Windows 7 Users To Get Full-Screen Windows 10 Upgrade Prompts From Next Mon

[sman]

Windows 7 Users To Get Full-Screen Windows 10 Upgrade Prompts From Next Month

"https://www.techworm.net/2019/12/windows-7-windows-10-upgrade-prompt.html"

DON'T KNOW whether it works or not, but for those who wish to check it out, for free upgrade hack to Win 10, here it is

How To Upgrade To Windows 10 For Free With A Simple Hack

"https://www.techworm.net/2017/01/can-still-upgrade-windows-10-free-simple-hack.html"

NOTE: Remember this method to get free windows 10 upgrade will work only if you were using a genuine license of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1

[exile360]

FYI

[sman]

22 minutes ago, exile360 said:

FYI

hmm. seen it. but w/o going into more details, the notification would offer options to dismiss the message. The options are: remind later, learn more, or don’t remind again.so, seems harmless..

[exile360]

Yeah, it's not so much about the options as much as it is that they keep doing it.  This will mark at least the 4th or 5th time Microsoft has tried to scare/force users into upgrading to Windows 10, and each time it is handled in an increasingly intrusive way, this time finally displaying a fullscreen notification that prevents the user from using their system until they dismiss it.  Of course it was also pretty bad when they were pushing Windows 10 out as an update through Windows Update, especially when it was marked as an optional update yet pre-checked for installation (something only important updates are supposed to have so that optional updates are not installed automatically without user intervention) meaning many Windows 7 and 8/8.1 users ended up installing Windows 10 without even realizing it, thinking they were just installing normal Windows Updates for their PCs.  It's the same as when Windows Update detects that your system has a CPU that is 'too new' to be supported under Windows 7 and refuses to install updates because of it (something that can easily be bypassed thanks to a handy free tool called wufuc) because they arbitrarily decided that anyone with hardware newer than a certain point must be using Windows 10 (even though functionally at a low level there is no difference between 7th gen and newer Intel CPUs and chipsets compared to their older gen counterparts so there is no technical reason why current gen hardware shouldn't be fully capable of running Windows 7 or even XP as they are all x86-64 CPUs using the same instruction sets).

[sman]

MS methods do annoy but unless one has the options at hand to make them realise (like with Win phone), have to live with it..

It all boils to how far one is stuck in their stranglehold to offer any fight..

Decision left to user's only, whether to go along or move away.. and having put up with it this long, futile to expect that there will be any dramatic change now..

Have to wait & watch how the MS user community decides..

[exile360]

More good news:

 

Yeah, I'm definitely good sticking with Windows 7  

[yardbird]

  Saw this in a newsletter on Ghacks:

Windows 7: Microsoft Security Essentials will receive definition updates after support end:  https://www.ghacks.net/2019/12/19/windows-7-microsoft-security-essentials-will-receive-definition-updates-after-support-end/

[exile360]

Yeah, I was wondering how they were going to pull that off anyway since the signature/definitions used by all Microsoft's security products are the same (for Defender, MSE, Fortinet etc.) so I bet they figured out that they can't just kill MSE's ability to update without impacting all their other products as well, and while they could have disabled updating the defs through Windows Update, the internal updating mechanism in the application itself likely uses all the same API calls and servers as their other products and MSE users could always download the definitions installers from their website manually anyway and still get updates.

[Pierre75]

Read that article re MSE yesterday. One less nail in the coffin for Windows 7.  🤣🤣

[sman]

@exile360 One way DRM UWP is good but performance wise is the problem, but when this doesn't support earlier versions, how then Gamers will be able to Game w/o switching to Win 10??.. or is steam the answer? though I'm not a gamer, just curious..

And with steam dependant on security features of Windows , so the impact with Win10 vs older verions (with already XP, Vista users don't have access to newer features) source wiki.. 

