Microsoft Ending Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

To be fair, Microsoft let everyone know about this a long time ago. Not saying I'm happy about it though! :)

Kicking and screaming, I finally upgraded my Windows 7 machine a couple months back. Windows 10 isn't as bad as I thought it might be. Stupid thing updates all the damned time, but it's not noticeably less responsive than 7 was, which was my main concern. All in all, I'm not finding myself missing 7 nearly as much as I had imagined I would.
 
We have one department still using Win 7 for “reasons”. So we have two months to convince them their reasons aren’t going to matter anymore... and buy them hardware that Win10 will actually run on without choking. LOL.

There’s a couple servers on 2008R2 also. I reminded the folks who are thinking about putting money into networking gear instead of server upgrades before EOY that even though the correct business plan is the network, the software vendor may have made a different decision for them already.

Gotta love planned obsolescence. Keeps me in a job. Ha.

My iPad Mini 2 that works just fine was unceremoniously dumped by Apple for iOS 13 also. I have a Mini 2 and Mini 4 and they run about the same speed with the 4 upgraded, which tells you something about how much bloat is in 13.

Bloat bloat bloat. Yay software “engineers”. Y’all made it fatter and less efficient, always the sign of great “engineering”.

LOL. Job security.
 
Interesting trend:

Two of our high end engineering folks have ditched Mac for Linux desktops in the last three months. They wanted horsepower and Apple machines weren’t cutting it for the price point anymore. One of them also wanted four 4K monitors. Two are vertical for coding and command line work. It’s a gorgeous setup for that.

A couple on Win10 are tired of the (required) monthly security latching and feature releases and are leaning this way also.

Guess it’s a good thing we always made sure to spec VPN and other products that would support Linux... knowing we had a pretty geeky “customer” base in our Dev company side of things.
 
So let me ask some of the more IT saavy POAers here. For a home PC, is it worth upgrading?
 
I still have one PC running XP, but it is dedicated to a scanner and has no internet connection.
 
I tend to think that if you're a home user and you're behind a NAT router(the normal kind everyone has) and you don't do stupid things like open unknown attachments, install software from iffy sources, etc, etc you don't have a lot to worry about. The router by it's self breaks most of the likely threats so most of what you really need to worry about beyond that is stuff that can be pretty well avoided by just practicing safe computing. Just use something other than IE/Edge and keep the browser updated.
 
My cisco sonet system still uses java 1.5 and won't talk to windows greater than win7. Cisco support ended this year, but we haven't time or desire to change it out. Cisco didn't think to put any limit on any linux version, so I can use current linux to talk to it.
 
denverpilot said:
... There’s a couple servers on 2008R2 also. I reminded the folks who are thinking about putting money into networking gear instead of server upgrades before EOY that even though the correct business plan is the network, the software vendor may have made a different decision for them already.
Click to expand...

Did you remind them that we're entering 2020?
 
kgruber said:
I still have one PC running XP, but it is dedicated to a scanner and has no internet connection.
Click to expand...
I'm doing the same with one of my PCs because I have legacy games that don't work on newer operating systems. Recently I needed to switch to a cloned hard disk because of a suspected problem, and it triggered an activation notice. I ended up having to do it over the Internet because trying to do it over the phone didn't work. So with fear and trepidation I connected it to the Internet for long enough to reactivate it. :eek2:
 
I'm going to keep using 7/64 until they pry it from my cold dead hard drive. HOWEVER, I am considering installing something like Malwarebytes pay-for version to keep the creepy-crawlies out of my machine. Anybody got something other than MWB that they think is better? It is $60 a year for the three machines we have here.

Yes, I use all of the machines for internet and with the kids I teach and who send me their term papers and such from strange sites, I would prefer to have something that scans inbound stuff even if it slows the machine down a bit.

Jim
 
whoo-hoo just learned my server is 2012, good for another 4 years. Wonder what $ that saved me?
 
weirdjim said:
I'm going to keep using 7/64 until they pry it from my cold dead hard drive. HOWEVER, I am considering installing something like Malwarebytes pay-for version to keep the creepy-crawlies out of my machine. Anybody got something other than MWB that they think is better? It is $60 a year for the three machines we have here.

Yes, I use all of the machines for internet and with the kids I teach and who send me their term papers and such from strange sites, I would prefer to have something that scans inbound stuff even if it slows the machine down a bit.

Jim
Click to expand...
Sometime ago, don't know exactly when, Symantec (now owned by Broadcom, Ltd.) sold Norton AnitiVirus to Lifelock. I recently ditched AVG for Norton, and the new, improved Norton blows the windows (sorry about the pun) off AVG, and I suspect MWB. It'll probably cost more than $60 for three computers, but I think it's worth it.

Stay away; stay far, far away, from MacAfee!
 
Norton ain’t great but it’s not horrid either.

https://www.thepcsecuritychannel.com/

His last test of Norton was in 2018 and it did a reasonable job stopping things and a well below average job of removing things.

Prior to that revision it didn’t even do a decent job stopping things. It’s cumulative score in his testing is twice as bad as his leaders.
 
