Windows 7 nearing its end-of-life

[28142]

For those of you still on windows 7, technical updates and security updates will stop on Jan. 14, 2020.

To some, that might not mean much. However, let me give a couple of points to why that's a bad thing:

• Exploits won't get patched; This means that no matter how careful you are online, there will always be targetted attacks targetting people running old, unsupported software. If you continue to use unsupported software, you will leave yourself open to all of them with no defence due to the exploits not being patched. Even now, windows 7 doesn't have all the security patches it needs. Anyone remember the huge Wannacry news that spread back in 2017? The nasty ransomware which took out huge systems like the NHS in the UK and so much more? Windows 7 is most likely still vulnerable to that.
• Got some buggy software? Last update for a program made it prone to crashing? Likely wouldn't ever be fixed unless the public picks it up, but that heavily depends on what kind of program it is.
• If you play games, you'll likely quickly find out that a lot of newer games (includes small indie games) won't work due to the dependencies (directx, visual C++, graphic drivers even, etc) not supporting windows 7. DirectX 12 is windows 10 native, and even though it was back-ported to windows 7, it doesn't work that well, and a handful of games already 100% require it, with many other games having it as the preferred option.
• Multiple other reasons which would go into far too much technical detail.

Well, if you want to upgrade to windows 10 now, there are still ways to do it for free. The big button isn't there anymore, but at least last month, all the other ways were still valid.

One way to upgrade is to go here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10 and download the media. If you run that on the computer you want to upgrade, you should see an option called "upgrade this PC now". If you want to download it for use on a different computer, then choose the other option and install it to a USB or whatever storage to be able to move over to the second computer.

 

[Marc]

It says I need to have a license to install Windows 10

 

[28142]

It says I need to have a license to install Windows 10

Where?

 

[Marc]

Where?

First sentence from the web page.

 

[28142]

First sentence from the web page.

I mean, unless you're not using windows 7 properly, then you already have a license lol.

 

[Marc]

I mean, unless you're not using windows 7 properly, then you already have a license lol.

How will I be "using windows 7 properly"? It came with my computer. You meant an illegal copy?

 

[28142]

How will I be "using windows 7 properly"? It came with my computer. You meant an illegal copy?

Yeah. You would have a license for windows 7, by upgrading through the media tool the key will get upgraded to a windows 10 key.

 

[Marc]

Yeah. You would have a license for windows 7, by upgrading through the media tool the key will get upgraded to a windows 10 key.

I'm gonna wait till the ending of December to upgrade then

 

[28142]

I'm gonna wait till the ending of December to upgrade then

I would presume the method I said would still be valid then. If not, there's probably other ways to do it.

 

[James]

Marc is still using Windows 7, that's interesting

 

[Marc]

Okay, so I updated. Took a couple of hours to finish.

A bunch of options were set as default so that Microsoft could collect my personal information. I had to switch them off on the choice selection screen when prompted to choose what I want enabled and to send to Microsoft.

My wallpaper didn't make the upgrade.

I don't like the search bar background because the rest of the bar is black. I'll have to figure out how to change that soon.

They switched my default web browser to Edge. Thankfully, Google.com asked me to switch back to Chrome lol.

 

[28142]

Okay, so I updated. Took a couple of hours to finish.

A bunch of options were set as default so that Microsoft could collect my personal information. I had to switch them off on the choice selection screen when prompted to choose what I want enabled and to send to Microsoft.

My wallpaper didn't make the upgrade.

I don't like the search bar background because the rest of the bar is black. I'll have to figure out how to change that soon.

They switched my default web browser to Edge. Thankfully, Google.com asked me to switch back to Chrome lol.

Yeah, microsoft does a few things like changing to edge and stuff cause it then forces you to use their browser lol. You'll find a few other things have probably been changed as well.

Background of the search can't be changed from what I know. I've set everything to dark mode but it's still white for me.

 

[James]

Okay, so I updated. Took a couple of hours to finish.

A bunch of options were set as default so that Microsoft could collect my personal information. I had to switch them off on the choice selection screen when prompted to choose what I want enabled and to send to Microsoft.

My wallpaper didn't make the upgrade.

I don't like the search bar background because the rest of the bar is black. I'll have to figure out how to change that soon.

They switched my default web browser to Edge. Thankfully, Google.com asked me to switch back to Chrome lol.

hooray

 

[Marc]

Background of the search can't be changed from what I know. I've set everything to dark mode but it's still white for me.

I wonder how you deal with the brightness in a dark room at night lol.

Can the right-hand side of the start menu be customized with my own icons like Google Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge?

 

[28142]

I wonder how you deal with the brightness in a dark room at night lol.

Can the right-hand side of the start menu be customized with my own icons like Google Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge?

right hand side of the start menu...?

And tbh, I never really use search so xD

 

[Marc]

right hand side of the start menu...?

Yah.. where it has Productivity and Explore.

 

[28142]

Yah.. where it has Productivity and Explore.

uh. where?

 

[Marc]

uh. where?

Right when you click the start icon. At least that's how it is for me, out of the box.

 

[Artisan]

Yah.. where it has Productivity and Explore.

You can change those names to whatever you want if you move your mouse to the right of the title.

I'm pretty sure you can drag apps there if you wanted to.

 

[Jisenku]

Ohs noes!

Literally the best Windows OS for gaming (because it didn't suck the memory right out of the system)