Windows 7 Beyond 2020 – Extended Security Update Strategy for Users

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Woody Leonhard wrote the article “Seven Semper Fi: How to ride Win7 into the sunset” on March 18, 2019 which gives me some hope to keep my Window 7 Production PC a little longer beyond 2020. However, Woody mentioned in the article “though deep-pocket companies may pay for Extended Security Update for at least three additional years”.

Here is my idea for those of us wanting some way to access those three years of Windows 7 updates. It is possible for AskWoody members, say 200 – 1000 of us for example to pay into a shared pool of funds as “AskWoody Windows 7 Group” to qualify by Microsoft in some way to pay for and receive the extended updates.
Since the AskWoody group works so closely with the Microsoft staff as insiders, maybe they can facilitate such a strategy.
Leveraging our AskWoody membership in this way would be valued and fun too. Just an idea!

Edit to remove HTML. Please use the “Text” tab in the entry box when you copy/paste.

7 users thanked author for this post.

JohnS1606, SueW, Chessie, woody, GoneToPlaid, AlphaCharlie, FakeNinja

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Wow, I was literally just going to ask this myself. Firstly, if Microsoft would even allow this, I am pretty sure we would need to buy volume licences for our PCs and then also pay for ESU, all that wouldn’t be cheap. I am not entirely sure how it works though since Microsoft hasn’t given us that much information, I hope Woody or an admin on here reads your post and finds out if it’s actually possible, I would pay for it at least.

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JohnS1606, woody

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Alternatively, how about Microsoft allowing all of us AskWoody Win7 users to upgrade to Win8.1? I could live with that for a couple of years. Heck, by then Microsoft might have Win10 stable enough such that I am willing to use Win10 in my production environment. Microsoft recently came rather clean on their latest revisions for Win10 telemetry. Clean enough that I am okay with it — provided that Microsoft makes Win10 much more stable and reliable. It appears that Microsoft has given up on trying to outdo Google by trying to turn Windows into a targeted advertising powerhouse? Lately, targeted advertising has been suffering serious setbacks in terms of cost versus revenue.

On the other hand, I can’t stand Metro. Microsoft, please give us back Windows instead of the flat and archaic 1980s look of Metro! Did MS programmers think that Star Trek LCARS is what consumers wanted? LCARS is as bad as NASA’s Worm logo. At least NASA had enough common sense to switch back to their iconic logo which looks great in 3D. Cell phones have flat interfaces in order to reduce CPU load and battery drain. That doesn’t mean that consumers actually prefer the flat appearance, or want the flat appearance on their computers. Different ecosystems, different requirements, different purposes, different needs.

Microsoft, you did not and will not break into the cell phone industry anytime soon — unless you give us what we want and garner our support, and until you tear up your old agreements and lock down Windows in UNIX style from most malware. The alternative is that Windows and the security vendors will bite the dust since you all are on the same ship.

Enough already, as this is turning into a rant.

3 users thanked author for this post.

JohnS1606, SueW, jburk07

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… well I just upgraded to 8.1 at home. (Sort of.)

The KVM/QEMU paravirtualization driver hassle is a lot less with 8.1 than with 10… not like I plan on having the VM running every month or anything like that, but anyway.

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As an 8.1 and 10 user I would go straight from 7 to 10 and live with the issues. The learning curve is steep enough going to 8/10 that the only advantage is a small reliability gain in 8 and then you get the next EOL issue again.

cheers, Paul

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jburk07, woody

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True, but the EOL issue is accelerated in Win10. At best you get 30 months — and that’s for 1809, which is an ongoing disaster.

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JohnS1606, jburk07

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Paul T. wrote:

As an 8.1 and 10 user I would go straight from 7 to 10 and live with the issues.

Well, wouldn’t that be nice!

Only, with my computer/software budget of thirty cents, and the single-core processor PC with which I am stuck, I have no hope.  (Remember the character Jack Dawson, in Titanic, who drifted away from Rose and the wood panel in the frigid sea?  I’m the Jack Dawson of the Windows 7 world…  My fingers are starting to feel numb now…  )

 

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Having a machine that you can’t upgrade gives you 2 options.
Stick with W7 and be careful.
Install Linux and suffer the not-too-steep learning curve.

