In this case, I've heard many people recommend VxKex, which seems to be an extended kernel of some sorts.
However, the general consensus seems to be mixed between VxKex by i486 and VxKex-NEXT by YuZhouRen86.
Being unsure, I put them in VirusTotal, the results were 30/66 for VxKex (i486), and 43/68 for VxKex-NEXT (YuZhouRen86).
After that, I went to the Behavior section, and both had:
- Image File Execution Options Injection (If I recall correctly, this had to do with the kernel hooking.)
- Registry Modification (I'd say this is expected behaviour for an extended kernel.)
- Input Capture (I recall this had something to do with the pointer input history thing from Windows 8 and later)
- Process Injection (Expected)
- All the Discovery techniques (Process Discovery, File and Directory Discovery etc.)

But, after these, there are 3 (well, 4, but I'll get to that a tad later) that I didn't quite understand:
- Data Destruction
- Data Encrypted for Impact
- File and Directory Permissions Modification

I do not know much about why extended kernel would need those, although they might as well just be benign.

However, the fourth one I just told you about was unique to VxKex-NEXT, which was:
- Virtualisation/Sandbox Evasion
Why exactly would an extended kernel have to know whether it's in a sandboxed environment or not? Or is this perhaps a false positive on VirusTotal's (and its scanners') part?

I also decided to check out the hashes of these two files on Threat.Rip, and the results came out as VxKex (i486) having a score of 71/100, and VxKex-NEXT (YuZhouRen86) having a score of 100/100!
The biggest red flag here seems to be how VxKex-NEXT tried to do Privilege Escalation.

I'm no expert at this, as I'm just a paranoid Windows 7 user trying to stay safe hehe!
So if you have experience in data and heuristics analysis, then please let me know your thoughts.
Have a good day!

VxKex (i486):
Download Link: https://github.com/i486/VxKex/releases/download/Version1.1.5.1679/KexSetup_Release_1_1_5_1679.exe
VirusTotal: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/a4c9af98ca721a82e8470ab5f81fcfb2bda74fcbc36bdfbea8854934ad3f0420
Threat.Rip Link: https://www.threat.rip/file/a4c9af98ca721a82e8470ab5f81fcfb2bda74fcbc36bdfbea8854934ad3f0420

VxKex-NEXT:
Download Link: https://github.com/YuZhouRen86/VxKex-NEXT/releases/download/1.1.4.2085/KexSetup_Release_1_1_4_2085.exe
VirusTotal Link: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/8985542047792393c391e63bf1d3cb50e2b199b084772d50057a5f7061d720a5/behavior
Threat.Rip Link: https://www.threat.rip/file/8985542047792393c391e63bf1d3cb50e2b199b084772d50057a5f7061d720a5

A quick post to probe for anyone who has experienced on this odd issue.

I acquired a free old laptop without HDD and installed a modded Windows 7 Ultimate image for quick test (SevenL1te)..

I used 'latest' librefox for Win7 (fork of firefox last update 2023). No problems,

But some other software didnt work on this OS config.

So I re-install Win 7 Home Premium SP1 using official DVD.

Problem:
Now librefox, news links + using search or URL bar, Miss rate is 50% :
No error shown - blank page with Endless loading icon on the active tab (or new tab). . I open many new tabs and retry then it finally connects to resource.
It has to be new tab to work,

Problem is OS specific - no such problem on other "SevenL1te" install.
 

Likely important updates missing but connection is 4g crap.

Any ideas? what network related standalone update packages are recommended for Baseline W7 install?
(FYI latest .net is installed)
(no other browser does it, Opera 95, old Serpent / firefox)
(tried different wifi adapter)

PS I expect generic "OS to Old / unsupported" response if I post this on librefox forum
Thanks!

What are the last versions of CUDA and NVidia driver that still work with Windows 7? I mean the versions that do not officially support it but still work if you install them manually.

(Sorry if this has already been asked but I cant find this information anywhere.)

