Windows 7 Ending in Jan 2020?

So can we keep running Windows 7? Or is it recommended to upgrade to 10? Seems like that newer version has had its share of problems. If we keep the older 7 is there a chance we could lose some saved files if it crashes ? I back up everything to a mini tower.
What else is recommended?

 

Support is ending. You can run it as long as you want but as time continues to go by, more problems will arise and fewer applications will work with it.

It's a 12 year old OS.

 

I've been running Linux Mint. It's similar to windows, you can replace windows or install along side windows and you can choose which to boot. It's free to download the .iso and burn it to a DVD, then boot to DVD and try it.

 

You''re at risk of losing files on any machine where a hard drive crashes.

The problem is that "support" means patches for software bugs and hacking exploits.
So, a Windows 7 computer will be susceptible to malware while a Windows-10 machine will not.

It appears that the free-upgrade-from W7 to W10 still works,

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-...ws-10-upgrade/

so you might be lucky and be able to "upgrade in place" by going to the Windows Update webpage.

Before you upgrade, you need to do some prep work
first is checking the existing hard drive for errors;
second is making a backup image of the hard drive(s), and copies of your data files.
third is making a rescue cd/bootable thumb drive,
fourth is creating an administrator account with a microsoft login to register the computer as a valid widows license

Prices for solid-state hard drives are quite reasonable now, so I would ALSO consider getting a new hard drive.

What I've done is as follows - get a new solid state drive, clone the old hard drive to the new drive. Then swap in the new drive, boot up the computer, and do the update from Win7 to Win10 on the new drive.
Try the Win10 system out.
This leaves you with a working "live" copy of the system on the old drive as a backup.

 

I like Win10 and I've never had problems with it. I often think it's other things, not the OS itself, that causes problems. Anyway, you get used to it pretty fast IMO.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with 10 from a usability standpoint, what I don't like is the lack of control over updates, especially the reboots. Additionally, while the old paradigm was each new OS had a new name, with 10 the big updates like 1809 and 1903 are pretty much new OSes and it's pretty common to find out some application you used with the previous version doesn't work with the new one and you have to go out and find an updated version of that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window...ersion_history

 

I have been generally pleased with Win10.

The interface isn't bad, the back-wards compatibility with old apps seems to be good (e.g. Win10 has built in emulation so you can run old XP programs)
The newer iterations seem to run MUCH lighter on resources:

My "acid test" for Win10 ... is ... my ancient Dell 5150 "garage computer".
(came from the factory with 515 megs of ram, a Pentium4, and ~80 GB hard drive|
upgraded to 3GB memory, Pentium-D940, and 500 GB spinner and readyboost).
-Under the newest version of Win10 64-bit, that ancient computer idles at 4% CPU usage, with dropbox, a wacom tablet and google apps running in the background.

Of course, open a ton of windows in Chrome/Firefox/, and that spikes to 100%.

But the fact that this newest version of Win10 64-bit is running and stable on something that old is impressive.

 

I did not update to Windows 10 till it had been out for a year or so but it has been running well.
It used to be that every second Windows version was a dog I do not think that applies to Windows 10 at least in it's current form.

There are a couple little niggling things like the screen sleep.
Seems that they do a major update and it will not go to sleep if my game pad is hooked up then after about 3 weeks later it will and I cannot find a reason why.

When you do the install it will let you revert back to Windows 7 if you want to at least it used to. I think there was a 30 day limit then Windows 7 was automatically deleted.

You can make it look and act like Windows 7 which I did.
I do not want their fancy graphics and news feeds and them giving me suggestions on what I might be interested in.

If you decide to do it make sure to have a good backup of your system and files.
Also any install exe's for programs you have kept on your unit.

I have not found anything that it will not run but you may have to update some programs.
Also if you get something that does not want to run tell it to run it as administrator, often it fixes the problem.

As far a scheduling updates I have not had a problem as it has options for active hours and pausing any updates.

Give yourself lots of time for the upgrade as it definitely not a speedy process.

 

For upgrading and backups, I would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend the free version of "Macrium Reflect" which makes updates and upgrades much easier.

You'll want to purchase
#1 an external backup drive, 1-5TB are nice, preferably one that can use USB-C speeds, but something with 5-10 times the capacity of the used space on your computer's boot drive.
#2 a new SSD drive that's a bit bigger than your Win7 boot drive.
#3 an upgrade to Win10

Install Macrium Reflect
A) Use Macrium to make "disk images" of the harddrives on the Win7 computer. Most "simple" disk image files will end up being a single 20GB~-200GB file saved on the Terabyte backup drive.

Congratulations, you now have your entire Win7 computer saved onto a single backup file. If you have ANY OTHER computer with Macrium, you can click and open the image file and "browse" just like you were looking over your old hard disk.

If you have access to a FAST computer with >8 GB of memory and Macrium installed, you can load your entire Win7 computer as a "virtual machine", with all of your programs and shortcuts right where you left them.

Then, use Macrium to CLONE the old Win7 boot drive to a new SSD drive.
Swap old boot drive for cloned SSD drive.
Congratulations, you now have a second backup of Win7, the old boot drive. Just pop the old drive back in and you're back to Win7.

Upgrade the Win7 installation on the SSD drive to Win10.
Once Win10 is up and running, add an Administrator account that uses a Microsoft Account. That will now save the activation information about Win10 on the main Microsoft server. No more re-typing your activation key.

Then, make a Macrium disk-image of the working Win10 installation on the Terabyte backup drive.

If something ever crashes, you just restore the Win10 image to ANY harddrive, pop the drive into the computer, and you're ready to go.