Windows 7

bgant4 wrote:
I am still running windows 7 but I read that MS is having problems with it. Any comments here?

I still run Win7 on 2 of my 3 PC's and have no issues with it, other than the ongoing MS nags to upgrade to Win 10; which I put a stop to by running a utility prog to block all Win 10 attempts.
Based on my experience with the one I did upgrade to 10, I'll be staying with 7 as long as possible.

donn0128 wrote:
The big issue with Win10 is the forced auto update. If your traveling and using a cell based hot spot it could cost you literally hundreds of dollars.

Win10 includes the option of setting any specific local network (cell hotspot) as "metered", which prevents most auto updates when you're connected via that network.

My notebook came with Vista. I upgraded it to Windows 7, and then downgraded it to XP. Here are some measurements I made:
Time to run Firefox: Vista 3.6 s, Win7 2.8 s, XP 1.25 s
Time to copy a 1 GB file to same hard drive: Vista 63 s, Win7 120 s, XP 99 s
Hibernate: Vista 50 s, win7 20s, XP 20 s
wake: Vista 35 s, win 7 41 s, XP 30 s
shut down: Vista 170 s, win 7 62 s, XP 12 s
start up: Vista 4 to 8 minutes, win 7 2 or 3 minutes, XP 43 seconds
(difficult to measure because it is possible to use the computer while startup activities carry on for some time after)
Processes running: Vista 72, win 7 57, XP 18
Threads running: Vista 787, Win 7 607, XP 258
physical memory free: Vista 315 MB, win 7 63 MB, XP 1723 MB
(2 GB installed and that is the maximum for my notebook)

Clearly XP is far superior to Vista and Win 7 for a computer with 2 GB of memory. The one compelling feature of Win 7 is the ability of the 64 bit version to let a program use more than 4 GB of memory. If you don't need that, or you don't have a computer capable of it, then you will be disappointed with the upgrade.

I turned off all the things in Vista that annoy people, so it never bothered me. But it followed the rule that every new version of Windows is bigger and slower than the one before. Windows 7 is faster in some ways, so it is the first exception.

Lots of people are still using Windows 98, so no worries about XP no longer being supported. That just means you won't be annoyed by it constantly downloading stuff and telling you to restart the computer.

turnipbwc wrote:
You think you have problems, try windows 8. It really sucks..................

I have a Microsoft Surface and actually miss it. Worked great for touch based devices like the Surface.

If you want to put off updates on W10 you could also upgrade to W10 Professional, it allows you to put off updates till it's more convenient.

donn0128 wrote:
The big issue with Win10 is the forced auto update. If your traveling and using a cell based hot spot it could cost you literally hundreds of dollars.

Google is your friend. Try here:
clicky

The other choice instead of windows 10 is Linux Ubunta

The big issue with Win10 is the forced auto update. If your traveling and using a cell based hot spot it could cost you literally hundreds of dollars.

Win7 is a good system. At some point it will no longer be supported, but right now it's fine.

I dreaded switching to Win10, and put it off for a while. My daughter accidentally turned on the "automatic" upgrade on my desktop. Turns out it was a non-event. I deleted some of the tile things that show up beside the start menu, and the start menu looks a little different, but otherwise no big changes. All my taskbar buttons and files are intact.

No problems here. The problem with it is Microsoft was ... ahem, never mind.

You're probably hearing about

this ****

and this

I work in a very large corporation (that shall remain nameless) and we have literally hundreds of thousands of Windows 7 machines. No more issues than the normal ones.

Your mileage as a home user may be different, as the company decides which patches and updates are critical compared to MS, and we can deploy them in a different manner than Microsoft can.

You think you have problems, try windows 8. It really sucks..................