Right now I am using CUDA 11.7, and the 473.62 driver because it's the last one being signed and I never managed to have a non-signed driver work. My problem is that these versions are becoming too prehistoric, the recent versions of Forge Neo (Stable Diffusion) don't work with CUDA 11.7 anymore. Can't more recent versions of CUDA and driver be installed manually? I remember reading somewhere that CUDA 12 actually works, and even CUDA 13 may partially work.

Thanks.

O/S Windows 7 Home 32-bit

 So i bough some cheap 5 Gbit card with Realtek chip - RTL8126 , i expected problems - no existing drivers with Window XP, but i was suprised that i cant find even Windows 7 driver, especially 32 bit. 

  I downloded drivers, from realtek site https://www.realtek.com/Download/List?cate_id=584 thre are listed XP / Win 7 / Win 10 / Win 11 drivers, but when you actually check inf files for Windows 7 there is max 2.5 Gbit chip listed -  RTL8125, i have tried to install to install 2.5 Gbit driver in WIndows 7 but driver its installed without exclamation mark in Device manager, but NIC is unable to negotiate network connection.

   So question are there such official or unofficial drivers?
  Yes i how there cards with Intel Chip (520/540) - even 10 Gbit, but they need long PCI-E slots.. I did not tried to place them to short slot, maybe they will work there at slower speed.. they are PCI-E v2 - if im not wrong.. so 512 MB/s max, yeah that is still better than 120 MB/s.

First, a question about the taskbar. I pinned the CMD to it, with the idea I can easily launch an elevated prompt from there. But if I right click, I get a menu that has CMD and then Unpin this program. So then I have to right-click on the CMD in that menu to run as Administrator. Is it possible to add Run As Administrator into that menu so I don't have to click twice?

Second, I use a dual display (extended) setup. If I lock the workstation (Windows + L) the lock message only shows up on the primary monitor, and the secondary monitor turns black. The second monitor does not go into power save either, as the light is still green. In other versions of Windows, if you have 2 screens and lock the workstation, the second monitor would stay active and you would see the wallpaper or whatever on there. Is there a setting that lets me do this? My computer has a Radeon X1800 and has the CCC installed.

And lastly, when I open some programs (like Fireworks MX 2004 demo) the Aero turns off. I am guessing that program does not support Aero, but is there a way to not use Aero on that app and keep it on everywhere else?

That's it for now.

Just two days ago I discovered that there was an older TinyWall version that did work with Win 7.

https://tinywall.pados.hu/ 

TinyWall is a lightweight, user-friendly, and secure firewall for Windows. It is also completely free.

Under FAQ:

The latest version of TinyWall runs on Intel- or AMD-based Windows 11 / 10.
An older version, TinyWall 3.2.5, also supports Windows 8.1 / 8 / 7.

Just asking if anyone is using TinyWall 3.2.5 on their Win 7 setup and if you have any comments, good or bad?

Thanks ...

1. (X:) Win-XP: System, Primary Partition
2. Extended Partition:
    (D:) Data: Logical drive
    (C:) Win7: Startpartition, Logical drive
    (F:) Free: Logical drive
3. Active Primary Linux (ext4) Partition

The BCD resides in X:\boot\. As usual in my setup, there is no additional 100MB System Partition on the disk.
This setup works perfectly on several disks.

Now, yesterday after the backup, i booted successfully in all the three OS'es consecutively (for some configuration tasks):
into Linux, then in Win-XP and finally into Win 7. Everything fine.

Then, by chance, i opened the Visual BCD Editor - but it didn't start: "Run Applicatin with Admin privileges" error message.
Just like described here.
Though, it is possible to start Visual BCD Editor with  "X:\boot\BCD"  as argument  from the commandline - but it can't Backup/Save it then.

There is no Registry Hive  HKLM\BCD00000000  in the registry  (See here).

