[how to speed up a 7200rpm harddrive?]

If you got big bucks you could get a 10,000 rpm commercial drive.

[Any news on the potential ESU extension until 2026?]

You can read this from July:

https://winaero.com/microsoft-intends-to-extend-paid-support-for-windows-7-until-2026/

I also know that the rollup updates for Win 7 and Server R2 have had the ESU licenses included for years 4, 5, and 6 since the July rollup.

The July rollup update was extracted by someone on the MDL forums in the ESU Bypass thread and showing the three added years of licenses.

Also Win 8.1 also has the licenses for further updates.

Now since MS has made no official announcements, you may have to wait for February to know for sure.

[Windows Vista and Lenovo G570]

Pretty sure that many of the Lenovo G570's came with Vista installed.

I remember working on one last year that had Vista.

Also some came with Win 7.

[(Project) Extend Vista support by Installing Server 2008 ESU updates]

Also see:

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/bypass-windows-7-extended-security-updates-eligibility.80606/#post-1560451