Microsoft will no longer be supporting Windows 7 in 10 days (1/14)...

Microsoft will no longer be supporting Windows 7 in 10 days (1/14), I have seen articles like this from CNET that say people running windows 7 can upgrade to Windows 10 for free. https://www.cnet.com/how-to/upgrade-to-windows-10-free-heres-how/

Has anyone here done or considered doing this before support ends for Windows 7 and if you have is it an easy conversion to Windows 10?

 

I wish I could afford a Mac, as it must be nice to not need constant patching of your OS.

 

Did it a couple weeks ago. It works

 

How do files/pictures you have stored on the Windows 7 OS transfer to Windows 10? Would I need to back them up before downloading Windows 10, then after Window 10 is installed, transfer the files/pictures over?

 

I can't really answer that. Everything I wanted to save remained on my original ssd, I replaced the drive with a larger ssd, and did a fresh windows 7 install from my original media, then downloaded windows 10 installation files onto a flash drive. Installed from the flash drive with no issues. Finally I copied over everything I wanted to save from the original drive.

 

Thanks, before you sent this response I watched a YouTube video that answered my question and showed how surprisingly straight forward it is to install Windows 10.

The answer is yes, you have the option to save all programs/files from Windows 7 or option# 2 would be to do a fresh Window 10 install.

This video is helpful to anyone else like me with questions on the conversion from Windows 7 to 10, plus there are also ways to customize Windows 10 to look more like Windows 7 or even XP, which he shows you how to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdNL-pvvXH4

 

I switched all my windows 7 machines to linux. If it was really old i went with lubuntu (very very lightweight) or ubuntu for any beefier machines.

 

Did the same back in ‘08. Won’t own anything different

 

**UPDATE** ..I just installed Windows 10 using that YouTube video, if you have an older computer along with a slower broadband connection like me, be prepared for the approximate 8 hour+ download/install time. Where is my Apple Mac computer?

 

Beware - Win 7 to Win 10 on an old box is going to be dog slow and grow slower and slower.

 

I choose not to update. Worse case, if my computer takes a dump, I'll buy a new one.

 

Meh - Macs aren't all that. They call their laptops "pro" yet they only give you 4 usb C ports. You end up with in dongle hell, ask me how I know. And, when Apple makes a mistake, like the butterfly keyboard, they'll deny and double down on the mistake for years. Also Apple patches their OS on a regular basis and has a yearly version updates, which often break things. (don't even get me started on their lack of enterprise support. Too late - in an enterprise they require more support than PC because they basically give the finger to large organizations. The T2 security chip has us going back to manual, by hand software installs. )

The OP has gone to 10 which is a good thing. Version 8 was dog's breath terrible, but 10 has been solid for years.

credentials - Director of Tech Support for a very large organization.

 

Thank you for the correction and sharing your experience with Apple.

 

Windows 10 sucks so far at work.

 

I'd take a Mac. But they don't make any hardware I want and my 4 year old refurb latitude is still rocking. Maybe the new one with a proper keyboard will be good.

Windows 10 was pretty rough when it came out. It's gotten a lot better, but 7 will always be my favorite windows. No real choice but to upgrade now.

Overall, I'm very thankful for linux.

 

Windows 7 Pro user here. Windows 10 is Microsoft’s lame attempt at trying to be cool like Apple. I’ll wait until the last day to upgrade my machines...

 

At work I use a 13" MacBook Pro and at home I'm a PC guy. My home computer is speced out like a $3,000 MacBook and I paid around $1,400 for it. It has all the goodies like a decent keyboard, an HDMI port, USB A and C, a SD card reader, and wired Ethernet. On paper my PC is better than a Mac for less money, but I still prefer the MacBook Pro.

As a side hustle I do web hosting on the LAMP stack host and along with Esxi it is awesome. But, I've never had the patience to run it as my main OS. I find it to be a fiddly beast and for the foreseeable future I'd never recommend it for a "normal" user.

Most users use the computer for what it does and they don't want to putz around with the OS. Apple "gets" it, Microsoft doesn't and each new version comes with major changes to the way things are done. To be cool like Apple, Microsoft would have to leave the user interface alone for 20 years. A user from Mac OS X 10.0 could probably move to 10.15 with little to no training. The same cannot be said for a Windows ME user moving to Windows 10, or for that matter, moving from ME to XP required training. I know because I was the trainer on that upgrade.

However, thanks to Microsoft and Apple and their crappy software/hardware I've made a great career and pretty good money. So, it is my deepest hope that in the near future they totally mess with the user interface, yet again.