However, it's possible to mount the BCD (from the Win-XP primary partition X:) with
reg load HKLM\BCD00000000 X:\boot\BCD
But that doesn't change anything for (Visual) BCDedit:

bcdedit /enum BOOTMGR
The Memory for the Startconfiguration couldn't be opened
The System can't find the specified file

bcdedit /enum OSLOADER
The Memory for the Startconfiguration couldn't be opened
The System can't find the specified file

What strange kind of amnesia is this: Win-7 can (dual-) boot perfectly, but it lost the information, where the BCD is?
Where does it believe that the BCD is?
And, more importantly: how can i tell him, that it's in X:\boot?

Edit: Please don't bother!

After cloning the first (X:) Win-XP partition, i forgot to remove the existing X:\Boot folder. So Win7, while installing, obviously was aware of another Windows on the System. After deleting the existing X:\Boot folder, a fresh installation went flawlessly...

I'm mainly using Mac OS nowadays, but I still maintain a Windows 7 VM, and I have a Dell OptiPlex 7050 running Windows 7 Professional that I use for playlist automation (I run a small, unlicensed AM radio station;  the neat part is that it's not illegal:  look up Title 47, CFR Part 15, Subsection C, § 15.219 of the FCC rules).

So, despite it being over 16 years old now and EOS since 2020, it's still perfectly usable and secure enough to at least get done what I'm trying to do, as you can see here:

I had an earlier version of this running on XP, but unfortunately, it got too old to run the versions of the above apps I wanted (clockwise from top left: Butt, PlayIt! Live, Stereo Tool).  7 is still in that sweet spot where current versions of these things are still supported, so I'm going to use it while I still can (that said, I'm planning for an eventual upgrade to (ugh!) Windows 10 because, unfortunately, the fun doesn't last forever, and there's no Mac or Linux version of PlayIt! Live).

Here's to keeping Windows 7 alive, one PC at a time!

c

There are four categories, the first is: Windows 10+ only, the second is: Windows 8+ only, the third is: Requires modification to work on Windows 7, and the fourth is: Unofficially works on Windows 7.

There's likely plenty more software that isn't listed here, so let me know if any Windows 8+ only software gets any mods that lets it work on 7, or any new 8+ or only officially supports 8+ software comes out.

Windows 10+ only:

Games:

• Assassin's Creed Valhalla
• Death Stranding (DirectX 12 only, missing a few APIs, and has an OS block)
• Forza Horizon 4 (UWP)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (Same as Death Stranding, but has no OS block, or at least a older patch doesn't)
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Minecraft Bedrock (UWP)
• Sea of Thieves (Matchmaking backend comes from Microsoft Store)
• Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind

Other:

• Facebook Messenger app
• iTunes
• Microsoft Office 2019 (Unofficially works on 8.x)
• NVIDIA Broadcast
• Oculus Setup/App
• Presonus StudioOne v5 (Might unofficially work on 7/8, but untested)

Windows 8+ only:

Game clients:

EA Desktop Beta (Requires a 8.x dll, also,  the installer has a block that blocks anything under 8.1, and application verifier does not work)

Other:

Kingston SSD Manager

Requires modification to work on Windows 7:

Games:

• Crysis Remastered (You should probably play this with DXVK. This happens without DXVK)
• Back 4 Blood Alpha (Requires xinput1_3.dll from C:\Windows\System32 to be copied into the same folder as the game .exe and renamed xinput1_4.dll)
• Mafia: Definitive Edition (Requires DXVK to run. More info here)
• Mafia II: Definitive Edition (Requires xinput1_3.dll from C:\Windows\System32 to be copied into the same folder as the game .exe and renamed xinput1_4.dll)
• Need For Speed Heat (Requires modifying the Origin launcher)
• Postal 4: No Regerts (Unreal Engine bug. It requires a fix that the developers of the game posted)
• Star Wars™: Squadrons (Same fix as Postal 4)
• System Shock Remastered (Same fix as Postal 4)

Other:

• Discord (Intentionally breaks screenshare audio on anything below 10, fixed by using a browser or application verifier)
• Python 3.9.0 (https://msfn.org/board/topic/181979-another-program-drop-the-support-python-390/?tab=comments#comment-1189117)
• VMware Workstation 16 (Requires a custom installer and replacing vmware-vmx.exe)

