Microsoft will roll out full-screen Windows 10 upgrade prompts to Windows 7 users in January

[loading88]

People can still upgrade via the Media Creation Tool, it's a digital entitlement. And it's not like Microsoft offered to upgrade to Win10 for free during it's first year.

Microsoft doesn't care if you upgrade today or even tomorrow. They want everyone on one platform. It's a hell of a lot easier to support one platform versus three (7, 8/8.1, 10).

Personally I just upgraded a few family members PC's to Win10. Activated and registered as digital entitlement, no issues. However for my business customers we make them buy Win10 licenses as they are much more likely to be audited by Microsoft in case there is fine print somewhere (I haven't found it).

If people want to continue using Win7, go for it. As long as you have a decent AV you should be fine. The bigger issue is getting your specific software to work on Win7 when THEY stop supporting the OS. Symantec Cloud Endpoints as of November will not install on a Win7 machine for instance.

A few years from now no one will care and most of the customer base will be on Win10. Just like when everyone lost their **** over the upgrade to Win7 from WinXP.

 

[DaveBG]

My external firewall is blocking all microsoft IPs and domains since 2014 guess what. Windows 7 stopped causing me problems. I will never allow those spy IPs ever again.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Only making Linux look better and better.

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ]... I'm I wonder how many users out there understand that Microsoft has been one of the biggest companies to "condition" their users to expect, depend, and demand constant upgrades that serve very little, if any, benefit to the end user? One of these days, one of these days .....

Can I assume correctly that you're using "condition", as a euphemism for "intimidate"?

 

[ypsylon]

Good luck with that. Running W7 in lock-down mode. I don't know how they'll manage to upload that nagware, but good luck anyway M$ losers.

W10 is not terrible as long as you lock it down and keep tabs on M$ processes/IPs. Still 7 is better in great many things. Especially for old software relying on old .NET frameworks which are wonky or downright unusable on W10.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Welcome to Techspot.

With that out of the way, as you might guess we've had threads upon threads of the Windows 7 versus Windows 10 topic, for years now.

What is more often true than not, it is always the "rookies" who pronounce their undying love and admiration for Windows 10 most vigorously and aggressively.

Sometimes I ponder the source and sincerity of these proclamations. But that's just the way I think. I'm an "each his own" kinda guy.

I've been here for a while, and I much prefer Window 10 to Windows 7. I generally just don't say anything because 'muh OS' isn't a hill I think is worth dying on.

 

[Underdog]

MS will have people switch to Windows 10 eventually, even biggest Windows 7 advocates will have to buy a new PC sometime.

If you look hard enough you can buy a new computer without an OS pre-installed. I have recently finished a new build and installed W7 with only the useful security updates. Microsoft's pressure on the industry to stop the new processors from being compatible with earlier OS's has not been entirely successful. There are tools out there to help with weeding out the crap updates, telemetry, and W10 nagware.
Power to the People!

 

[learninmypc]

Saw this thread yesterday & was wondering if I should update my neighbors laptop. Decided I might not then this morning I see this in my inbox https://www.howtogeek.com/266072/yo...ws-10-for-free-with-a-windows-7-8-or-8.1-key/
And somewhere else I saw where MS will stop monthly updates for W7 next month. I may go ahead & update his laptop.

 

[Cerus]

With very few exceptions Windows 7 will run just fine on brand new motherboards and CPUs despite Microsoft and Intel's FUD. This is especially true if all of your hardware is already a few years old. Actually, its a better OS if you have multiple hard drives or partitions..Windows 10 still has all sorts of inexcusable problems in this regard.

Windows 7 hasn't been supported on Intel CPUs since Skylake almost 5 years ago. Installing it on any CPU since then is sketchy at best. That's five generations of CPUs not "very few exceptions" as you claim. There are workarounds but it's not going to run very well and just isn't worth it. Windows 10 does just fine with multiple drives and any tracking "features" can be easily disabled. It aint perfect but its a hell of a lot better than Windows 7 especially for gamers - ie Directx12.