I did break down today and upgraded my home PC to Windows 10. I was having a lot of random freezes that I suspect was being caused by Win7 possibly. I did find its still possibly to upgrade for free if you have a registered version of Win7 or 8.
 
if they quit supporting it, why does my
machine continues to get MS updates about once a week?
 
We have a few systems here still running XP and a few on windows 7. They are mainly running scientific equipment that the cost of upgrading is ridiculously steep. So we basically isolate (black hole) them so they have no ability to communicate with the outside world and very limited ability to talk inside other than locally in their labs (if that).
 
timwinters said:
if they quit supporting it, why does my
machine continues to get MS updates about once a week?
Click to expand...

Honestly if it’s that often, I would check for malware. Microsoft only releases updates the second Tuesday of the month unless it’s an emergency patch.

Been that way for decades. “Patch Tuesday” is the day I start reading the forums to see if the poor schmucks at companies that require immediate updates, have hundreds of computers on fire.

And switch off our automation that’s scheduled a couple days later... until MSFT fixes their dumpster fire.

Fully patched Win7 machines are now randomly displaying full screen warnings about not being supported. That’s probably what any updates are doing now, downloading the code to do that. Doubt it’s weekly though.

The reminder to download the nag screen, if you’re cancelling it, is probably weekly.
 
I’m about ready to upgrade to Windows 10. My computer keeps complaining about corrupt files, tries to restore them, but can’t and freezes the computer. I can eventually get to the login and once I’m there, every thing is fine. As far as I can tell, all my user data is backed up, so if I’m going to do a clean install, it may as well be Windows 10.
 
Riddle me this. I am a Mac person, but I run W7 on virtualbox for a couple of obscure programs that don't have Mac versions (Hang gliding instruments, Ham Radio programing). I need to connect to the web to update said programs, but all my real stuff happens on the Mac.
One of my Hang Gliding instruments has a Prolific Chip for USB connectivity that W10 keeps updating the driver and it then won't connect. I'd like to just keep W7 as it works fine.

Do I have a risk of someone accessing my Mac environment through W7/Virtualbox?
 
Hang 4 said:
Do I have a risk of someone accessing my Mac environment through W7/Virtualbox?
Click to expand...

Have to ask yourself first, how they would get into the Win7 virtual machine.

Generally you’re not going to “break out” of a virtual environment into the host OS. But all of them have had exactly that reported a handful of times.

What you’re really concerned with is the same problems as if there was a Win7 machine on your desk and a Mac right next to it, just for basics. If the real Win7 machine had malware on it, would that malware attempt to attack a Mac on the same network?

Not typically. Most malware sticks to a single OS. But certainly not unheard of on “smarter” malware. A few ransomeware examples that are smart enough to attack anything they find on the local LAN have been documented in the wild.

As an aside, I believe that serial driver issue is caused by your manufacturer using fake Prolific chips from China and Prolific fought back with their new drivers. Same thing happened to FTDI chips.

That’s digging back a few years so I may have remembered the Prolific story wrong, but it’s documented why the newer driver fails on the internet and I believe how to stop Win10 from messing with it.

Yeah. Quick google reminded me. Tons of the PL2303 chips are counterfeit.

If it’s built into your device you should ask the manufacturer what they’re going to do to fix it.

If it’s just a serial to USB cable, throw it away and use one with a non-counterfeit chipset (either Prolific or FTDI is fine). It’s so bad, most Amazon and eBay sellers even say that they’re using non-counterfeit ones in their listings.

That counterfeit chipset thing goes all the way back to the early days of Windows 8, which is when one of my cheap cables got hit by it. The googling reminded me when it said Win8 also did it.

And I recently bought a serial converter specifically for multi-voltage serial stuff like programming chips that need 3.3VDC serial and remember making sure it had a non-counterfeit Prolific on the board. Cost was $5 more for the real deal boards vs the ones with the fakes.

Yay China.
 
Thanks for the virtualbox info, that was my assumption but I’m not a pro. I was hoping you would answer.

On the Prolific chipset point, they had counterfeiters but in combatting them they obsoleted some of their own early versions including the one in my Variometer.
 
Why should I upgrade my Window 7 if it works well? I am not scared by the fact that there will be no support for it.
 
timwinters said:
if they quit supporting it, why does my
machine continues to get MS updates about once a week?
Click to expand...
I have a few old machines that I don't use much that are still running Windows 7. The updates they've gotten since January have been to Microsoft's anti-malware, not to the Windows code.
 
neon said:
Why should I upgrade my Window 7 if it works well? I am not scared by the fact that there will be no support for it.
Click to expand...

Support includes security patches.

You become the internet equivalent of an anti-vaxxer ... and your machine becomes a threat to everything it can reach.

There’s thousands of new vulnerabilities found each year on well-patched software. An unpatched machine is just a disease carrier, it’s so vulnerable.

You might think “but I never go to anything but big trusted websites”, but multiple times now, the advertising systems that feed the ads on those pages have been caught being used for malware dissemination.

Sadly if you’re going to swim in the raw sewage of the Internet, you need a new biohazard suit every month.
 
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