Unofficially works on Windows 7:

Game clients:

GOG Galaxy 2.0 (1.2 is superior and supports 7 officially)

Games:

• Anthem
• Battlefield 4 (Says it requires Windows 8 on Steam, likely a mistake as Battlefield 3, 1, and V all officially support Windows 7. Though Windows 8.x is known to perform better than 7 in game, so that might be why)
• Boneworks
• Command & Conquer™ Remastered Collection
• Crusader Kings III
• Death end re;Quest 2
• Destroy All Humans! (Minimum OS is listed as 10, but in additional notes, it says it supports Windows 7 and 8.1. These guys forgot what minimum requirements mean)
• Detroit: Become Human (Is a Vulkan game, but Windows 10?. People say it actually works better on 7 than on 10)
• Disintegration (Was patched to fix issues with Windows 7, but minimum requirements still say Windows 10)
• Doom 64
• Empire of Sin
• Fall Guys
• Madden NFL 21
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered
• Persona 4 Golden
• Phantasy Star Online 2 (According to Steam, it's DirectX 9.0c, but Windows 10+?)
• ReCore: Definitive Edition
• Rust (Game that used to support Windows XP, DirectX 9, DirectX 11, OpenGL, and Vulkan in early access, but now "requires" Windows 8.1 and only supports DirectX 11 and 12)
• State of Decay 2
• Trials of Mana
• Watch Dogs: Legion

Other:

• .NET Framework 4.8.1 
• Anki
• Audacity 
• Blender 3
• Calibre 6.0+
• CorelDraw 2021
• Cryptomator v1.6.x
• Dolphin v16393+
• EA Desktop
• EasyBCD 2.4
• Firefox latest
• Google Drive
• iTunes 12.11 
• iZotope RX 10
• Kingston SSD Manager
• Kodi 21
• Microsoft Teams
• Mindview 8
• MKVToolNix 67
• MotionController0669
• Mozilla VPN
• MySQL 
• MySQL Workbench 8
• OBS
• OneDrive
• OneNote app
• OpenExpert
• Paintnet 5.0+
• PCSX2
• PerfectDisk
• Photoshop 2023
• Presonus StudioOne v5
• Process Monitor
• Python 3.9+
• QMMP version 2
• Rebelle 5
• Steam
• TCPView 4.x x64
• Ubisoft Connect
• Vidcoder 7 
• Visual Studio Code
• vmware player 16
• VQProbe
• Windows Mixed Reality
• Xbox App
• Yuzu emu EA-2686+
• ZBrush

A blue-screen crash has been happening more and more often over the past year.  A few months ago I swapped out it's 4 gb of ram for new 16 gb.

It happened again this morning.  It takes a few minutes to reboot after these crashes, it sits there with black screen, mouse pointer only, while the drive is doing something.

I looked at event logs, I see this:

Session "ReadyBoot" stopped due to the following error: 0xC0000188

The maximum file size for session "ReadyBoot" has been reached. As a result, events might be lost (not logged) to file "C:\Windows\Prefetch\ReadyBoot\ReadyBoot.etl". The maximum files size is currently set to 20971520 bytes.

I have no idea what this readyboot thing is.  It may not be causing the crash, but is it causing the long start-up?

Can I configure this readyboot, optimize it or maybe eliminate it if it's not doing anything useful?

NOTE: These are not modified Microsoft binaries, these are different binaries that just implement more functions their what would normally be on Windows 7. 

Link: https://github.com/vxiiduu/VxKex

Latest Version: 0.0.0.2

I've tried to install Minecraft with an unofficial launcher and multiple versions of java (21 and later) without any success. In my case, Minecraft hangs after downloading. The launcher freezes upon accessing Japanese fonts, it claims.

Has anyone tried running the game on Windows 7 in 2025 with an Intel HD 4000? My OpenGL version is too old.