Edited December 21, 2019 by sman

[exile360]

I don't know what 'security features' they're talking about in the Wiki; Steam is really just a front-end launcher and download client for games with its own game store built into it (that's the part that uses Chromium).  When they dropped support for XP and Vista there were very few users of those operating systems left.  Steam keeps track of the hardware and operating systems that their users are running so as long as they continue to see a large number of clients still running Windows 7 I'm sure they won't be dropping support for it, and as far as I know there have been no announcements about any plans to do so.  Currently Chrome/Chromium is the same on Windows 7 and Windows 10 so it makes no difference.  There is nothing about Windows 7 that would prevent it from running any games through steam except for DX12 exclusives which are rare (most DX12 titles actually also support either DX11, OpenGL, or Vulkan, all of which are fully supported on Windows 7).

[sman]

@exile360

Steam gamers warned of Windows 10 security risk

'https://www.techradar.com/news/steam-security-risk-gaming-windows-10-zero-day'

Privilege escalation vulnerability could allow attackers to install malware and steal data

Valve's popular PC gaming platform Steam is vulnerable to a hugely damaging zero-day security vulnerability, experts have warned.

According to new findings, around 72 million Windows users are at risk of having their systems taken over by an attacker who could then install malware, steal data, compromise passwords and more.

The vulnerability was disclosed by security researcher Vasily Kravets, who discovered a privilege escalation vulnerability which could allow an attacker with minimal user permissions to gain the same levels of access as the system admin.

Nvidia graphics cards found to be vulnerable to security flaw
These are the best Steam alternatives for PC gamers
Zero-day defenses are a good reason why you need the latest version of Windows 10

[sman]

@exile360 on Windows security features for Steam

Steam - Windows XP and Windows Vista Support

"https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1558-AFCM-4577"

Starting on January 1 2019, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. This means that after that date the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of Windows. In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows.

The newest features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows. In addition, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 7 and above.

For the remainder of 2018 Steam will continue to run and to launch games on Windows XP and Windows Vista, but other functionality in Steam will be somewhat limited. For example, new features such as the new Steam Chat will not be available. We encourage all users on these operating systems to upgrade to newer versions of Windows in order to have ongoing access to the latest features of Steam, and to ensure future access to all games and other Steam content.

[exile360]

Right, it's all related to Chromium, which has absolutely nothing to do with Windows 10.  I don't know how familiar you are with Chromium, but it isn't based on anything in Windows itself so patching Windows doesn't affect it or Steam one way or the other.  As for zero-days, there are just as many (if not more) that impact Windows 10.  There have been a laundry list of critical zero days, privilege escalation and remote code execution vulnerabilities that impact Windows 10 that don't even affect 7.  That said, there is also the concept of security through obscurity.  If most users are running Windows 10 (which they are at this point) then it would not be wise from a business/profit perspective to target Windows 7, and since the primary goal of anyone creating and/or distributing malware today is profit, they are very unlikely to target Windows 7 specifically.  It's the same reason that Chrome is now targeted much more frequently than Internet Explorer because there are now far more Chrome users than IE users.

[sman]

@exile360 The underlying OS is a factor with Chromium/Steam and it's impact overall. Intel/AMD don't support Win 7 anymore. So, how long can one go with an unsupported OS??

How To Get Ryzen Working on Windows 7 x64

"https://www.anandtech.com/show/11182/how-to-get-ryzen-working-on-windows-7-x64"

Officially, AMD does not support Ryzen CPUs on Windows 7. Given that Microsoft has essentially ended support for the OS, this is the type of response we expect from AMD – Intel has also stopped officially supporting Windows 7 on the newest platforms as well. 'Official' is a general term: some special customers may receive extended lifetime support, or drivers currently out in the ecosystem still work on the platforms. Official support refers to driver updates and perhaps security updates, but there’s nothing to stop you trying to install an OS to either system or platform.

For clarification, we did not converse with AMD in writing this piece. AMD's formal position on Windows 7 on Ryzen is that it is unsupported, and as a result this means they will not provide support around it. There may also be other methods to install an unsupported OS, however here are a few solutions.

