Microsoft Waves “Early Goodbye” To Windows 7, Pushes Windows 10 Upgrades

[Megalith]

Support for Windows 7 won’t cease until 2020, but Microsoft is already warning users to update to Windows 10 as soon as they can. They argue that moving on from Windows 7 is a “logical decision,” as it features outdated security, leading to higher costs due to things like malware attacks. Furthermore, they stress that only Windows 10 has support for the latest chips.

…Microsoft is desperate for those users to switch to Windows 10 and warns that Windows 7 support is coming to an end, and that the OS has outdated security and can’t keep up with today’s security needs. In a post headed 'An early goodbye to Windows 7! Support ends in three years' Microsoft's German press site tells users that in three years Windows 7 extended support will run out permanently, and that from January 14, 2020 there will be "no security updates, updates and no technical support from Microsoft". It describes the move as a "logical decision" as "Windows 7 can no longer keep up with the increased security requirements" and sticking with the older OS actually leads to "higher operating costs" due to "increased malware attacks and even increased support requests".

 

[Damar]

"…Microsoft is desperate...".

That's been obvious for some time now I think.....

 

[Deleted member 245375]

Pretty soon we're going to see some major problems with Windows 7, watch and it'll happen. Some new exploit will appear as if out of thin air (actually from some basement someplace from a talented coder on contract with Microsoft but not really if you get my drift) and it'll cause more problems than even the purposely done Windows Update frustrations that were simply not an accidental thing as Microsoft likes people to believe.

I'm still going to use Windows 7 as long as I'm capable and then I'll figure out what to migrate over too, probably using a Linux distribution as a base OS and using macOS in a VM as required.

Microsoft, what the fuck are you people doing?

 

[DeathFromBelow]

Pretty soon we're going to see some major problems with Windows 7
Microsoft, what the fuck are you people doing?

Windows Update has been broken and slow for more than a year. God forbid you needed to reimage a drive on a 7 box, it could take Windows update a week to sort itself out.

Back in October I got fed up with the broken state and direction of Windows and decided to seriously try Linux Mint again. I was blown away and ended up immediately switching all 6 of my computers. All my hardware 'just works,' even my Creative sound card and Highpoint/Marvell RAID controllers/arrays. All of my favorite games are Linux native. 1/3 of my Steam Library and 1/4 of the store is Linux native. I have more games than I have free time to play, and there's no ridiculous phablet GUI, data mining, or ads. It's really become a viable desktop/gaming platform.

…Microsoft is desperate for those users to switch to Windows 10 and warns that Windows 7 support is coming to an end

They really are getting desperate. Windows 7 outgrew Windows 10 2:1 over December. You can't even buy 7 directly anymore and it beat 10 over the holidays. 10 is so awful they can't give it away.

I'm calling 10 dead at this point, they've never recovered an OS from this kind of situation before and I can't imagine anything they could do now would push up their numbers more than the free giveaway.

 

[Glyphic]

I wish they would fix joining windows 10 to domains. It breaks the start menu and every other built in app.

 

[jardows]

Back in October I got fed up with the broken state and direction of Windows and decided to seriously try Linux Mint again. I was blown away and ended up immediately switching all 6 of my computers. All my hardware 'just works,' even my Creative sound card and Highpoint/Marvell RAID controllers/arrays. All of my favorite games are Linux native. 1/3 of my Steam Library and 1/4 of the store is Linux native. I have more games than I have free time to play, and there's no ridiculous phablet GUI, data mining, or ads. It's really become a viable desktop/gaming platform.

Strange, because my experience is exactly the opposite. got tired of nothing working right in Linux, switched back to windows, and even Win10, and everything "just works" out of the box. That's why we have PC's and not Mac's, so we can each have our own customized hardware, software, and computing experience.

 

[Jagger100]

Windows Update has been broken and slow for more than a year. God forbid you needed to reimage a drive on a 7 box, it could take Windows update a week to sort itself out.

Back in October I got fed up with the broken state and direction of Windows and decided to seriously try Linux Mint again. I was blown away and ended up immediately switching all 6 of my computers. All my hardware 'just works,' even my Creative sound card and Highpoint/Marvell RAID controllers/arrays. All of my favorite games are Linux native. 1/3 of my Steam Library and 1/4 of the store is Linux native. I have more games than I have free time to play, and there's no ridiculous phablet GUI, data mining, or ads. It's really become a viable desktop/gaming platform.

There is a fix for the update. It requires a manual update but also killing the background update process first to install it. Was in re-image hell about 4 months ago. Needless to say the machine was dual booting linux in anticipation of switching. Even though it is 'fixed' I am still in dual boot mode.