 

[Cerus]

If the upgrade to Windows 10 is not going to be free. This is nothing less than spam and borderline scam. As ShagnWagn said above this is definitely a scare tactic.

Windows 7 has had all sorts of security vulnerabilities patched over the years. Once that support ends, hackers will have a field day. It isn't a scare tactic. And Windows 10 was officially free since it's release and still unofficially is. They never hid the fact that it was a free upgrade and even people on bogus copies of Windows 7 could upgrade for free.

 

[Cerus]

It is still a push to get you paying. Even if you can upgrade for free, that is not part of their sales pitch. It is no secrete they don't want anyone upgrading for free at this time. I'm certainly not going to bank on being able too.

What secret? It was free at launch and still is. I haven't paid a dime since installing Windows 10.

 

[Cerus]

If you look hard enough you can buy a new computer without an OS pre-installed. I have recently finished a new build and installed W7 with only the useful security updates. Microsoft's pressure on the industry to stop the new processors from being compatible with earlier OS's has not been entirely successful. There are tools out there to help with weeding out the crap updates, telemetry, and W10 nagware.
Power to the People!

If by new you mean with a CPU that's over 5 years old then sure. Anything newer does not support Win7 and will be nothing but headaches to install and run.

 

[cliffordcooley]

What secret? It was free at launch and still is. I haven't paid a dime since installing Windows 10.

Do you actually want me to link all the article stating Windows 10 free upgrade period is over? I may not be able to get all the links in one comment.

 

[madboyv1]

I am being forced to upgrade a bunch of PCs because our software vendor is going to lock down it's software from starting or installing on anything less than Win10. Very annoying.

Not because of any hate I have for Win10. I've got just about nothing against it once you curtail it's telemetry and "connected experiences", just that it is a lot of work for a ton of PCs that are not on a domain so it's all done by hand.

 

[captaincranky]

I've been here for a while, and I much prefer Window 10 to Windows 7. I generally just don't say anything because 'muh OS' isn't a hill I think is worth dying on....[ ]....

I'm well aware that many members who I consider :veterans have moved to and prefer Windows 10.

However, I am less certain about the motivations of newcomers who choose to join, and immediately begin their stint here at Techspot by extolling the virtues of the newer OS

Since I do participate, (for better or worse), an a very regular basis, I perceive behavioral patterns in some new recruits, which are suspicious. In example, we have one "xxxxxxxx" who does nothing but engage when the latest "Star Citizen" fiasco is revealed, and who does nothing but post strings of "Star Citizen is the best game ever, (TL;DR).rants, singing it, and the developers praises..

At least from my perspective, this behavior appears to be nothing more than shilling for the game.

With the vast number of fake reviews being posted across the web, and the intensity thereof, I test using the "Socratic method", which seems to draw the ire of some individuals. You will recall how many people Socrates pissed of centuries ago with his tactics. Yet to this day, his methodology is used by every serious interviewer on TV and elsewhere. It's really asking people to think, justify their position, and not taking anything a person says, verbatim.

As for the new business model contained within Windows 10, it's simply a herding tactic, to further solidify M$'s monopoly in the OS field, along with piggybacking their other cash cows, such as "Office" in the process.

M$ is taking Apple's closed system business model, and applying it to Windows 10, in a slow, but ever tightening stranglehold. I suppose they're doing it slowly, and in stages, so as many of Win 10's unsuspecting users, won't notice.


Adobe, Intel, and AMD have joined the bandwagon, in what anyone could reasonably be construed as a "smoking in the boardroom, unfair and illegal trade conspiracy".

Windows 10 has been inflicted on the general population in an "act badly now, and apologize later", power, propaganda, and terror campaign.

Lest you forget, Bill gates was, at on time, the richest man in the world, and he was nowhere near the turd running the company is now.

