For Freeware / Shareware / Open Source ONG / UNS - Not officially supported on 7, but still works /Paid/Closing Soure CS

FREE, CS Anki

FREE, CS ONG Audacity

FREE, CS ONG Brave

FREE, OS Blender 3 https://blender.en.uptodown.com/windows

FREE, CS Calibre 6.0+ https://web.archive.org/web/20221101170016/https://www.calibre-ebook.com/download_windows

$$$, FREE, CS CorelDraw 2021

FREE, CS Cryptomator v1.6.x

FREE, CS Dolphin v16393+

FREE, CS ONG Epic Browser

FREE, CS ONG Emoticon

FREE, OS ONG Gimp

FREE, CS UNS EA Desktop

$$$, FREE, CS EasyBCD 2.4 https://web.archive.org/web/20221101174524/https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

FREE, CS ONG Firefox latest

FREE, CS ONG FileZilla

FREE, CS ONG Google Chrome

FREE, CS Google Drive

FREE, CS ONG MediBang Paint

Software:
FREE, OS HandBrake 1.5

FREE, OS ONG Inkscape

FREE, OS ONG VLC Player

FREE, OS ONG Gom Player

FREE, OS ONG BS Player

FREE, OS ONG Zoom Player

FREE, OS ONG HD Tune

FREE, OS ONG Foobar2000

FREE, OS ONG MPC-HomeCinema

FREE, OS ONG Winamp

FREE, CS iTunes 12.11

FREE, CS ONG iZotope RX 10

FREE, CS ONG Kingston SSD Manager

FREE, CS Kodi 21

FREE, CS UNS Logitech G HUB  http://web.archive.org/web/20201215030218/https://download01.logi.com/web/ftp/pub/techsupport/gaming/lghub_installer.exe

