win10, which method do you use to mount the ISO in Win7?
     
  22. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I use Rufus to write the ISO to a flash drive. On occasion I have used the Media Creation Tool to do the same.
     
  23. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Interesting. A few updates ago, my Win10 updates failed when attempted from a UFD. I had to use files on the HD.
     
  24. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    @Brian K I've never had that problem.
     
  25. guest

    guest Guest

    Germany to Pay Microsoft Nearly $900,000 to Secure Outdated Windows
    Windows 7 still running on thousands of government devices
    January 22, 2020

    https://news.softpedia.com/news/ger...0-000-to-secure-outdated-windows-528945.shtml
     
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