[SOLVED] What runs/doesn't run on Win 7 these days?

[mike the car guy]

My old XP machine which I love is showing it's age, OS wise and the internet. More and more just won't work with it, not to mention software like tax software. Partly because of a crappy computer, but partly Win 10, I hate Win 10 with a passion. I'm thinking about getting a little SSD and throwing 7 on it as an interim until I get around to building a more modern machine that I'll probably put 10 on as much as I hate it. Maybe even partitioning it so I could try Linux too. A SSD and OS off ebay wouldn't be much over $50 and computer prices are sky high these days so I'm thinking I might be able to get another 6-12 months out of it.

Related, I assume it would see everything on the current HD, files and software, and just ignore the OS part of it?

 

[RealBeast]

Pretty much everything you need still runs on W7. Apart from games Linux is a reasonable choice if you have the time to learn. All of the files on an XP HDD should be able to be used on W7 install on an SSD, although any games or apps would have to be reinstalled on the new OS.

Edit: Turbo Tax requires W10 starting for the 2020 filing year.

 

[avg9956]

I'm still using Windows 7 too even past its lifetime support but I will be upgrading to Windows 10 soon.
I'd say Windows 7 is in every way, pretty much compatible with whatever programs that all older previous Windows can run it, even better than Windows XP.
If you still would like to run Windows XP, I'd put it on a virtual machine instead.

But generally its sort of a bad idea to keep running Windows 7, because if you're gonna buy a modern machine and it most likely does not support Windows 7 natively, you will run into hardware issues - particularly with missing drivers for Windows 7. Sure you can install Windows 7 on Windows 10 modern motherboards, but you may not have drivers for it such as sound or graphics.

There's an exception to that though, by buying an older (particular) motherboard with the Z390 chipset - that is if you want to dual boot both Windows 7 and Windows 10 and then trying to get all of the hardware parts that are compatible for it -if you can find them in stock. Double check though that the particular motherboard model does support Windows 7 and 10 before buying it.

However if you're planning to play retro games (especially older ones around 1990s), the virtual machine route may or may not be a good compromise as you might experience issues with sound or frame stuttering. For that retro gamers either still build and maintain a retro pc build or use a dedicated retro emulator to play MS DOS games, designed to play them correctly.

I love Windows 7 more than Windows 10. I just wish that Windows 10 wasn't that too intrusive. Its UI to me looks more like that of a mobile phone that keeps updating itself rather than a real computer...

You can also go the dual boot route, installing both Windows and Linux like me. You'd have to read up though on BIOS, UEFI booting mode, GPT and MBR, bootloaders (love GRUB) and most importantly - disable Windows automatic updates because that will screw up your dual boot and render it possibly unbootable.

However, you can also just install Linux on a virtual machine to avoid all of that, and would be my suggestion if you're a beginner - as it will allow you to mess up your Linux install and revert back to original state if ever you make mistakes in Linux (Linux can also get broken, mostly due to user errors made). Dual booting on the other hand allows you to harness the full power of your hardware.

 

[Krotow]

Still running Win7 on two Core 2 Duo laptops. Windows 10 is simply too slow in these.

 

[Wu-Zi-Mu]

To add to this, as far as AMD chipsets go, I think X470 is the last & best that still supports 7.

You can also get ESU updates fairly easy, there are instructions how to do it elsewhere and IIRC they last until October 2024

Re: running unsupported Windows, whether it's less dangerous to run a system lacking some internal protections but with a strong firewall, or a system with strong internal protections but backdoored firewall by design ("telemetry", NVIDIA drivers etc.), depends entirely on your threat model. I'm sticking to Win7+ESU for now while I can still have both protections.