How many more years can i still use Windows 7?

[vishalrao]

@mreccentric if you want to give linux another try, i highly recommend KDE neon distro... Check out neon.kde.org website and download the "User edition" ISO and either play around live session or in a VM... Both ubuntu and KDE have become quite usable these days.

Side story, I was mainly using Win11 until this past long weekend when I clean formatted my main PC and am now using KDE neon as my main daily driver OS. I have still installed Win11 (canary insider edition) just in case it's needed for things like firmware updates (highly unlikely) and just to occasionally check what's new in Win11 world.

Depending on what is your hardware config, you can try openSUSE Tumbleweed (rolling distro but still quite stable) with GNOME desktop - that too has become very sleek these days.

And finally, my other favourite distro (ubuntu based) is elementary OS - check out elementary.io website - and note that if you want to download the ISO, you can choose "custom" amount and enter ZERO to just download it for checking out - no need to pay anything as the website seems to suggest.

 

[SVK]

@vishalrao you seem to missed the point that he don't want to use Linux and wants to support Microsoft (?)
Nice list though

 

[mreccentric]

@SVK Can i instead install Win 10 with Win 7 keys?

It's not that i don't support Linux. The point is many of the applications are not available on Linux compared to Windows. The reason for not trying Chrome OS was that i don't over reliance on Google which is known for it's surveillance.

@vishalrao I'll make a point of this. I think i can also install a linux OS in one partition. But, of course, i will Google about it more before i start to do it.

 

[rohitks]

Rufus ISO to bootable USB creator app has a fantastic option to bypass Secure Boot, TPM & 4GB RAM requirement of Windows 11 installer. The resulting bootable USB will install on most PCs. It might be stuck though for unsupported CPU.

There's also a workaround. Replace boot.wim to the one from Windows 10 ISO and Windows 11 will skip all such checks.
Using this method I installed Windows 11 on unsupported laptop with old CPU.

As far as Windows 7 is concerned, you should stick to it if you have any hard limitation that certain old apps do not work on Windows 10/11. And if you love Windows 7 (like me) (I hate Windows 11) then in future use it in a Virtual Machine.

Windows 7 is EOL. I suspect within an year even Google Chrome will not support it at all.

 

[mreccentric]

@rohitks Nice information. But, how do you say that the laptop didn't support Windows 11?

I had used Virtual systems(Win XP emulator) on Windows 7 few years ago. It was all mess, didn't have patience to use like that for longtime. But by then, Windows 7 made me forget those old apps and get used to new OS.

 

[rohitks]

@mreccentric

A picture is worth thousand words

Download - WhyNotWin11

 

[mreccentric]

My check fails for these:

1. Boot Method - Not supported
2. CPU Compatbility- Not supported
3. DirectX + WDDM2- DxDiag Errored
4. Disk Partition Type - GPT Not Detected
5. Secure Boot - Disabled/ Not Detected
6. TPM Version - TPM Missing / Disabled

I know the GPT i can format the HD and make it right.
What can you say?

 

[rohitks]

What is your current OS on which you tested it?

As I mentioned in my previous post, RAM, TPM, Secure boot can be easily handled by Rufus installer. If your disk is MBR it needs to be converted to GPT. There are some tools that claim to do it without loss of data, but when I did it I completely cleaned it and then converted to GPT.
So give it a try, if it errors out, replace boot.wim to one from Windows 10 ISO. Windows 10 ISO can be downloaded from MS. You can use free tool like 7zip to extract boot.wim from it if required.

Better take current system image using tools like macrium or acronis so that it worst case you can go back to your existing system without data loss.

 

[SVK]

@mreccentric when Win 10 was launched, Micorsoft mentioned that Win 7/8 with valid keys can upgrade to Win 10. I hope that is still valid

 

[mreccentric]

I tested it on Win7. Converting MBR to GPT is an headache. Need to take backup of the files, and dump them back. I know no free software does the work properly, so i may have to rely on formatting the HD all for once.

@SVK I'll have a check of it. If that's the case, then it is good. But, my point is what happens if i use the same license keys to more than one system? Will that count as a counterfeiting?