The business model as I understand it now, is to take away things from Windows 7, such as "Windows Media Center", and then sell it back to the unsuspecting noob.

 

[james22677]

I have most of my machines on 10, but one running 7 and one XP. The XP is for an elderly family member and runs great offline, the 7 is only because I use Media Center with my cable TV - I'm going to 8.1 after the holidays. I'd move my media center to 10 or linux if I could find a decent setup where I could DVR copy protected content (HBO, etc), but I haven't found any suitable replacement. Seems the industry wants us all to stream, I'm probably heading there sooner or later...

 

[hightechtom]

Windows 10 isn’t a downgrade, it runs great on old and new hardware alike, especially anything running SSD, even with only 3-4 GB RAM, which frankly SSD is the only drive I’ve used for a decade now and my laptop 10 years ago had 8 GB RAM. Take it from someone with 20 years of business IT experience, security isn’t to be taken lightly in the business world any longer.

"that doesn't mean you will be forced to stop using the OS"

I have been contacted by numerous people (I am the IT guy in the family) about having to upgrade and/or buy a new computer. They think Win7 will completely shut down.

What didn't microsoft say? That it will continue to keep working. This feels like a scare tactic just like their forced upgrade and deceitful spamming prompts in years past.

No, I will not downgrade to Win10. I would like to build a new rig, but I am not going to bow down to them. Unfortunately most of my games won't run in linux - even new ones. Newer ones won't run on Win7 either, so not only is MS losing money from me not buying their Win10-only game/software, but the hardware industry as well. Congratulations MS!

"that doesn't mean you will be forced to stop using the OS"

I have been contacted by numerous people (I am the IT guy in the family) about having to upgrade and/or buy a new computer. They think Win7 will completely shut down.

What didn't microsoft say? That it will continue to keep working. This feels like a scare tactic just like their forced upgrade and deceitful spamming prompts in years past.

No, I will not downgrade to Win10. I would like to build a new rig, but I am not going to bow down to them. Unfortunately most of my games won't run in linux - even new ones. Newer ones won't run on Win7 either, so not only is MS losing money from me not buying their Win10-only game/software, but the hardware industry as well. Congratulations MS!

Just when you thought that Windows 10 upgrades could not get any more irritating...

I've got the best ever upgrade from Windows 10 here, and it's called uBuntu v18

Didn't they learn from the original Windows 10 upgrade push? I guess that they didn't.

 

[Jamoore28515]

At one time I was dual booting Win10 on all 4 of my systems with Linuxmint. It got to the point where I rarely booted into Windows though so now both of my desktops and 1 of my laptops are totally Linux and my other laptop has 50 gigs for Windows on a 2tb drive and the rest is Linux. I have Wine installed on all 4 and most of the programs I use in Windows work fine.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Windows 10 isn’t a downgrade, it runs great on old and new hardware alike, especially anything running SSD, even with only 3-4 GB RAM, which frankly SSD is the only drive I’ve used for a decade now and my laptop 10 years ago had 8 GB RAM. Take it from someone with 20 years of business IT experience, security isn’t to be taken lightly in the business world any longer.

Isn't a downgrade... in your own mind. It's a downgrade in mine, and about everyone I've talked to about it. Anything on a SSD runs better than on a HDD, so what is your point there?... Win7 runs great on 2GB of RAM, although you referenced 3-4GB of RAM for win10. Although I know this is incorrect. Win10 doesn't need that much. Memory is dependent on how much your apps need, including the OS, not just the operating system. Take it from someone with 25 years of business IT experience. If you think years really matter. lol /shrug

 

[Ravalo]

Windows 10 isn’t a downgrade, it runs great on old and new hardware alike, especially anything running SSD, even with only 3-4 GB RAM, which frankly SSD is the only drive I’ve used for a decade now and my laptop 10 years ago had 8 GB RAM. Take it from someone with 20 years of business IT experience, security isn’t to be taken lightly in the business world any longer.

