Staying With 7

I did not post this in software as I am not sure MG wants to promote it.
We upgraded some hardware and got the dreaded "CPU not supported" when trying to update after a fresh install of Win7. Much of our software will not run under Win 10 and we have chosen to port things to Linux to get off the Windows merry-go-round. We will stay with Win 7 until Linux is fully implemented.

With recent CPU vulnerabilities we want updates until we can fully rid ourselves of Windows, we are using:
https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc/releases/tag/v0.7.1.81
Putting it out here in case someone else needs it.

 

That's probably a wise move, as the news gets worse for older windows versions once the Spectre & Meltdown patches are applied. They warn of quite noticeable system performance impacts.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...dows-versions-due-meltdown-and-spectre-fixes/

 

If my two browsing Windows 7 computers get too slow and I'm more aggravated because of the slowdown, I'll take to browsing on my 10" android tablet instead.
It has a folio that doubles as a stand in portrait or landscape and I have 2 bluetooth keyboards. One is small and foldable for traveling (I have a 7" tablet and a phone) and the other is almost the same size as a laptop keyboard without the extra number pad.

 

I still like Windows 7. The only reason I switched is because an update rendered my computer useless. The reinstall disk I had was just an Upgrade Disk from Windows XP. I couldn't find any Windows 7 install disks so we bought Windows 8. After getting used to 8 I did like it. My new build has Windows 10 on it.

 

Currently I still have 3 win 7 computers and 2 win 10 computers. I prefer win 7 as it is less restrictive with UAC.
The only reason I have win 10 is my new MSI i7 gaming laptop and my 17 6800K pc only support win 10 so the choice was made for me. I have had win 10 since February 2017 and still hate it with a vengeance.
I first tried win 10 when it was out for beta testing and thought it was too much like the OS on my phone so dismissed it then and my view hasn't changed. As many may know I am sight impaired so don't use a touch screen so I run Classic Shell and get rid of all the win 10 GUI experience that is geared for touch screens. I still prefer to use the keyboard and mouse and so the win 10 menu system has no advantages for me so I don't use it. Classic Shell makes win 10 acceptable for me but I still don't like the underlying OS though it looks like this is the path Microsoft will follow so I will just have to get used to it or change to Linux.............BTW I wouldn't choose Apple as the first computer I bought with my own money was an Apple IIe Europlus with two 5.25" floppy drives and in 1978 it cost me just over AU$4200.00 and ran Apple DOS and had a Hercules graphics green screen........ and even back then Apple screwed you on hardware as my extra floppy drive costed me AU$1400.00 and a similar IBM compatible floppy drive was only AU$400.00. I nearly bought the Apple Lisa but waited for the first Macintosh and while I owned that I worked out that the Apple pricing model was far too expensive to continue so I swapped my CAD business over to IBM compatibles and never looked back.......

 

I'm not too hurried anymore, unless I'm late for an out patient appointment

 

If everything you have works with Linux, that's great. But I do see now that some Linuxs' were borked by recent patches. Same as with '10 updates, you never know when one will break something. I grin every time I see 'remove the update to fix the blue screen of death'. How? if you can't boot!
I have a '7 and '8 and recently got a '7 pro laptop ($99) that will keep me going as is for a while. The office @ work has all '10's an iphones for field workers. They did suffer a ransomware hit last fall, not themselves but their software supplier. Messed up everything for a couple weeks.
For my personal (and home) use it will be older gear probably for ever.

 

I think google got it correct with android and the way updates are done.

I had 2 devices update (Samsung tablet running Nougat and Samsung phone running Marshmallow) in the past 2 days and no problems. The updates were downloaded in the background and when the devices had everything, I got a notice "an update is ready for install".

I then get 3 excellent choices:
Install now
Install overnight (told me it would be between 2am and 5 am)
Install later.

Because the battery was low on the tablet and I don't like something installed overnight, I selected install later. The next morning I plugged the tablet in and selected install now.

The phone's battery was high so I selected install now.

No muss, no fuss and never a BSOD or a failure to boot.

 

As i keep saying windows 7 is the best way to go.

I keep hearing more and more issues with the current updates.So far i have not have had any issues with my laptop.My Desktop on the other hand is finally done.I need a replacement for it.I spent over a month trying to figure out the cause and issue.And Still it continues to reboot.Now this new windows up date is going to be a pain i guess.Microsoft needs to get there head back in the game.I mean they have had over 17 years from windows xp to get it right.And still they bring out patches that do more harm than good.

I would rather stick with an older operating system thank you.Where i have the options to disable windows updates if i want to.

 

Boss says we are going the Linux/VM route. I am making a Win 7 image that will get "temporary" use as a VM, probably 8 hours at most. After that the VM gets deleted and a fresh one created.

 

I have recently tried Linux systems in VM , and they seem ok- beauty of it is that , as you say, you cn delete it when it is not needed- Also, you can save the initial setup as a check point, and use that when you want a fresh updated Linux system, or, safer still- make a copy of that VM when up and running to use again at its clean and best point.

 

Windows boxes ticked for me:
1) interrupt movie to advertise Office or notify about update
2) send network information - and stuff I cannot figure out - to MS
3) wake up all the NAS drives when I click on "my computer" for local access
4) will not let me exclude services I don't need
5) constant nagging to use Bing and their other offerings
6) Open Office works better and GIMP is close enough
so ticked off outweighs boxes ticked for me.

 

Nice! I've been running some form of Linux since 2002. I'm currently running Slackware and Debian on 6 laptops and work stations. I have one Win 10 Pro laptop in the house. You can likely guess which unit requires the most system maintenance.

 

How good is Linux at gaming.

I could never get the setup right.

 

I think that gaming on Linux is making good strides with Steam.
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/02/3000-steam-linux-games-available

There are versions of Linux that are very easy to set-up and install. Ubuntu, Mint, and openSUSE come to mind.

 

This is one of many reasons to stick with an older operating system.

Less nag or at lest setup so it does not nag.Unlike windows 10 nags,nags at you.

 

I did like Windows 7, it was a great OS. I do prefer Windows 10 over Windows 7 as Microsoft has made a concerted effort to improve security with Windows 10.

 

Not sure how much OS security matters when Intel hands out a back door at the chip level - LOL

 

There will eventually be software patches and new intel micro-code to mitigate this vulnerability. I agree though, this is definitely a case of SNAFU. Haha.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=SNAFU

 

Windows 7 Backdoor

 

One more piece of the puzzle.
When you have a i7 7700 (not K) there is a catch 22 with 7 that AMD and nVidia will not install their video drivers unless the Intel video driver is installed. This is absurd as the Intel video works fine with the generic Win 7 driver. But it means no gaming because the OS does not see the accelerated graphics even if you force install the correct driver. Fortunately we are all script kiddies here and we can go into the Device Manager and get the hardware ID. Then repurpose the Win 10/8/7 Intel video driver by editing the INF file. Find the hardware ID in the INF file under Win 10 section and copy/paste it to the Win 7 section and change the prefix to Win 7 like the rest of the entries. Run the driver as usual and it will install. If this makes no sense to you, don't try it.