FREE, CS ONG Microsoft Teams

FREE, OS ONG Krita

$$$, FREE, CS ONG Mindview 8

FREE, OS ONG ShareX

FREE, OS ONG FastStone Image Viewer

FREE, OS ONG IrfanView

FREE, OS ONG SumatraPDF

FREE, OS ONG Everything

$$$, FREE, CS ONG Malwarebytes

FREE, CS ONG Pidgin 

FREE, CS ONG Trillian

FREE, CS ONG Discord

FREE, CS ONG Zoom

FREE, CS ONG Telegram Desktop

FREE, CS ONG Whatsapp Desktop

FREE, CS ONG Thunderbird

FREE, CS ONG SeaMonkey

FREE, CS ONG Clip Studio Paint

FREE, CS ONG Artweaver

FREE, CS ONG Launchy

FREE, CS ONG WinDirStat

FREE, CS ONG TeamViewer 15

FREE, CS ONG ImgBurn

FREE, CS ONG TeraCopy

FREE, CS ONG RealVNC Server

FREE, CS ONG 7-Zip

FREE, CS ONG

FREE, CS ONG XnConvert 

FREE, CS ONG XnView

FREE, CS ONG XnResize

FREE, CS ONG XnRetro

FREE, CS ONG XnSketch

FREE, CS ONG Glary Utilities

FREE, CS ONG CDBurnerXP

$$$, CS ONG Revo Uninstaller Pro

FREE, CS ONG Revo Uninstaller

FREE, CS ONG Filmora X

FREE, CS ONG Filmora 12

FREE, CS ONG Classic Shell

FREE, CS ONG Open Shell

FREE, CS ONG qBittorrent

FREE, CS ONG uTorrent

FREE, CS ONG RealVNC Viewer

FREE, OS ONG Transmission

FREE, OS ONG Vuze

FREE, CS ONG WinRAR

FREE, OS ONG NV Access

FREE, OS ONG KDevelop

FREE, OS ONG Calligra

FREE, OS ONG Kate

FREE, OS ONG KStars

FREE, OS ONG Freemake Video Converter

FREE, CS ONG Freemake Video Downloader

FREE, CS UNS DVD Shrink

FREE, CS ONG Avira Antivirus

FREE, CS UNS MediaCoder With For REShade

FREE, CS ONG CCleaner

FREE, CS ONG Foxit PDF Reader

FREE, CS ONG KMPlayer

FREE, CS ONG PotPlayer

FREE, CS ONG PowerDVD

FREE, CS ONG Lightworks

FREE, CS ONG VSDC Free Video Editor

FREE, CS ONG Shotcut

FREE, OS ONG OpenShot

FREE, OS ONG Filelight

FREE, OS MakeMKV'

FREE, OS ONG Kdenlive

FREE, OS ONG Okular

FREE, OS ONG LabPlot

FREE, OS ONG GCompris

FREE, OS ONG Marble Virtual Globe

FREE, CS ONG Bittorrent

FREE, CS ONG Skype

FREE, OS ONG AIMP

FREE, CS ONG PhotoFiltre

FREE, CS MKVToolNix 67

FREE, CS MotionController0669

FREE, CS Mozilla VPN

$$$, FREE, CS MySQL

$$$, FREE, CS MySQL Workbench 8

FREE, CS Node.js

FREE, OS OBS

FREE, CS OneDrive

FREE, CS UNS OneNote app

FREE, CS ONG MediaMonkey

FREE, CS ONG Hamachi

FREE, OS ONG CamStudio

FREE, CS ONG OpenExpert

FREE, CS ONG MyPaint

FREE, OS ONG LibreOffice

FREE, OS ONG Microsoft Office

FREE, OS ONG LibreOffice

FREE, OS ONG Softmaker

FREE, CS ONG NeoPaint https://neopaint.en.softonic.com/

FREE, CS UNS Paintnet 5.0+ https://web.archive.org/web/20221030120001/https://www.getpaint.net/

FREE, OS ONG Pixia http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mighty/knight/download.html

FREE, CS ONG PCSX2

$$$, FREE, CS ONG PerfectDisk

$$$, FREE, CS UNS Photoshop 2023

$$$, FREE, CS Presonus StudioOne v5

FREE, CS Process Monitor https://download.sysinternals.com/files/ProcessMonitor.zip

FREE, CS Python 3.9+

FREE, CS QMMP version 2

FREE, OS ONG Rebelle 5

FREE, CS ONG Steam

FREE, OS ONG Scratch

FREE, CS TCPView 4.x x64

FREE, CS ONG ubisoft Connect

FREE, CS Vidcoder 7

FREE, CS Visual Studio Code

$$$, FREE, CS Vegas Pro 20 https://web.archive.org/web/20221031012801/https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/vegas-pro/

$$$, FREE, CS UNS vmware player 16

FREE, OS ONG Vxkex

$$$, FREE, CS ONG VQProbe

FREE, CS Windows Mixed Reality

FREE, CS Xbox App

FREE, CS Yuzu emu EA-2686+

$$$, FREE, CS ZBrush

FREE, CS ONG ZoneAlarm Firewall

https://www.neowin.net/news/mozilla-wants-you-to-like-firefox-over-chrome-edge-with-extended-windows-7881-support/

I had some health issues and personal as well, so I only used my work pc that has windows 11. Now I finally was able to just sit down and enjoy my pc. I wanted to do a clean install, so I did. The thing is I quickly discovered, that a lot of things have changed.

Steam

Still works, but downloading pretty much anything ends up with download data is corrupted. Only thing that works is to download the game on windows 11 pc and transfer it over to windows 8.1. Annoyingly, windows 7 works thanks to vxkex next.

Firefox

I've personally seen on this forum that some of you were able to run the latest version of firefox, but I could not do it myself. Since the reinstall I wanted to switch to firefox mainly thanks to google's stupid decision about manifest v2. Can anyone guide me through running firefox on 8.1?