I always favour the “do nothing” option so sticking with W7 would be my suggestion.

cheers, Paul

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It’s an intriguing idea, but I have a feeling Microsoft’s reaction would be something less civil than “you gotta be kidding.”

Realize that Microsoft and I are on, uh, less than cordial terms – and have been for decades.

Still, lemme think about it

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JohnS1606, FakeNinja

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I agree, asking Microsoft for special treatment when it comes to extended Windows 7 support sounds like a joke, but they have said that everyone with a volume licensed PC and a big wallet do have the right to extended support, so I reckon our only chance would be to make Askwoody an organisation of some sorts which would allow us to have volume licences. But again, I’m not completely sure how Microsoft’s volume licensing works so I might just be talking crazy here.

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You’re talking crazy.

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had enough of microsofts game with win10, moving to linux

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Does anyone know if we will be able to “extend” the life of Win 7 via “fudging” the registry to make Windows Update believe we’re running Windows Embedded POSReady 7 instead (like some of us did with Win XP to make WU believe we were running Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 instead)? Obviously those embedded OSs did/do not contain all of the features of their full-fledged counterparts, so there may have been (and may be) security flaws that the embedded OSs did/do not patch, but some patching is better than none for those of us who want to hang on to what we’ve got.

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Kranium

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I asked the same question on this forum a few months ago but some people claimed that it doesn’t work the same way today as it did with XP and POSReady 2009, so apparently you can’t just edit the registry to receive new updates, and it wouldn’t even surprise me if Microsoft does everything they can to prevent this either.

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You can extend the life of 7 by continuing to use it, just keep an eye on any security issues that arise – and have up to date AV and backup.

cheers, Paul

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kranium

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So…I was going to try to get by with Win 7 64-bit, but I just found out that Intuit tax preparation software I use will not support Win 7 in 2020. I was hoping to retire in 2 years, but this throws a wrench into my time line. I really don’t want to buy a new computer and go through the migration process again. Still using Lotus SmartSuite. Not sure if that will make the jump either. Rats!

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Can you use Intuit online?

cheers, Paul

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baggins wrote:

but I just found out that Intuit tax preparation software I use will not support Win 7 in 2020.

You mean that the installed software on your Win 7 will connect to it master and get an order to crash ?
Intuit won’t stop working, just don’t update/upgrade to new version and it will run just fine for years.

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Hi Alex. You may be correct to say there is not an operating system based reason for software to suddenly stop functioning. But Baggins has a more narrow problem to cope with. Baggins learned several months ago that his preferred brand of tax preparation software has announced with nearly a year of lead time that it will not run on an unsupported operating system.

Intuit, as does any proprietor, has the ability and the right to limit their exposure to liability. With many installations of Win7 leaving support before tax filing season begins, Intuit made the decision far in advance of the event. This gives their consumers a generous amount of time to decide to stay with their Intuit product line on a supported OS, or choose another product for their needs. (In the US, many of the required forms are not available until after 31 January. Filing season then runs to 15 April. Actual dates may vary around the globe, but I cannot think of any that would end before the announced EoL for Win7)

As always, the ability to make software function is not the same as having support to assist you when things go wrong. When things go wrong with taxes the penalties are severe. Usually in high monetary fees, sometimes imprisonment. Many fillers would rather be safe than sorry.

Nowhere in this have I said that you cannot do as you wish with your own tax preparation, in your own tax jurisdiction. I believe Baggins should also do what is best for them.

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Paul T wrote:

Having a machine that you can’t upgrade gives you 2 options.
Stick with W7 and be careful.
Install Linux and suffer the not-too-steep learning curve.

I always favour the “do nothing” option so sticking with W7 would be my suggestion.

cheers, Paul

Linux Lite 4.6 has 10 years (2028) support and runs on 1GHz CPU and 768MB RAM.
It is 64bit only.

https://osdn.net/projects/linuxlite/storage/4.6/linux-lite-4.6-64bit.iso/

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