/rant Windows 7 - the last Windows I'll ever use.

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

I actually really enjoy using Windows 10. I'm that guy who answers yes to "How likely are you to recommend windows 10 to a friend or colleague?"

But I also fall under the other side of the generational gap where I do not care much about privacy.

*Hides*

 

[sapphirescales]

Took the leap the day 10 was released. Have not looked back and moved all clients to it ever since. I have not seen ANY of the issues that many have seen.
I do all clean installs never upgrades unless there is an irreplaceable piece of software (rare for my home use clients). I also n&p all new computers right out of the box to remove the OEM additions.

Well, you've been very fortunate then. I'm a 100% Windows 10 shop myself. I never do upgrades. I never did OS upgrades even back in the Windows 95 days. It just always seemed to end in an unstable system. I gave Microsoft a chance with Windows 8 on my personal laptop and had nothing but problems. Then I gave them another chance and upgraded my personal machine from 8 to 10 and again - nothing but problems. I always just do a clean install.

Seeing as I'm exclusively Windows 10 in my shop, I see MUCH more problems than I ever have before. Even Vista didn't have this many problems. It keeps me in business, but some of my clients get really upset. I had a client a few days ago come back with a bricked Windows 10 install for the third time in the last year. I've not been able to find out the cause, but I suspect it's his ancient Biostar motherboard (AM3 socket) that's just not compatible with Windows 10. I advised him to replace it if he wanted to go with Windows 10, but he didn't have the money.

This time I replaced his board with a new Ryzen based system and did a fresh install again. We'll see how it goes this time. It's a really weird problem. Basically Windows 10 doesn't even get to the boot screen. It just freezes at a black screen and goes no further. No blinking cursor or anything (this is an old board that doesn't support UEFI). I run full diagnostics, no hardware problems of any kind. Then I hook up another SSD with a fresh image of Windows 10 and it boots right up. Really frustrating for everyone involved.

 

[Philippe]

Long gone are the days of technical fascination & real progress in the computer industry. It is now just another money making industry.
Someone talk about 'infantilizing' the end user... well it's how you keep them captive and draw out more cash from them.
So sad for anyone who was dealing with computer from the 80's trough maybe the beginning of 2000...

 

[fincoder]

I've actually found lately that Windows 7 computers are coming in with problems. There's the user profile corruption issue that has arisen recently, and the bizarre accumulation of temp files (e.g. winxsx folder) that can't be deleted with Disk Cleanup or CCleaner.

The winging about new Windows versions has been going on since Windows ME. It's mostly pointless, except we need to be aware of the real limitations and customer preferences.

I've found that the hatred of new Windows versions gives us an advantage over the big retailers. OEM business computers with Windows Pro usually had XP or 7 installed due to downgrade rights (instead of Vista and 8), and the older OS is available for custom builds. We can give customers a choice of OS, something the big retailers never do.

Now that Microsoft has discontinued support of Windows 7 on new CPU generations, this choice is gone. But Windows 10 isn't hated too much amongst ordinary users, it's usually only hated by people using mobile data that don't know about the Metered Connection setting. I rarely get a customer insisting on Windows 7 any more (I can supply a refurb for these people).

I don't mind Windows 10, as a tech it's fast to install and it's great to be able to download the latest ISO. I do, however, hate the Cortana voice after install!

 

[Abramsgunner]

We had a rash of Win 10 boxes that died from updates lately. Most of our customers are still on 7, but we have a couple that recently replaced old PC's with new Win 10 boxes, and a bunch of walk-in customers with 10.

In a three week period I think I counted 9 Win 10 boxes with botched version upgrades or bad updates (USB devices quit working.. happened to a bunch of servers as well). The bad updates were easy to roll back, but the version upgrades that choked (leaving a c:\windows.old folder, but no c:\windows folder) had to be reloaded and files manually moved from the windows.old folder to the live user folder.

We have 600-700 endpoints on management agreements.... I'm glad most of them are on 7 Pro.

I run 7 on most of my personal PC's and 10 on my laptop... I don't dislike 10, but the whole bi-annual major version upgrade is crazy. If only a small percentage of them fail... that is a lot of extra work. Great if you get paid to fix it.... sucks if you are fixing it under maintenance for free.

Of course I'm getting old and grouchy so maybe it's just me. You kids get off my lawn!

 

[GTP]

driver issues still with scanners and printers.

I've already got 2 clients today that did the upgrade that have discovered their printers no longer work.
I more that has lost all their USB ports and another with a strange graphics issue where you set the correct aspect ratio in Display Settings, reboot and it's back to 800 x 600!?
Downloading the correct ATI driver does nothing to stop it.

Going to try rolling them back to 1709...

 

[Porthos]

Downloading the correct ATI driver does nothing to stop it.

Run Display Driver Uninstaller and reboot and try again.

 

[GTP]

Thanks @Porthos. DDU is available from WRT. I tried it without success.
Rather than spend/waste time on it I just rolled back to 1709.
Client happy.