Beamng.Drive

@mjd79 was really kind at the start of this year and gave me his modified version of libcef.dll that made Beamng 0.35 working under 8.1, unfortunately, starting with 0.36 beamng executable itself is not working and I could not figure out why. This is the only game I still care about and I really enjoy it on Windows 8.1 (yes, I'm weird ). So if anyone here has knowledge about a possible fix, I'd even pay you.

Thanks for any help, so glad to finally do something that I really enjoy

-TOWF

Sphinx Windows 10 Firewall Control

Yes, it works with Win 8.1.  It has Win 10 in the name because I guess they feel the need for it to sound current.  I think it was originally called Windows Vista Firewall Control. 

It's effective.  Here's a review.

Background

A few weeks ago I decided I'd take more control of my system security. 

Over the years I had already made many system changes to enhance privacy and maximize security.  These involved:

• Deconfiguring all "participate in Customer Experience Improvement Program" settings.
   
• Using only a local account.
    
• De-installing software (e.g. OneDrive, Windows Store stuff, etc.), disabling services that intrude, disabling scheduled jobs that send data into Microsoft.
   
• Not running any Metro/Modern Apps.  I simply don't need 'em.
   
• Adding tens of thousands of lines to my "hosts" file to locally resolve server names known for providing badware and for snooping to 0.0.0.0 (i.e., to have network accesses to them by name fail).
   
• De-configuring Internet Explorer's ability to run ActiveX and let scripts run wild.
   
• De-configuring Windows Update from doing anything without my initiating it.

My goals are fairly simple

Allow anything initiated by me that I know needs to communicate online, while minimizing the risk of extra privacy-invading communications, and completely eliminating spurious communications not initiated by me.

I wasn't sure it was possible.  Would (my legitimately licensed) Windows 8.1 deactivate itself if it can't regularly contact the mothership?  Would Windows Update stop working?  Would the level of communications be so high that I would never be able to ferret-out what needs to be allowed and what needs to be blocked?

I'm here to say that the Sphinx software does allow enough control and management capability to accomplish these goals.  It does seem possible to shut the system the hell up and have it do only what *I* want!

Recent History

Unfortunately, looking over the amount network traffic my system was generating, I found it was still way too chatty.  Not like what we're hearing about Windows 10, mind you, but still WAY too promiscuous online.  Even Task Manager tallied up megabytes of data traffic overnight when I wasn't doing anything.  The dreaded telemetry?  Sending of my personal data to Microsoft to "help them make Windows better"?

I decided to see if it was possible to institute a "deny by default" outgoing firewall strategy that was 1) doable and 2) manageable long-term.

In another thread recently I outlined my initial attempts at this, which were somewhat successful but lacked the reporting and organizational capacity for me to be able to manage the process in an ongoing way.

Enter Sphinx.   Again, thanks to xpclient for the recommendation.

I started by evaluating the base edition in a VM.  Basically, download, install, and wonder what to do next - the standard stuff.

After a little while, looking over the package and reading the manual, the realization began to dawn how this firewall manager views the world: 

1.  It denies all communications by default.

2.  It defines Zones - basically groups of rules that accomplish something, such as "allow typical web browsing" or "allow LAN-only communications".

3.  It facilitates your defininition and management of a list of Programs.  Basically, an entry in this list says "let Program xxxxxxxx do what's in the Zone that's assigned to it". 

4.  It does NOT attempt to control anything you've already set up in the Windows Advanced Firewall.  It works completely separately, even though it uses the underlying security engine provided by Windows.

As an example, you might set up Internet Explorer to be in the WebBrowser zone, then make sure the WebBrowser zone allows only the communications you want web browsers to be able to do.

By crafty creation of Zones (and/or modification of the Zones provided, which are pretty good), one can build up a set of rules that allows what you define to be essential communications and nothing else.  The base version provides a few pre-defined Zones.  It turns out the more expensive editions have more (and more detailed) pre-defined zones.

