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How to avoid being "upgraded to Win 10" against your will:


dencorso

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This thread has at times been depressing, sometimes humorous and occasionally outright hilarious. For me the standout post so far has been xpclient's amazingly, outstandingly brilliant rant. Had me in stitches but God I could see the good reason in it. For me 10 was a sheer non-starter right from the get-go. But I was always wondering if I should upgrade from Win7 to Win8.1. Then in xpclient's post there was this:

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The driver model hasn't changed between Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 so it will be possible to run Windows 8.1 for a very, very, very long time. Even NVMe SSDs have native drivers in Windows 8.1. USB 3.1 - yep. Bluetooth Low Energy. Yep 8.1 supports. Miracast? Yep. There hasn't been any hardware technology evolution or revolution big enough to require the dreadful abomination called Windows 10.

Amazing, he just sold me 8.1. I got it in a VM now and managed to find instructions on how to get rid of the God-awful "ribbon" UI  in Explorer - so that is it for me. 8.1 it is. Thank you for your well expressed insight xpclient!

That said, once I get it installed I still won't let the bugger connect to Microsoft Updates! Or Microsoft anything for that matter. To hell with that for a laugh!

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Well, not to be perceived myself as ignorant, I meant that most driver models are the same. A few things have changed but nothing significant for me. Windows Display Driver Model is revised to 2.0/2.1/2.2 in Windows 10 but I am not a DirectX 12 gamer so it doesn't matter to me. Thunderbolt and USB 3.1 with the USB-C connector might be slightly better supported than 8.1 but I think there is an update for 8.1 that adds USB-C connector support. Miracast will support H.265/HEVC in Windows 10 vs H.264 in 8.1. The Creators Update supports WiGig for wireless docks and further improvements to Bluetooth Low Energy. DLNA Streaming (Cast To) is definitely improved in Windows 10 - streaming actually works with my TV. But these are trivial additions for me. Any app can do that job eventually. The fundamentals like operating system servicing, the core user interface, overall performance and productivity have all taken such a massive hit in Windows 10 that it is out of the question! I think 8.1 with a Start Menu, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker and such other apps to fix it is much better. You no longer have to suffer Windows 10 or stay with Windows 7 which is being phased out by Microsoft's evil partners too - Intel, AMD, HP, Dell, Lenovo etc.

Edited by xpclient
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I'm thinking 8.1 might be a safe haven because the powers that be aren't thinking we 8.1 users are a big group that needs to be pushed off our current systems as hard as Win 7 users.

-Noel

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13 hours ago, NoelC said:

I'm thinking 8.1 might be a safe haven because the powers that be aren't thinking we 8.1 users are a big group that needs to be pushed off our current systems as hard as Win 7 users.

-Noel

There is a problem with this... Once the Windows 7 giant falls, we will fall with it.

AMD already discontinued 32 bit Windows 8.1 support, stating the user count was too low to invest in such an effort.

I fear for the future.

Edited by greenhillmaniac
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20 hours ago, greenhillmaniac said:

There is a problem with this... Once the Windows 7 giant falls, we will fall with it.

AMD already discontinued 32 bit Windows 8.1 support, stating the user count was too low to invest in such an effort.

I fear for the future.

I definitely agree, there is much uncertainty, and a lot of the non-Microsoft manufacturer support will ultimately evaporate.

In my own case I have two computers that are critical to my needs...  A small low-end server system and a big Win 8.1 system that's a circa 2012 design high-end workstation, that even in 2017 is as potent as all but the newest/fastest systems.

The server is a low power usage 2015 design running Win 7 that can easily saturate a gigabit Ethernet link with data, and it already runs Win 7 without ongoing updates, so it should be good enough for at least 5 more years, possibly longer.

Based on what I can do now, the workstation hardware will be good for another few years at least.  Then after that I'll probably get another, newer high-end off-lease workstation system with a lot of cores that will delight and amaze for a while longer - conceivably all the way into the low 2020s.  The key is that today's high-end workstation hardware is still capable of running Win 7 and 8.1.  There are already drivers for current accessories, for example NVMe drives that can sustain 3+ gigabytes/second I/O and quite fast video cards.  It's not a cheap path, but it's a possible path.

-Noel

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I wonder how many % of users they catch each time they do that.

Somewhere in Redmond must be a sign:  We can't win 'em over with brilliance; just wear 'em down.  :D

-Noel

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  • 1 year later...

Just got the  LGA 2066 chipset and it is definitely hostile to Windows 7 & 8. I managed to get a Windows 8 image on it and then update my drivers but Windows 7 is a non-starter, even with an image and USB drivers. Still trying to figure out how to get Linux on it. Man, 2019 really looks like Windows 10 and nothing else moving forward. This is crazy.

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Win 8.1, suitably tweaked and carefully managed on hardware that can run it, is arguably a better desktop system than Win 7 anyway - but of course not being current will become less desirable and more costly over time, and as you've seen less and less possible.

-Noel

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  • 3 months later...

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