Second System is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.0, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11 (pre24H2)

Second System can be found on win32's Patreon site | supporting his amazing work is possible there

Access to the Second System is available only to paid subscribers of the Supermium support on patreon, but the Second System itself is DRM-free

The list uses the following format: ProgramName version : Originally works on -> Second System unlocks it for

Current version - At the time of testing the aforementioned version was the latest, so newer ones are likely to work too.

Feel free to report other programs.

Internet:

Web Browsers:

Firefox 143 Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (Including Tor Browser and forks)

Chromium 142 Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (Including Google Chrome and other forks)

Communication Platforms:

Signal Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+

Other :

Mozilla Thunderbird 140 Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+

QBitTorrent 5.1.2 Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (On Windows Vista, 7, 8.0 requires D3D11 Enhancement Pack)

RCloneView Current version : Win10+ -> Win7+

FreeDownloadManager Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (requires ICU dlls from Windows 10)

Windows Basic Tools:

Windows 7 Paint (Win7/VistaExK)+ -> Vista+

Windows 10 1507 Snipping Tool (Win7/VistaExK)+ -> Vista+ (https://msfn.org/board/topic/182001-porting-snipping-tool-to-windows-7-from-windows-10/?do=findComment&comment=1210733)

Multimedia:

Foobar2000 2.51.1 Current version : Win7+ -> Vista+ (Except flac playback on Vista, use older version for that, new encoders still work fine with older foobar releases)

WACUP 1.99

MP3Tag 3.31a Current version : (Win7/VistaExK)+ -> Vista+

KDEnlive 25.08.2 Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (On Windows Vista, 7, 8.0 requires D3D11 Enhancement Pack)

Adobe Photoshop 2025 Current version : Win10+ -> Win8.1+

Office tools:

LibreOffice 25.2.5.2 : Win7+ -> Vista+

Administrative tools:

Sysinternals Process Explorer 17.06 Current version : Win7+ -> Vista+

Sysinternels TCPView 4.19 Current version : (Win7/VistaExK)+ -> Vista+

Gpg4Win 4.4.1 with Kleopatra 3.30 Current version : Win7+ -> Vista+

Developer Tools:

PowerShell 7.5.3 Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (note: uses like 5GB of RAM)

Visual Studio Code 1.104.16282 Current version Win10+ -> Vista+ (including the open-source variant - VSCodium)

Gaming:

Steam October2025 Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (Doesn't work with new NVIDIA drivers on Vista, they tell the OS and Steamthat they support Vulkan, while in fact they don't.  if you're facing other rendering issues try disabling GPU acceleration by going into the client settings -> interface)

Stellaris Current version (needs --force-opengl in the shortcut path)

BeamNG Drive Current version (dx11 recommended)

Hollow Knight Silksong Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (With CFF explorer edit UnityPlayer.dll and replace all did12on11 function calls to d3d11.dll with D3D11CreateDevice function, launch the game, if you get black screen, ctrl-alt-delete and go back to the game and it should work)

Geometry Dash Current version : Win8.1+ -> Vista+ (but on vista u need to put xinput1_3.dll into folder with game and rename it to xinput1_4.dll, also needs 2015-2022 vs redist)

All the credits for the Second System go to @win32, not me.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification purposes only.

External Links:

win32's Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/win32

I did not know Windows 10 is not designed to upgrade from Windows 7 in multiboot enviroment. Still, upgrade seems to be the only way to retain the same drive letter assignments used in all installed systems. The multiboot solution grew from Windows 9x to Windows 2000, XP, 7 x32, and finaly 7 x64, while loosing Windows 9x and 2000 on the way.

Now the question is, is it possible to regain ability to boot Windows XP and Windows 7 x32.

Or perhaps I have to revert to old XP, 7 x32 and 7 x64 layout, and then to add Windows 10 as fourth option. If it is possible to launch Windows 10 setup from Windows 7 x64 it could be possible to retain drive letter assignments used in old Windows 7 x64.

--------------------

The boot menu seems to be working, fine. But both Windows 7 x32 and XP are hanging during the boot.

The BCD database seems to be different just for Windows 10 entry. The Windows 7 x32 and XP records are exactly the same, as they were before upgrade to Windows 10.