The program pops up a notification if it spots a Program it doesn't already have an entry trying to communicate online.  THAT access was denied, but using the pop-up you can define a new Program entry, so you can allow the next one - if you want to.

Thus you can build up the list of Programs that try to do network access by doing the things you normally do, then make informed decisions about whether to allow them to communicate online.

The program also provides, besides the above pop-ups, a small one or two line status pop-up in the corner of the monitor that shows what's just happened, and an Events page where you can see a list of all networking activities attempted (blocked or allowed).  It's possible to get a pretty good feel for what's happening with this software.

Over time, just by using the system it becomes possible to build a list of just what you want to allow, and to either continue to log messages on the screen and in the Event log or hide the messages entirely from either place.

You can, for example, once you're confident in your WebBrowserZone settings, just hide the activity of your web browser from the Events tab and from popping up.  That way you can more easily concentrate on what's left.

I reduced the rule set in the Windows Advanced Firewall to nothing.  Only the Sphinx setup now governs my entire system.

Which edition

As I mentioned above, Initially I installed the base version.  However, after evaluating that variant in a VM and seeing what I could do with it, I chose to buy the "Plus" edition, and with that achieved a pretty good configuration in which very little was getting out.

But I craved more control and asked the author (on their forum) whether it's possible to get more granularity (e.g., WHICH service is trying to communicate?).  They noted that their "Network/Cloud" edition gives more control and allowed me to upgrade the license for an incremental price.

Since the Network/Cloud edition allows you to set up firewalls on your main system and 3 additional "slave" systems, I've decided to set up my whole stable of systems and VMs with this software.  At this point I've found a minor glitch with the control setup (adding "Agents") and they're working on a bugfix.

-Noel

Is it possible to make them actually utilize high refresh rate? or maybe make them 2x faster and increase their FPS that way?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/hardware/design/dn632436(v=vs.85)

It is worth noting that this page was originally located at the following web addresses:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn632436(v=vs.85).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn614620(v=vs.85).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463541.aspx
But it was not preserved in the Wayback Machine either.

There was a person downloading this file on Microsoft Q&A, but that's all I can find these days.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2690815/cant-install-mtp-driver-on-windows-8-1-n-pro?page=2#answers

As for the Windows 7 version with MTP 1.0 support, it is still available, which is oddly enough.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/hardware/design/dn614016(v=vs.85)

The only hope left is that someone also downloaded this file and subsequently saved it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I am aware that Mozilla is ending support for the legacy FF ESR v115.x browser for Win 7 / Win 8.x in Sep 2025 and that FF ESR v115.27.0 (rel. 19-Aug-2025) will be the last FF browser released by Mozilla for these older OSs.  I recommended they try r3dfox (a fork of modern Firefox) or Supermium (a fork of modern Chrome) but would appreciate knowing if someone has another suggestion for a supported browser that still runs on a Win 8.1 OS.

I also recommended Thunderbird ESR for an email client, but I have no idea if Mozilla as made any similar announcements about dropping support for Thunderbird in the near future for Win 7 / Win 8.x OSs, or if there are other email clients that still support Win 8.1.
-----------
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.6218 * Firefox v142.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.25070.5-1.1.25070.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.3.6.205-138.0.5346 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * MS Outlook 2019

If my system updates successfully, great.  I have unofficial support.  If not and my system barfs, then I'll return to the last restore point.  Then I'll decide if I stay with Windows 8, or go back to Windows Vista for another year (after all, my taxes will be done and I won't need any newer OS for another year.)

I'll keep you posted on what happens.  I may need to patch/edit the update.inf file somehow, but I'm not sure yet.  This will be the first time that a Windows NT 6x based OS runs out of support, to try this experiment, so I'm eager to see what happens.

