What will you do after January 14, 2020?

[Apocalypsee]

I use whatever Windows that was optimal for my hardware. Both my Ryzen desktop and Bristol Ridge laptop currently using Windows 10 while my old Core 2 Duo HP 6910p will be using good old Windows XP, Windows 7 works on this laptop but the GPU driver works better in XP than 7. My wife PC using Core i5 4670k still using Windows 7, don't plan to change that. Too much patch slowing this CPU down, the main reason why I jumped to Ryzen in the first place, and most games runs better with more cores.

 

[yotano211]

I use whatever Windows that was optimal for my hardware. Both my Ryzen desktop and Bristol Ridge laptop currently using Windows 10 while my old Core 2 Duo HP 6910p will be using good old Windows XP, Windows 7 works on this laptop but the GPU driver works better in XP than 7. My wife PC using Core i5 4670k still using Windows 7, don't plan to change that. Too much patch slowing this CPU down, the main reason why I jumped to Ryzen in the first place, and most games runs better with more cores.

I sure miss those HP elitebooks. I started my business on those elitebooks. I once stepped on the lip when it was closed for a split sec and the screen survived. The elitebook line ran the business for close to 5 years.
I started with the HP 2510p, 9cell battery and super slow processor, ran at 1.33ghz, dual core.

 

[king of swag187]

I'll continue to rotate between 8.1/Lubuntu for lower end PC's and laptops, and 10 for my gaming rig's.

 

[juiseman]

Still love the feel and look of Windows 7....very fond memories. I still have it on 1 of my x79 E5 Xeon Rigs. Works great..

 

[John Naylor]

Moving to Windows 10 still means replacing a $15,000 plotter. Will always keep at least 1 box or a dual boot option.

I still find 1-2-3 by far superior to Excel from an ease of use PoV. Still do everything in 1-2-3 and save to an Excel for sharing. Does a 20 years newer Excel do things that 1-2-3 can't do ? I'll bet it does .... but how does that benefit me in anyway since what I have does all I need abtter and faster than anything else ? Like the "cause it has more cores" argument. We do CAD here and CAD gets 0 benefit from 12, 16 or 24 core CPUs.

 

[yotano211]

Still love the feel and look of Windows 7....very fond memories. I still have it on 1 of my x79 E5 Xeon Rigs. Works great..

You can install Windows 7 shell over Windows 10, it will look and feel like windows 7.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Windows 7 was a SOLID operating system for many years.

Still is. 7 is not going to just implode when support ends. XP didn't and won't, some people still use it.

You can install Windows 7 shell over Windows 10, it will look and feel like windows 7.

Where's that?

 

[EarthDog]

Still is. 7 is not going to just implode when support ends. XP didn't and won't, some people still use it.


Where's that?

it wont implode... but it will get less secure as support stops. Unless you have a piece of software which requires it or one of those zomg telemetry nuts...why stay on an inferior (albeit functional) OS?

XP (POS version) is still supported iirc.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

No Loss to me ill carry on regardless no 7s here.

 

[Boatvan]

@lexluthermiester I did not mean it would implode, merely that without patching in some environments it is no longer the best solution. I trust my users as far as I can throw them is all I'm saying. Also, I suppose I used the past tense incorrectly. Windows 7 IS still solid for most users.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

No Loss to me ill carry on regardless no 7s here.

After some reconsideration ,Good ridence , my only question is when will 7 be removed from my work pcs(retorical?) ,Im hoping the hard drive based POS's doesn't support 10 , which it doesn't and I might get a PC worth a shit to use in work.
Lots of reboots today, can you tell.

 

[notb]

I will probably move to Linux to be honest...

I'd be willing to bet you won't if this was worth anything to me. Almost no one will.

With each new Windows basically the same group of people (+young joiners) says it's the end of Windows for them and they'll move to Linux or Mac or grow a beard and become a lumberjack.
But we all know you'll stay for games or pro software.
And few months later you'll decide Windows 10 is the best OS yet and you'll wish you'd upgrade earlier.

