mlktwins Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 What's your plan when it is no longer supported in January 2020? I love Windows 7 and am so sad :-(. Anyway, I think I may finally upgrade (or should I say downgrade) to Windows 10, but I don't like Windows 10. My dad has it and both my boys have it. I just love how I know how to do everything on Windows 7. And...I use Turbo Tax every year and I received a notice saying it won't work with Windows 7 for the 2019 tax year. Boo!!! I am also running out of hard drive space on my desktop. How hard is it to install another hard drive on my current desktop? Could my son and I do it ourselves? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 I want Linux but hubby is opposed. Very easy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 How difficult is it to install Linux? Are there procedures to help with going from Windows 7 to Linux? I've never used Linux, but it might make one of our older laptops usable again. For us, it would be an extra, but helpful, computer (laptop). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet2ndchance Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 We will just keep on using Windows 7. I know people who are still using Windows XP without issue. I'm not terribly worried about Microsoft no longer supporting it. Dh and I have talked about going with a Linux distro whenever the programs we use or want to install won't play nice with Windows 7 anymore. For now, everything still works fine so we will cross that bridge when we get there. Honestly, I would clean up the hard drive before installing a new one. Go through everything and delete outdated, useless or no longer needed files and programs. Do a disk clean up and a defrag afterwards and see if you still need a new hard drive. If you do still need a new hard drive, the easiest route for the non-computer savvy is an external hard drive. You can just plug it in to any USB port and leave it there. If you want an internal drive, it's not hard but it's a little more work than an external hard drive. It involves opening the case, making sure you have an open space in your HD rack, an open SATA port on your motherboard and a spare compatible power cable from your PSU. If you have all those things, it is just a matter of putting the new drive in the rack, attaching the SATA cable from the drive to the motherboard and connecting the power cable from the PSU to the new board. I imagine there are tons of videos on Youtube if you need to see someone do it to be confident in doing it yourself. 4 minutes ago, kbutton said: How difficult is it to install Linux? Are there procedures to help with going from Windows 7 to Linux? I've never used Linux, but it might make one of our older laptops usable again. For us, it would be an extra, but helpful, computer (laptop). Depending on the distro you use, it is no more difficult than installing Windows. If you wanted to have just Linux on your system, you would reformat the hard drive and install the Linux distro of your choice (that you downloaded before reformatting the hard drive and put on a flash drive). You can also do a dual boot where the computer has both Windows and Linux and you have to choose which "side" you want to go to every time you boot up the computer but that is a bit more complicated. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 1 minute ago, sweet2ndchance said: Depending on the distro you use, it is no more difficult than installing Windows. If you wanted to have just Linux on your system, you would reformat the hard drive and install the Linux distro of your choice (that you downloaded before reformatting the hard drive and put on a flash drive). You can also do a dual boot where the computer has both Windows and Linux and you have to choose which "side" you want to go to every time you boot up the computer but that is a bit more complicated. My computers have always come with this sort of thing done. I used to be a computer tech in college, so I am okay with some experimentation, but when I did that kind of work, I was working on computers that were all set up the same way, and we had disks with pre-loaded programs when we would reformat something (which was not something we had to do a lot). I can put anything on a flash drive from another computer, which helps, but I don't know how to reformat the hard drive, or what "kind" of reformat to do if there are multiple options. I tend to find that internet searches for techy people sort of always start in the middle, information-wise. This computer is probably too old and slow to do a dual boot. It was a "this is what we can afford" purchase after another computer bit the dust days before a coding class started for one of my kids that required bringing a laptop. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 14 minutes ago, kbutton said: How difficult is it to install Linux? Are there procedures to help with going from Windows 7 to Linux? I've never used Linux, but it might make one of our older laptops usable again. For us, it would be an extra, but helpful, computer (laptop). I always handed it to my uncle and said "Linux this please." I imagine some teenager on Craigslist will do it for $100. I always got the Windows operating system I wanted but lied to other computers about what I had so I could do whatever I wanted. So my computer would look like 7 but everyone it communicated with thought it was 10, or in my case XP and Vista. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet2ndchance Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 (edited) 17 minutes ago, kbutton said: My computers have always come with this sort of thing done. I used to be a computer tech in college, so I am okay with some experimentation, but when I did that kind of work, I was working on computers that were all set up the same way, and we had disks with pre-loaded programs when we would reformat something (which was not something we had to do a lot). I can put anything on a flash drive from another computer, which helps, but I don't know how to reformat the hard drive, or what "kind" of reformat to do if there are multiple options. I tend to find that internet searches for techy people sort of always start in the middle, information-wise. This computer is probably too old and slow to do a dual boot. It was a "this is what we can afford" purchase after another computer bit the dust days before a coding class started for one of my kids that required bringing a laptop. You should be able to make a bootable flash drive with your Linux distro on it. It's been a while for me too, so I can't give you the exact steps to do this but it's not hard to do. A reputable Linux distro will give you step by step directions for creating the bootable flash drive. When you turn the computer on, there should be some options for hitting the F keys on the keyboard to get to the bios. From within the bios menu, you can change the boot order so that instead of booting into your Windows installation, it looks for a flash drive first to boot from. If you have your bootable flash drive plugged in, it will boot from that instead the next time you turn the computer on. Once you are booting from the flash drive with Linux on it, it should give you an option to reformat the drive and install linux. Make sure there is nothing on that drive that you want to keep. Reformat = wipe the drive clean and start over with an empty drive. There might be some options for partitioning the drive and installing Linux in a partition but the easiest way to install Linux on a computer that you don't want to dual boot or anything else fancy is to reformat the drive and install on a clean drive. I'm not sure how far to break things down for you. I can explain it in even simpler terms but if you have some computer experience, I don't want to insult you, lol. Edited October 7, 2019 by sweet2ndchance autocorrect... