Ramblings of an old Doc
You can still update to W10 for free
Published on January 14, 2020 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

W7 ran its course from 2009 to 2020.

MS has notified that there will be no more support for W7, meaning its kernel will become vulnerable to attack:

"Security updates are essential to staying safe online, and Windows 10 is getting them while Windows 7 isn’t. Many flaws found in Windows 10 will also apply to Windows 7. Attackers will hear about them and can start attacking those vulnerable Windows 7 systems. As more time goes by, more unpatched, known flaws will exist in Windows 7 for exploiting. Hardware manufacturers are also supporting Windows 10 instead of Windows 7. This will only get truer after the end-of-support date. Even software companies will one day stop releasing new versions of their web browsers and other software for Windows 7." - How to Geek

Needless to say, drivers compatible to W7 will also not be updated by the various hardware and software companies.

Many aren't updating because their machines might be old. This is another error. W10 will run faster than W7 if the W10 requirements are met, and which aren't so different than the demands of W7.

True, the huge updates are a minus, but, they go hand in hand with security updates as well. Also, the updates have been getting smaller, perhaps because they involve enabling features present in prior downloads which sit quietly on your system until enough testing (supposedly) allows MS to "unmask" them.

The security, or lack thereof in W7, is well explained here: https://www.neowin.net/news/gchq-its-time-to-ditch-windows-7-if-you-want-to-stay-safe-online. GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom.

There's still a way to update to W10 for free: https://www.howtogeek.com/266072/you-can-still-get-windows-10-for-free-with-a-windows-7-8-or-8.1-key/

All in all, W7 is now an OS with a major liability, and you should migrate.

 

gHacks has a good take on W7's end of life: https://www.ghacks.net/2020/01/14/windows-7-support-ends-today-here-are-your-options/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e2414%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e2iur


Comments (Page 3)
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on Jan 19, 2020

Here I am on my old junk machine....getting past XP to 7 Ult 32bit [it's a Dell Dimension 1100 P4 with 768meg]...and got it to update to SP1....and was then about to update again to 10 [it's an experiment]....but came back to the machine to discover 183 updates ready to install...

This is now, not 'back when'...looks like MS is dragging its heels yet again re EOL....

on Jan 19, 2020

It's over a gig of updates...so this monster of a machine will probably take months to deal with them....

on Jan 19, 2020

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day.....

10 hours later and it's 148 of 177.....

Dunno what happened to the other 6.

Couple more hours and it'll be done.....

on Jan 19, 2020

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way...

on Jan 20, 2020

Thanks for the info Doc....    

on Jan 20, 2020

The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older....

on Jan 20, 2020

sydneysiders

Thanks for the info Doc....    

Welcome, syd. 😁

on Jan 24, 2020
on Jan 24, 2020


The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older....
Ok Floyd.  Question.

 

Why not just install 10? Rather than start with xp, or 7, or what not?

 

Just curious. Maybe you're just playing around?

on Jan 24, 2020

Ok, finally made my migration, no longer have Win 7, and Win 8.1, just Win 10 now....sheesh!     

on Jan 24, 2020

RedneckDude

Just curious. Maybe you're just playing around?


[it's an experiment]

on Jan 24, 2020

Yeah, obviously Jafo is into self torture...lol.

on Jan 26, 2020

RedneckDude


Quoting Jafo,

The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older....

Ok Floyd.  Question.

 

Why not just install 10? Rather than start with xp, or 7, or what not?

 

Just curious. Maybe you're just playing around?

There's no 10 upgrade option from XP... so I went from there to 7 first..then the in-windows 'upgrade' to 10 .... no need to buy a 10.

Instead it's  $20 for 2gig of ram to fit 10's requirements....

on Jan 26, 2020

Of course....I also have a P111-500 which I suspect will not hack it when it comes to 10 ..... perhaps 'pushing the proverbial' ....

on Jan 26, 2020

Spent much of yesterday rebuilding a 'not the big beastie' machine and loaded Win 8.1 on it.  Today I downloaded Win 10 and installed over the top of Win 8.1.  When I checked in System, Win 10 was activated, so the free upgrade is still out there for those who still haven't moved over.  Thing is, I quite liked Win 8.1, but its lifespan is finite and I wanted to future-proof my machine before the free upgrade went 100% bye-bye. 

I still have my big beastie to rebuild but I'm awaiting a MSI X399 SLI Plus motherboard; two 500Gb M.2 SSDs; 64Gb of 3200Mhz RAM and some cabling stuff.  Hopefully it all arrives on Tuesday 28 Jan... can't wait to try out this AMD Ryzen X2920 Threadripper CPU.  A bloke I know has the same CPU and mobo as me, as well as an i9 9900K, and he reckons the Threadripper is by far the better of the two.

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