I had an old netbook (hp mini 110) with a dual core/4 thread atom and 2gb of ram
Windows 7 worked great ans it could run 720p 30 youtube videos just fine (maybe 720p 60 with h264ify), but windows 10 was barely usable even for browsing the web
Sadly, the laptop died 2 days before I was ready to sell it for 100$

I also have an old pc with a slow single core cpu (intel core solo), 1 gb of ram and an ati xpress 200M (it could run cs 1.6 at 100 fps lol)

I was planning on using it as a minecraft server so I decided to install windows 10.... 12 hours later and it was still loading the installation (It had a 250 gb 7200 rpm hard drive so it wasnt the issue)

So no, it doesn’t run great on old hardware

 

[ShagnWagn]

I had an old netbook (hp mini 110) with a dual core/4 thread atom and 2gb of ram
Windows 7 worked great ans it could run 720p 30 youtube videos just fine (maybe 720p 60 with h264ify), but windows 10 was barely usable even for browsing the web
Sadly, the laptop died 2 days before I was ready to sell it for 100$

I also have an old pc with a slow single core cpu (intel core solo), 1 gb of ram and an ati xpress 200M (it could run cs 1.6 at 100 fps lol)

I was planning on using it as a minecraft server so I decided to install windows 10.... 12 hours later and it was still loading the installation (It had a 250 gb 7200 rpm hard drive so it wasnt the issue)

So no, it doesn’t run great on old hardware

I didn't reply above to him about this. Yes, I know of several computers win10 has killed or driver support is non-existent. So bad to where you can't boot win10 enough to uninstall the upgrade. Basically you have to reformat back to win7, and then somehow find all of the drivers and software and patches that were installed before. MS has cost the world millions of lost productivity from this operating system. "Free" lol. Why didn't I ever hear of a class action lawsuit? Or why wasn't there one?

 

[Ravalo]

I didn't reply above to him about this. Yes, I know of several computers win10 has killed or driver support is non-existent. So bad to where you can't boot win10 enough to uninstall the upgrade. Basically you have to reformat back to win7, and then somehow find all of the drivers and software and patches that were installed before. MS has cost the world millions of lost productivity from this operating system. "Free" lol. Why didn't I ever hear of a class action lawsuit? Or why wasn't there one?

I actually had to reformat it back to winXP, since its the only OS that the pc supported (aside from windows vista, even tho anything that supports windows vista can run windows 7)

now I can’t browse anything since internet explorer 6.0 is so old it can’t display anything that uses html5

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ]....now I can’t browse anything since internet explorer 6.0 is so old it can’t display anything that uses html5

Firefox has a legacy version available, 53. sumpin, sumpin, which might work.

There should an older version of Opera available for XP too 36.??

 

[captaincranky]

I had an old netbook (hp mini 110) with a dual core/4 thread atom and 2gb of ram....[ ]....I was planning on using it as a minecraft server so I decided to install windows 10.... 12 hours later and it was still loading the installation (It had a 250 gb 7200 rpm hard drive so it wasnt the issue)

So no, it doesn’t run great on old hardware

I have a funny, but polar opposite story. I built a new box, based on an i5 6600k & Z170 board w DDR4.

I loaded the OS (Win 7, my last copy) & programs onto an ancient 250 GB WD SATA 2 (?) HDD, with the intention of migrating the install to a Samsung SATA 3 SSD, while keeping the HDD as a backup..

Programs wouldn't load, Photoshop Elements crashed every time I tried to launch it!

So I figured, "oh sh!t, I screwed up the install". I gave the migration a try anyway, and lo and behold, with the SSD, everything worked perfectly, and PSE launches in a few seconds.

 

[Mugsy]

ALRIGHT ALREADY! QUIT YOUR BEGGING!

I'll install *Linux* tomorrow. Okay? We good, Microsoft?