[exile360]

I know all about all of this information.  It is a subject I have *thoroughly* researched.  I've spoken many times about the CPU/hardware chipset cutoff for Windows 7 and how Microsoft colluded with AMD and Intel, convincing them not to release chipset drivers for Windows 7 (even though fundamentally there is no difference with regards to hardware compatibility between Windows 7 and Windows 10; in fact many drivers designed only for Windows 10 will install and function perfectly in Windows 7 just by modifying the OS requirements in the manifest).

Windows 7 support was supposed to end with Intel's 7th generation (Kaby Lake, which is what I have; an i7-7700K), however since there exist drivers for the Z370 chipset for Windows 7 (drivers Intel provided against Microsoft's wishes, likely at the request of OEM's), you can actually get Windows 7 to install on Intel's 8th gen platform (Coffee Lake; i.e. the 8700K/8086K and lower) and even 9th gen (though the motherboard's chipset must be Z370; the newer Z390 platform is NOT supported) so in theory you could install Windows 7 on a Z370 system with Intel's latest i9-9900K/KS 8 core/16 thread CPU.

For graphics drivers, I don't know what kind of shape AMD is in these days (I don't think they provide Windows 7 drivers for their latest Navi GPUs), however Nvidia provides drivers for their entire RTX 20 series desktop graphics cards so in theory a person could install Windows 7 on a Z370 system with a 9900K/KS and a 2080Ti or even a Titan RTX (currently the most powerful graphics card in existence for gaming).

Eventually newer hardware will not be supported; Intel's 10th gen chips won't have Windows 7 drivers, and while there are ways to get Windows 7 installed on Ryzen, I doubt it would work on an X570 motherboard (though you could install it on an X470 motherboard and install a Ryzen 3000 series CPU since they are compatible with the older motherboards).

Either way it doesn't matter.  I have 7 and I'm sticking with it as long as I can.  Eventually I will have to decide what to do as either my system fails or becomes too obsolete to be useful, however that day is still quite a while away I'm sure (my specs are in my signature below if you click the spoiler tag to reveal them).  I have successfully kept all of my systems free of any malware for the past 15 years or more, including against countless unpatched 0-days that Microsoft and other vendors hadn't patched yet because I am cautious and I go way above and beyond standard security protocols in locking down my devices.  I worked for Malwarebytes as QA, was Product Manager for all of their products and have spent years studying PC security and privacy; in fact it is for this very reason that I refuse to run Windows 10 because the risk it poses to my privacy and the usability of my PC is far greater than any new vulnerabilities that might go unpatched in Windows 7 once Microsoft ends support for the OS and right now Linux is not a viable alternative because it still has far too many issues and compatibility problems.  Once I can no longer obtain new hardware to install Windows 7 on and my current device dies or is no longer fit for my purposes I will have to reassess the situation, but that is a long ways off I believe, especially since I purchased multiple extra Windows 7 licenses in preparation for the future (meaning if I had to buy a system off the shelf today and install Windows 7 on it to replace 10 I could as long as it has a compatible chipset; and of course I could always build my own system with off the shelf components as long as I select a compatible motherboard).

[sman]

@exile360 hmm. no doubt. you seem well equipped to push the limits.. but a newbie, non-techs will find find it difficult to stick with an unsupported OS and rather go with the flow and ultimately Win 10 will be embraced by many users of older versions and I would rather stick with nix..

Edited December 21, 2019 by sman

[exile360]

Of course.  I don't expect most users to stay with Windows 7.  It wouldn't be viable.  Not only due to security, but also because of the future compatibility issues they are going to have as third party software vendors gradually drop support for the aging OS.  It likely won't happen as quickly as it did for XP only because there is virtually no difference between Windows 10 and Windows 7 when it comes to application compatibility (aside from DX12 for the games that use it of course and don't also offer alternative options like DX11, Vulkan or OpenGL).