 

[ecktt]

I just spent several hours installing Windows 7 on an Samsun 960 Pro M.2 SSD and MSI Z170A-SLI PLUS. Generic support for USB 3 and NVME is lacking. Security updates aside, it's just a PITA to deploy now.

Those having update issues could try WSUSOFFLINE or Simplix Pack

 

[tetris42]

They really are getting desperate. Windows 7 outgrew Windows 10 2:1 over December. You can't even buy 7 directly anymore and it beat 10 over the holidays. 10 is so awful they can't give it away.

I'm calling 10 dead at this point, they've never recovered an OS from this kind of situation before and I can't imagine anything they could do now would push up their numbers more than the free giveaway.

My rebuttal to that is they're a monopoly for the x86. The vast majority of people locked in aren't going anywhere. Even though 10 isn't as big a success as they might hope for, they're still pulling in tens of billions of revenue every quarter. An empire like that doesn't just die. They could screw up badly for 10 more years and still be able to keep operating. In gaming they already have about half the market. You say you can't imagine what they could do to push their numbers up, easy, they'll just discontinue support for Windows 7. Over time, it will eventually capitulate just because it becomes more of a pain in the ass using it than not.

I don't like it any more than you do, but I don't understand how anyone reasonable can think that it's dead. It's like you don't understand just how big MS is and how much money they have to work with.

 

[DocSavage]

If MS is going to whine about not enough people moving to 10, then maybe they should make it free again. I know I'm not going to pay $100 for the privilege.

 

[Deleted member 245375]

Those having update issues could try WSUSOFFLINE or Simplix Pack

simplix's Update Pack also integrates USB 3.0 drivers nowadays, can't speak much towards NVMe driver support since I've yet to use such a device but at some point he'll probably manage to add that option as well. Been using the Update Pack pretty much since it was first offered, will be expecting a new one in a few days after today's patches get pushed out and I'll make another ISO for installation purposes. Can't really recommend it enough but the fact that it's published by a Russian on a Russian site tends to scare off the paranoid slackers sometimes.

If MS is going to whine about not enough people moving to 10, then maybe they should make it free again. I know I'm not going to pay $100 for the privilege.

You can still get Windows 10 completely free, no hacks/cracks/BS, just go here and start the upgrade installation:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

 

[Shintai]

Anyone still uses Windows 7? Workplace, home etc all Windows 10.

 

[Shintai]

If MS is going to whine about not enough people moving to 10, then maybe they should make it free again. I know I'm not going to pay $100 for the privilege.

Its still free by this way:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

 

[cyclone3d]

I wish they would fix joining windows 10 to domains. It breaks the start menu and every other built in app.

What are you talking about? We have put probably at least a few hundred Windows 10 machines on a domain and that hasn't happened to a single one that I am aware of.

 

[michalrz]

They argue that moving on from Windows 7 is a “logical decision,” as it features outdated security, leading to higher costs due to things like malware attacks.

Then update the fucking security.
Last I checked it's not 2020 yet.

 

[Hitti2]

Meh@win10 = FuckWin10...

I'm not planning to upgrade my hardware for a long time. No need for win10 on my pc.

I've got cpu core parking disabled.

As for the slow ms windows update process on win7.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/30...forever-kb-3153199-may-solve-the-problem.html
This fixed my slow update process to checking updates in 45 seconds.

MS are a bunch of assholes.

 

[Dead Parrot]

Microsoft shot themselves in the foot several times on Windows 10 with the Spy on User telemetry, trickery with update prompts, limited end user control over updates coupled with updates that break stuff and a general corporate attitude of 'We are Microsoft, This is good STUFF, prepare to be assimilated". They are also running into some headwinds as more folks are becoming concerned about online security. Preaching "Win 10 is more secure as long as you let us monitor everything you do" isn't working as well as they had hoped.

 

[Armenius]

Anyone still uses Windows 7? Workplace, home etc all Windows 10.

I use 7, 8.1 and 10 at home. Everything is still on 7 at work because a lot of critical software doesn't work on 10, and we just upgraded to 7 in 2013. The healthcare industry is still around a decade behind the rest of the world when it comes to IT infrastructure.

 

[Shotglass01]

Microsoft is desperate...

To push out their app store platform wrapped in marketing as Windows 10.

 

[Terpfen]

Windows Update has been broken and slow for more than a year. God forbid you needed to reimage a drive on a 7 box, it could take Windows update a week to sort itself out.

It's just fine once you apply KB3185911. Or download and use the convenience rollup. Or both.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

I see they have once again resorted to hyperbole to try and "scare" people off Win 7.