Here's Greenhillmaniacs Repository of Server 2012 Patches that are Suitable for Windows 8

https://mega.nz/#F!ExhDEbDA!pUhzXKVp5-hgzvylW_btfQ

I've sold my rtx 3060 Ti cause it didn't support windows 8.1 and I was unable to make it work. I'm able to obtain rx 6700 xt. I've found very weird section in amd gpu drivers for windows 7. They include windows 8.1? What exactly is [ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.3.3] ??

8.1 nt kernel is only 6.3?

Thanks for any explanation

1. You must have installed Windows 8.1 (it can be both 32-bit and 64-bit), this workaround won't work on Windows 8.0 and earlier as of now

2. Have an extracted C2R copy of Office 2021 32-bit/64-bit (it must be Professional Plus and/or Visio Pro and/or Project Pro) handy

3. Install OfficeC2RExtender

4. Copy wotok_mdl.cmd to the root of Office 2021 C2R folder

5. Run wotok_mdl.cmd (no need to run as admin as it will ask for admin privileges itself)

6. Select option 3

7. Select default option

8. Select option 64 (if you have 64-bit copy) or 32 (if you have 32-bit copy)

9. Select option 2 (if present, if not, select option 1)

10. Select default option

11. Type "ProPlus2021Retail" (if you installing Professional Plus) or "VisioPro2021Retail" (if you installing Visio Pro) or "ProjectPro2021Retail" (if you installing Project Pro) P.S. The Volume variants are untested, so, I strongly recommend you to choose Retail ones

12. Select default option

13. Press "1"

14. Wait till it will be installed

15. And you should get this:

16. If you got this, then voila, you will get fully working Office 2021 (except for automatic updates, but that's not critical)

Office_C2R_Extender_W81.zip wotok_mdl.cmd

Gigabyte Aorus X7 Pro-SYNC NVIDIA Graphics Driver 9.18.13.4810 for Windows 8 64-bit

https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GRAPHICS-BOARD/NVIDIA/Gigabyte-Aorus-X7-Pro-SYNC-NVIDIA-Graphics-Driver-918134810-for-Windows-81-64-bit.shtml

Original manufacturer link (ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE)

348.10 Geforce

http://download.aorus.com/DownloadFile/nb-driver-x5-x7v3g-win8.1-64bit-vga-nv-9.18.13.4810.zip

Thanks.

I'm seriously shocked. I guess my downgrade to windows 10 will be sooner than I expected.

I got code 43 in device manager, nvidia said that my os is not supported. even modding the inf does nothing.

https://prnt.sc/w9aogb

Source: theverge.com/2022/6/24/23181347/microsoft-windows-8-1-end-of-support-notifications-pop-ups

It's been suggested that Win8 drivers will work in Win10 for Geforce 7 series cards. I have a Quadro FX 5500 (same Curie series, G71 chip as 7900 GTX) but the Win8 driver for Quadro Version:R304 U8 (309.08) does not QUITE work.  There is some blocks of display that show previous screens, transparent taskbar and other glitches (some icons disappear in my browser). I am wondering if those who claim the drivers work are using the Geforce drivers and wonder how I add my Quadro support to the Geforce driver and if anyone has knowledge of this issue?

Today, I broke rockstar launcher artificial block. Since I can't link you anything, you need to do the modification yourself. Get your hands on rockstar games launcher version 1-0-83 and install it. DO NOT open it! Make the folder read-only and restrict yourself and all Administrators from write permissions. Delete launcherpatcher.exe and run the launcher.exe, let it install socialclub and if for some reason it gets stuck on installing social club, just download the latest one and install it. We are not done, now you'll see an error complaining about missing dependencies. Download CEF explorer and locate social club folder. open socialclubhelper head into import directory and select user32.dll change adjustwindowrectexfordpi to adjustwindowrectex. and that's everything. To be able to play gta v for example, you need to locate playgtav.exe before the artificial block, even versions from 2020 works since the are just a stub.

https://prnt.sc/2Ucu5Np45BM5