We'll give it a couple of months for the dust to settle then try the update again. (That is if MS can resist the urge to keep forcing him to upgrade!)

 

[lan101]

Thanks @Porthos. DDU is available from WRT. I tried it without success.
Rather than spend/waste time on it I just rolled back to 1709.
Client happy.

We'll give it a couple of months for the dust to settle then try the update again. (That is if MS can resist the urge to keep forcing him to upgrade!)

I've had some success with the shut up windows 10 program to stop the updates.

https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

 

[frase]

So Saphhire do you have an agreement with MS

I've already got 2 clients today that did the upgrade that have discovered their printers no longer work.
I more that has lost all their USB ports and another with a strange graphics issue where you set the correct aspect ratio in Display Settings, reboot and it's back to 800 x 600!?
Downloading the correct ATI driver does nothing to stop it.

Going to try rolling them back to 1709...

Have you seen Printer head issues - HP Printers with win 10 - had 2 in past month. Printers only 18 months old?

 

[GTP]

Have you seen Printer head issues - HP Printers with win 10 - had 2 in past month. Printers only 18 months old?

No, these are both Epsons. Both printers about 12 months old. Detected in Windows but just will not print. No errors, no warnings, nada.
Work fine in 1709 however.

 

[fencepost]

Im going to keep my business clients on win7 as long as possible!

I've started steering them to Windows 10. It's coming, Windows 7 has less than 2 years to go so any Win7 machine put in now will be needing an upgrade in < 2 years, sure I could plan to charge for that but it just doesn't feel right.

I also want medical clients to be using drive encryption on everything even if it doesn't have patient data (because how do you prove that a laptop that's missing didn't have patient data on it?) and Win10 Pro includes Bitlocker.

 

[Sky-Knight]

This is where being on Win10 Pro is critical, home installs are forced into the beta track. All Pro installs should be set to the semi-annual track, they won't see these updates for another 4 months. I just had over 300 Windows 10 stations ranging from old Optiplex 780s to brand new Optiplex 3050s, all update almost at the same time to 1709, and THREE of them had issues.

Let someone else do the testing, configure your stuff properly, if you've got RMM out there, make it configure Windows Update properly. This isn't hard stuff, you can either manage it, or it'll manage you. A service pack every six months is no joke! Continuing with Windows 7 is basically criminal at this point. My ticket counts on 7 are rising, while my 10 counts are falling...

I suppose it's easier to whine and not adapt... but that's how you die in the IT industry.

 

[Diggs]

I suppose it's easier to whine and not adapt... but that's how you die in the IT industry.

+1

We're the ones that are supposed to lead our customers and clients into the tech future. If we don't embrace it ourselves then we are done. I used to be Linux only but live and breath Windows (10) again because my customers do.

 

[TechLady]

I'm with you, @Barcelona --I've seen too many problems to recommend it to anyone, and I'm certainly not going to entrust it to my own rigs. If I had to deal with even half of what I see on my client systems I'd throw it out the window. And when you add in Microsoft's affinity for making decisions without your consent (bad updates, forced upgrades, etc.)...gah, no...no way in hell...it's Win 7 for me until it dies.

If I could do everything I needed to do on Linux I would switch in a heartbeat. Sadly I cannot. But I will not "embrace" technology that is just straight-up garbage.

 

[GTP]

Continuing with Windows 7 is basically criminal at this point.

I'm with you, @Barcelona --I've seen too many problems to recommend it to anyone,

But Angela, we are criminals after all apparently...
I wonder when I'll be arrested?

 

[JoeTech]

I don't think customers running windows 10 actually know that a build upgrade is actually a new version of windows each time. Unlike previous versions it's not just an update but the core o/s stays the same. People are already bad at backup, but now every 6 months they are at risk of losing everything to a failed build upgrade. I have several occasions where the upgrade failed and the user profile is nowhere to be found having to resort to R-studio data recovery software to recover it. So now it is even more important then ever to have good backups because if ransomware doesn't get you, then a build upgrade probably will.

I would like to say windows 7 will be the last windows I ever use, but I know it won't be. My main pc at home is still windows 7 but it is a 2nd gen intel I5 and in need of an upgrade soon so will have to eventually bite the bullet and upgrade to 10. I wouldn't mind switching to Apple, but I'm not going to overpay for hardware I can't fix myself because they have it locked down so tight. Ok that's my little rant before I start my weekend.

 

[GTP]

You will share this location right?

Here you go mate, I'll be in here somewhere...

 

[fencepost]

I wouldn't mind switching to Apple, but I'm not going to overpay for hardware I can't fix myself because they have it locked down so tight.

Yeah, go watch some Louis Rossmann videos first. This one's nice.

I recommend a ThinkPad

 

[seedubya]

You remembered! As a cheese-head I'm impressed! (Picture attached for our international friends.)

This Irish farmer knows that Wisconsin is the Dairy State. Quite a number of Irish farm families, fed up with falling incomes and red tape here have sold up and headed to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. More power to them!