Dear Microsoft,

I tried Win 10 and for a time I thought it wasn't half bad. At first it was a little stupid with the amount of telemetry and such, but after a while you gave options to turn it all off except the stuff that has largely been present in every version. I was fine with that. You kept the "home" and "Pro" versions distinct, making it obvious that home was for basic users and pro was obviously for those who wanted more control. I was in full support of that because after years and years of being a field tech even I fully agree that the average user has no business turning off security updates. I actively resented techs who would turn that shit off on people who had no idea what they were doing. So while I waited until the last minute, I installed Win 10 and really had no qualms about it. It wasn't perfect, but it was reasonably unobtrusive and I had ways around losing media center. Then you decided to get stupid and remove policies from Pro. I mean what the literal fuck? This was one of the main reasons why I owned Pro was so that I have complete control over my network without having to install enterprise. Who on earth decided it was a good idea to dick over "pro" users? Seriously this has got to be the single dumbest move made since whoever approved that visual assault of a UI in Win 8. Want users like me to convert back to Win 10? Hyperbole isn't going to win us over. Giving us back the features we bought pro for is how to do it. Fear mongering with what we know is just made up bullshit isn't going to work.

 

[tetris42]

I see they have once again resorted to hyperbole to try and "scare" people off Win 7.

Dear Microsoft,

I tried Win 10 and for a time I thought it wasn't half bad. At first it was a little stupid with the amount of telemetry and such, but after a while you gave options to turn it all off except the stuff that has largely been present in every version. I was fine with that. You kept the "home" and "Pro" versions distinct, making it obvious that home was for basic users and pro was obviously for those who wanted more control. I was in full support of that because after years and years of being a field tech even I fully agree that the average user has no business turning off security updates. I actively resented techs who would turn that shit off on people who had no idea what they were doing. So while I waited until the last minute, I installed Win 10 and really had no qualms about it. It wasn't perfect, but it was reasonably unobtrusive and I had ways around losing media center. Then you decided to get stupid and remove policies from Pro. I mean what the literal fuck? This was one of the main reasons why I owned Pro was so that I have complete control over my network without having to install enterprise. Who on earth decided it was a good idea to dick over "pro" users? Seriously this has got to be the single dumbest move made since whoever approved that visual assault of a UI in Win 8. Want users like me to convert back to Win 10? Hyperbole isn't going to win us over. Giving us back the features we bought pro for is how to do it. Fear mongering with what we know is just made up bullshit isn't going to work.

And therin lies the magic of mandatory automatic updates. You lose control over what happens to your system. Even if 99% of the time it's great, that 1% can also ruin you. You never know is the point.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

And therin lies the magic of mandatory automatic updates. You lose control over what happens to your system. Even if 99% of the time it's great, that 1% can also ruin you. You never know is the point.

They still aren't mandatory on Pro so I don't really care. Sorry you aren't going to convince me to give a shit about most home users after supporting them from Win 95-Win XP. If you don't want forced updates, buy Pro.

That said right now for pro users I can't even recommend Win 10 pro because pro it isn't. It is unfortunate because for a while it was pretty darn good.

 

[SvenBent]

Windows Update has been broken and slow for more than a year. God forbid you needed to reimage a drive on a 7 box, it could take Windows update a week to sort itself out.

This will fix that issues. or use a pre updates windows with "SP2" and the monthly updates takes care of it
https://hardforum.com/threads/guide...-update-after-fresh-install-nov-2016.1918903/

Anyone still uses Windows 7? Workplace, home etc all Windows 10.

I use windows 7 on work machines and any other home machine than my main Computer.
and im constantly thinking about going back to 7 and just keep 10 as a dual boot for testing my software in.
but meh to lazy

 

[PeaKr]

Generic support for USB 3 and NVME is lacking. Security updates aside, it's just a PITA to deploy now.

Have you tried this for NVME?

 

[daglesj]

What are you talking about? We have put probably at least a few hundred Windows 10 machines on a domain and that hasn't happened to a single one that I am aware of.

Yeah we are now finding the Windows 7 machines are a real pain support wise. JUst getting so crappy. The Windows 10 machines are chugging along fine. Not a peep out of them.

 

[sadsteve]

Anyone still uses Windows 7? Workplace, home etc all Windows 10.