And if you're still a kid, you'll most likely grow into a bickering 40-year-old white-collar who'll walk around the office saying "I can't find anything in this new Office, why can't we go back to Excel 2003?"

 

[R-T-B]

Very unlikely. Seriously though, why hope that? Just seems spiteful and bitter.

I'd say it's not only likely, but will grow exponentially more likely with every passing year. There'll be a lot of eyes turned on it.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'd say it's not only likely, but will grow exponentially more likely with every passing year. There'll be a lot of eyes turned on it.

That is what many were saying about XP/Vista but that didn't happen. Sure, they've had a few problems, but nothing a solid firewall can't handle. Windows 7 will be no different.

 

[er557]

NOTHING will happen, just firewall your router/OS/ security suite, disable RDP and you're good to go.

 

[lexluthermiester]

NOTHING will happen, just firewall your router/OS/ security suite, disable RDP and you're good to go.

To that I would add, disable(or delete) Remote Registry and disable(don't delete as Windows need it present to run) Windows Error Reporting.

 

[64K]

I think Win 7 will be a target for hackers after the end of support for it by MS because from what I can see there are still quite a bit of people running Win 7 and many are saying they plan to keep running it after support ends. Hackers tend to go after targets that are large and reach a lot of PCs. I doubt many are still targeting XP or Vista because almost no one is running those but that doesn't make them safe imo.

I know that tech knowledgeable people know ways to better protect themselves but what about the average person. I've had to show some people how to use Task Manager when they get a screen that they can't close out of because it's trying to hang the user up until they buy whatever crap that's being sold or to use msconfig to stop unwanted programs from auto starting on Win 7. Most have never heard of Malwarebytes.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I think Win 7 will be a target for hackers after the end of support for it by MS because from what I can see there are still quite a bit of people running Win 7 and many are saying they plan to keep running it after support ends. Hackers tend to go after targets that are large and reach a lot of PCs. I doubt many are still targeting XP or Vista because almost no one is running those but that doesn't make them safe imo.

While those are excellent points consider the following; Windows 7, like XP before it is a very mature and well researched OS. Microsoft has fixed the vast majority of any problems it had and what little might be left is only going to be a problem for those who do not use security measures.

I know that tech knowledgeable people know ways to better protect themselves but what about the average person.

Most of the average people are the ones moving to Windows 10 because they know enough to realize that they don't have the know-how to properly secure 7. Windows 10 will fit their needs. Most of the rest moving to 10 are doing so for gaming reasons.

I've had to show some people how to use Task Manager when they get a screen that they can't close out of because it's trying to hang the user up until they buy whatever crap that's being sold or to use msconfig to stop unwanted programs from auto starting on Win 7. Most have never heard of Malwarebytes.

I've had to do this too. Teaching is the best thing we can do for people.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

It looks like I will stay with win 7, but I will try & get hold of the paid updates for the next two years.

As far as im aware (though i could be wrong) i thought that was reserved for non commercial settings - like businesses and the like who could most likely afford to pay for such things. I dont think it will be cheap but who knows.

 

[lexluthermiester]

As far as im aware (though i could be wrong) i thought that was reserved for non commercial settings - like businesses and the like who could most likely afford to pay for such things. I dont think it will be cheap but who knows.

Yeah, but you know those updates will be leaked like the XP extended updates were. In fact, the latest XP ISO made with current updates was made a few months ago(this year was the final year of that extended support program). This year is quite literally XP's last update hurrah.

Windows XP - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This is year is not Windows 7's last hurrah, the custom ISO community will work to continue like they did with XP.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Yeah, but you know those updates will be leaked like the XP extended updates were. In fact, the latest XP ISO made with current updates was made a few months ago(this year was the final year of that extended support program). This year is quite literally XP's last update hurrah.

Windows XP - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This is year is not Windows 7's last hurrah, the custom ISO community will work to continue like they did with XP.