--------------------

For some reason everything started to work correctly. Not sure where the cause was. I did change the boot menu from GUI to text mode i the process. Perhaps it made the difference.

I have Office 2000 installed on this PC (I don't think the Excel version matters, but anyways...) and I've just tried to drag a log file over to an open Excel spreadsheet and the minute the mouse is over the sheet area the icon turns into a red circle with a line through it, indicating it doesn't like being there I guess.  If I drag the file to the Excel title bar area it doesn't turn into a red circle, it turns into a little plus (+) symbol but releasing the mouse there does nothing - excel doesn't open the file.

Now if I use a program like the file-finding program "Everything", if I drag the same file from the Everything window over to excel, the file opens into the spreadsheet as expected.

Does anyone have an explanation for this?  Or a solution?

So how to disable, nuke, remove Windows Resource Protection ?

The old solution was to get the notification through PC Speaker. It worked well in Windows XP and later Windows 7, while using POP Tray and later POP Peeper applications. To read GMail originated messages the Thunderbird was used. In case of mails from different server it was enough to read the header, and then just delete it. As, they are just notification of events like power failures and such.

POP Tray went useless, after GMail forced OAuth2 authentication procedure.

POP Peeper is unable to select the audio output. So, it worked well with the beepxp driver, generating system error beep through PC Speaker. But, failed to do the same on HP z220 CMT computer. For some reason I was unable to get the PC Speaker function on z220, while it worked perfectly on HP z210 CMT.

So, here you have it. Now, I'm looking for an E-Mail notifier with.

- ability to generate audible notification on audio output different from the default one on Windows 7 x64.

- ability to use OAuth2 authenication

- multiple E-Mail account support, and ability to view headers and delete mails without running a full blown E-Mail client.

- visible seconds on E-Mail list. The POP Peeper was unable to display seconds on the list of new mails. I'm using internal E-Mail server to monitor events on multiple devices. Somtimes it is difficult to get the sequence of events, if the seconds are not visible.

- it would be perfect if the apllication is free (with commercial use included).

11 Free Tools To Disable and Stop Windows from Spying and Tracking You

https://www.geckoandfly.com/25083/free-tools-disable-stop-windows-spying-tracking-you/

Number 2 on the list is a tool called Blackbird ... Blackbird v6 (64bit). It works on Windows 7 as well as higher, they do also list Vista. Nice write-up about it here and other places. It will make a backup before removing anything. I also have my own backup on a flash drive before using it.

It seemed to work really good and appears to be safe to use and run. MajorGeeks has it listed to work on Windows 11|10|8|7 but I can't be sure how accurate that information is. Just wondering about any thoughts on Blackbird? It seems to be really safe to use. I used it almost two weeks ago before I posted about it here and have not noticed any problems.

It does remove a lot of items and all the items changed or removed are posted. Information from the link above does not list it working on Windows 11 as MajorGeeks does. I put their information below:

Blocks Telemetry Completely – Block Windows spyware, on both the application and network level, without editing the HOSTS file or firewall settings and remove all Windows telemetry updates. Supports Wireless and Ethernet connections, IPv4/IPv6.

Removes Windows Ads – Remove all Windows built-in advertising and any pre-installed app you want. Stop your PC from downloading and installing sponsored software in the background.

Restores Privacy – Prevent diagnostic data, passwords, contacts, URL, SMS, handwriting, location, and P2P-update sharing. Remove all unique ID tracking tokens. Disable 60+ data collection tasks and consequently speed up your PC.

Portable, Restorable, Flexible – No installation, with a focus on leaving the smallest possible footprint, Blackbird is a single, portable exe with granular switches available. Want to restore everything back? They got you covered. Works on Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10 (Home/Pro/Ent/Edu)

How Blackbird Works

Without going into too much detail, Blackbird employs some known and less-known techniques to fully disarm Windows while leaving the smallest possible footprint.

For instance, Blackbird does not edit the HOSTS file in any way, nor does it mess with your firewall settings. It does not run in the background, instead relying on persistent routes and resolving hostnames to IP addresses each time Blackbird is applied by the user.