Win 7 at work and my 2 DVR's are Win 7 base (pulldown problem with Win 10 video drivers). The wifey's machines are Win 8.1 (soon to be Mint Linux). My desktop is dual boot, Mint Linux and Win 8.1 (Windows is only used for gaming). My laptop is dual boot, Win 10 and Mint Linux. I'm only keeping Win 10 on the laptop so I can game when away on vacation. In the last 3 months, the only reason I've boot to Win 10 on the laptop was to get updates.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Win7x64 Pro at work (Win10 on newer Skylake-based laptops only), Win7x64 Ultimate on every system at home. Win10 only gets booted on the main rig for DX12 titles.
Win7 handles 128TB of storage just fine, and handles 12c/24t (dual X5675s) just fine.

"Get with the times gramps!" Yeah, yeah, yeah ... f*ck off.

I also still use Eudora 7, WinAmp and uTorrent 2.2.1

 

[HorseproofBacon]

Those having update issues could try WSUSOFFLINE

Exactly what I was going to post. Using this allows you to do the bulk of the updates that cause the update server slowness. After WSUS finishes, you can then finish the updates from the MS server much faster (still takes a few hours though but at least it won't take you days).

 

[MrCaffeineX]

What are you talking about? We have put probably at least a few hundred Windows 10 machines on a domain and that hasn't happened to a single one that I am aware of.

I ran into this issue a lot before the Anniversary Update. It seems to work pretty well now.

The biggest issues I have been running into lately are related to manufacturing and ERP software that requires a fair bit of coaxing to get working in a somewhat stable manner on Windows 10. I remember it being similar when transitioning places from XP to 7, so I suspect that it will sort itself out given enough time.

Microsoft doesn't want to end up in the same situation as with Windows XP where they were forced to support the software well beyond its original planned obsolescence so they are continuing to push everyone off of Windows 7 in any way possible.

 

[Monkey God]

No. Ill use 7 for as long as I can and then when I have to switch ill switch to Linux. W10 can stay on my surface where its merely an annoyance.

 

[amddragonpc]

MSFT can take their Win10 anal probe and stick it in their own a$$.

 

[tikiman2012]

Anyone still uses Windows 7? Workplace, home etc all Windows 10.

No Media Center in Windows 10.

 

[heatlesssun]

No Media Center in Windows 10.

There's only one thing that WMC had that's not easily replaced, CableCard support. While I don't like that Microsoft dropped support for it is easy to understand why they dropped support for something this esoteric and complicated to setup.

 

[nvgrim]

Anyone still uses Windows 7? Workplace, home etc all Windows 10.

Workplace and home pc's are all still Windows 7. I have no intentions of 'upgrading' to windows 10 on my home pc's

 

[MV75]

My rebuttal to that is they're a monopoly for the x86. The vast majority of people locked in aren't going anywhere. Even though 10 isn't as big a success as they might hope for, they're still pulling in tens of billions of revenue every quarter. An empire like that doesn't just die. They could screw up badly for 10 more years and still be able to keep operating. In gaming they already have about half the market. You say you can't imagine what they could do to push their numbers up, easy, they'll just discontinue support for Windows 7. Over time, it will eventually capitulate just because it becomes more of a pain in the ass using it than not.

I don't like it any more than you do, but I don't understand how anyone reasonable can think that it's dead. It's like you don't understand just how big MS is and how much money they have to work with.

And despite all of that, here we are today, a total failure compared to some fruit and a silly name.

 

[jfreund]

Funny, I have Win7 running on Skylake and it's great. I don't care if the CPU has features that aren't "supported" in Win7. I didn't need those features when I used Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge, and I don't need them now. The only trick was integrating USB3 and NVME drivers into the install image.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

There is a fix for the update. It requires a manual update but also killing the background update process first to install it. Was in re-image hell about 4 months ago. Needless to say the machine was dual booting linux in anticipation of switching. Even though it is 'fixed' I am still in dual boot mode.

You can always use a single Windows box and stream to Linux. Much easier than trying to maintain multiple Windows installs/dual boots. I find there's very little reason to 'dual boot' anymore, I can go weeks at a time without using Windows.

I was aware of slow update fixes like you and others have posted. At the time I made the switch from Windows 7 to Linux Mint the fixes were changing every month. The fact that users have to jump through hoops at all is unacceptable. Updates on my Linux Mint boxes are snappy. I paid for Windows, it should have been fully supported for the duration of its support period.

I really can't stress enough to everyone how good Linux on the desktop is now. If you've ever dabbled in the past you really ought to load up your favorite distro and see how much things have improved. Install Steam and check out your library.

 

[MavericK]

If MS is going to whine about not enough people moving to 10, then maybe they should make it free again. I know I'm not going to pay $100 for the privilege.

You can still upgrade for free if you know what you're doing.

 

[Damar]

Seems to be a jab at MS in the recent FFXIV:ARR patch too......