Yeah but if that comes through an unofficial 3rd party source then they can't be 100% trusted. Leaked or not it falls in the domain of 'warez'. So the irony is that you're trying to secure something official by downloading unofficial wares from an unofficial source. Sources that can fill these patches with malware

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yeah but if that comes through an unofficial 3rd party source then they can't be 100% trusted. Leaked or not it falls in the domain of 'warez'.

Do you consider TPU a "warez" site? Because you can get quite a few Microsoft updates here. That said, there are plenty of sites out there that provide solid and safe custom ISO's. Of course there is always slip-streaming, which is not a difficult effort.

So the irony is that you're trying to secure something official by downloading unofficial wares from an unofficial source. Sources that can fill these patches with malware

There are plenty of those kinds of sites out there. However some of them are trustworthy.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Do you consider TPU a "warez" site? Because you can get quite a few Microsoft updates here. That said, there are plenty of sites out there that provide solid and safe custom ISO's. Of course there is always slip-streaming, which is not a difficult effort.

There are plenty of those kinds of sites out there. However some of them are trustworthy.

still unofficial though. which is my point. anyone can write any sort of malicious code or bundle malware/spyware with it. of course you can still slipstream updates yourself at the same time I doubt microsoft will make these 'paid updates' available for everyone to DL, including the ones that havent paid for such a service.

Im not sure how it works but there has to be a system which logs the keys of businesses to have paid for such a service to make sure only they can get the updates and nobody else in the commercial market.

I doubt M$ are going to release a service pack for TPU to upload and host on their servers officially. so your argument is kinda moot.

 

[biffzinker]

I'd say it's not only likely, but will grow exponentially more likely with every passing year. There'll be a lot of eyes turned on it.

If it's really bad then Microsoft will push out a patch.

Despite the end of support for Windows XP, Microsoft has released three emergency security updates for the operating system to patch major security vulnerabilities:

• A patch released in May 2014 to address recently discovered vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 6 through 11 on all versions of Windows.
• A patch released in May 2017 to address a vulnerability that was being leveraged by the WannaCry ransomware attack.
• A patch released in May 2019 to address a critical code execution vulnerability in Remote Desktop Services which can be exploited in a similar way as the WannaCry vulnerability.

Windows XP - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[trparky]

Sure, they've had a few problems, but nothing a solid firewall can't handle. Windows 7 will be no different.

Unless, of course, a kernel vulnerability is found at the networking level where it takes no interaction from the user to be exploited.

Some of you may not be old enough to remember the dark old days of Windows 9x in which there was a TCP/IP stack vulnerability that could be triggered with a malformed packet which would cause the system to instantly crash. I remember because that vulnerability was weaponized into something that all you needed to do was get someone's IP, plug it in, press a button and the offending person was instantly knocked offline. It was the favorite tool of choice for those who were, shall we say, people with less than good sportsmanship in games at the time. If they were losing a game they'd use to tool to knock people offline and win by default.

Why am I saying this? Well, it's rather simple. A router may seem adequate unless of course you already know an open port into the system which if you know of one you can simply sneak a malformed packet in and strike without the user knowing. Now, this could be mitigated but would have to be mitigated at the router level before it even hits your Windows 7 system with the use of a full stateful packet inspection in which all packets that come in are analyzed for content and source. Unfortunately, most home routers don't do this; they're pretty much dumb devices that simply pass on whatever they're sent from the WAN side to the LAN side with the use of NAT. Incoming port 2354 is sent to the machine with an internal IP of 192.168.1.68 on the same port, there's no source check so if a bad guy were to be able to know exactly when to strike, they could sneak in a packet to that port and it would slip through and hit your internal system and the router would just be happy to pass it.

So with that being said, if a kernel vulnerability was found and the TCP/IP stack is at risk you could, in theory, be vulnerable no matter what you do if you continue to stay on Windows 7. All it would take is a malformed packet and then boom, BSOD hell.