After usage no new files are left behind on your computer and you can safely delete blackbird.exe. Blackbird has succeded when you forget it was ever there. Everything our software does can be restored using the software itself or manually by hand.  

*Dev.notice: Please don't do this manually, it will take forever and is confusing.

There are other tools that claim to block Windows spying but they are cumbersome to use and not as powerful or are limited in scope. So we took Windows apart, piece by piece, analyzed web traffic, system calls, file changes, etc, compared different configurations, designed and built a stand-alone tool and spent hundreds of hours on beta testing so anyone can use it and it gets the job done right.

 What Blackbird Does

    > Disables OneDrive
    > Disables Cortana
    > Disables Bing-integration
    > Disables all AutoLoggers
    > Disables Wi-Fi Sense
    > Disables system-wide telemetry (on all editions of Windows 10 and older)
    > Disables all OS advertising (tips, pop-ups, suggested apps, etc.)
    > Disables all Xbox Live services
    > Disables web content evaluation ("SmartScreen") and prevents URL check-in
    > Disables Windows Media online DRM
    > Disables Windows P2P Update sharing
    > Disables hidden Windows metric startup tasks
    > Disables all diagnostic tracking services
    > Disables all application metric-data collection agents
    > Prevents system read access to already collected diagnostic data
    > Prevents any location/contacts/messages/handwritting/password sharing
    > Prevents cross-device synchronization (ie; Windows Phone auto-syncing with PC
      account data)
    > Removes GWX and Windows 10 upgrade pop-ups
    > Removes Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA)
    > Removes your unique ad-tracking ID token
    > Removes a bunch of Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 telemetry updates (View full list here)
    > Removes Superfish, eDellRoot, HP Touchpoint Analytics, VisualDiscovery and other
      security risks
    > Removes all pre-install Windows 10 Upgrade files/folders on Windows 7, 8, 8.1
    > Blocks 500+ different tracking/telemetry/ad servers (View full list here)
    > Patches various data leaks (IE/Edge, Explorer, Defender, MRT, SMB)
    > Applies various network tweaks (enables RSS,ctcp,tcp-offload,ECN)

INCLUDES:

    > Blackbird App Manager (Windows 10 only) : Block any system application the easy &
      user-friendly way.
    > Blackbird STD : Force removal of stubborn spy tasks.
    > Backup & Restore : Save current system settings to an external file restorable at
      any time.
      
Try Blackbird Windows Privacy and Security ... Blackbird is THE BEST!

*** I also found a 'ready to use' script at this link discussion.

Remove ALL telemetry updates from Windows 7 & 8 and 8.1

https://windowsforum.com/threads/remove-all-telemetry-updates-from-windows-7-8-and-8-1.228360/

 ... there is a list of items removed and at the bottom is a link to get the script ready to download and use. I also ran this script after running Blackbird and so far everything seems to be OK on my computer.

I'm many years late getting involved with Windows 7 but with Windows XP ... which I still like, the web pages are really becoming a problem with daily use. It can be OK with Javascript disabled but I'm sure it will only get worse and not better with XP.

So maybe there are others here that can use these tools and script on Windows 7. I'm sure it's not 100% but it has to be better than what I had before after running Blackbird and the script download.

...

I boot a PC from this pendrive in pure UEFI mode (CSM disabled) and I have such a screen defect - photos taken with a digital camera:

And this is what the screen shot looks like with the Print Screen key and pasted to the Paint and saved to .png file:

And now an interesting thing!

If I replace the sources\boot.wim file with KB3AIK_PL.iso\WinPE.cab\F3_WINPE.WIM and rename to boot.wim, there is no screen defect  :

The boot.wim file from KBAIK is based on Win7 SP0 but I also built Win7 PE SP0 and there is the same problem.

The same graphic driver is used in both boot.wim files: vga.sys 5.2.3790.1830 (VgaSave service)

boot.wim from Win7 PE - screen defect
boot.wim from KBAIK - screen OK

Why? What could be the reason?