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 1 minute ago, sweet2ndchance said: You should be able to make a bootable flash drive with your Linux distro on it. It's been a while for me too, so I can't give you the exact steps to do this but it's not hard to do. A reputable Linux distro will give you step by step directions for creating the bootable flash drive. When you turn the computer on, there should be some options for hitting the F keys on the keyboard to get to the bios. From within the bios menu, you can change the boot order so that instead of booting into your Windows installation, it looks for a flash drive first to boot from. If you have your bootable flash drive plugged in, it will boot from that instead the next time you turn the computer on. Once you are booting from the flash drive with Linus on it, it should give you an option to reformat the drive and install linux. Make sure there is nothing on that drive that you want to keep. Reformat = wipe the drive clean and start over with an empty drive. There might be some options for partitioning the drive and installing Linux in a partition but the easiest way to install Linux on a computer that you don't want to dual boot or anything else fancy is to reformat the drive and install on a clean drive. I'm not sure how far to break things down for you. I can explain it in even simpler terms but if you have some computer experience, I don't want to insult you, lol. Actually this is really helpful. I am sort of in that weird zone of knowing something but not being sure what to call what I know or how to explain what I am missing. 😉 I think you answered every one of my not asked questions, except how to find a reputable Linux distro. Thank you! Any suggestions on where to find the Linux distro? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet2ndchance Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Ubuntu is a fairly easy to install Linux distro with lots of Windows like features. Linux Mint is another pretty beginner friendly Linux distro. MX Linux is pretty popular as well. There are lots of different "flavors" of Linux based on what you want to do with it. The three I mentioned are similar to Windows in the way of features and reasonably beginner friendly. They also have the most compatibility options with standard programs that most people like to use. Microsoft Office Suite isn't likely to work on a Linux system (at least don't know of any work arounds off the top of my head). But you have the Google internet based office programs that will work on any computer that can access the internet (Chrome or Firefox should have a Linux friendly install you can download onto a flash drive and install on your Linux computer if your distro doesn't have a web browser already installed). You can also install Libre Office which is a free office suite that will work on Linux systems. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 2 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said: Ubuntu is a fairly easy to install Linux distro with lots of Windows like features. Linux Mint is another pretty beginner friendly Linux distro. MX Linux is pretty popular as well. There are lots of different "flavors" of Linux based on what you want to do with it. The three I mentioned are similar to Windows in the way of features and reasonably beginner friendly. They also have the most compatibility options with standard programs that most people like to use. Microsoft Office Suite isn't likely to work on a Linux system (at least don't know of any work arounds off the top of my head). But you have the Google internet based office programs that will work on any computer that can access the internet (Chrome or Firefox should have a Linux friendly install you can download onto a flash drive and install on your Linux computer if your distro doesn't have a web browser already installed). You can also install Libre Office which is a free office suite that will work on Linux systems. Thank you! We use Open Office, which I think has a Linux option. I haven't tried Libre Office, but that might be even better. I can't justify paying for Microsoft Office for what we need to do, so no worries about that. This will be a laptop for the kids to keep their work on, most likely. I feel like I can probably find a Linux for Dummies or something at the library now that I have a starting point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 (edited) First, the easy part. Yes, you can easily install a new Hard Disk Drive, with larger capacity into the machine. I think the easiest way to do that would be to get an external Hard Disk Drive carrier (that isn't the word, but I can't think of the word as I type this). I have one for a Laptop sized SATA Hard Disk Drive. It connects via USB cable. Then install the Brand New Hard Disk Drive into the machine (possibly or probably need to Format the HDD to NTFS before you do this) and then copy everything over with Clonezilla Live or something. I haven't done that for a long time, but I have done it and I am sure that if you Google for that, you will get a lot of links in the SERPs. I think the little external Hard DIsk Drive case I bought was approximately $5 USD some years ago, on eBay. Including shipping to an address in the USA. Flimsy but it worked fine on more than one occasion for me and I have it in a box here... Now, here is a deal that you may want to try... As I recall this will only work if you have Windows 7 Home or Windows 7 Professional. Remember years ago, when Microsoft was trying to get everyone to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, free, and gave them one year to do that and there were a lot of "pop up" reminders for one year, trying to get them to do that and that some people who didn't want to upgrade had their machines upgraded to Windows 10, by Microsoft, automatically? Well... That's still possible... I did it to my backup Laptop (a Dell Latitude E6400) a few weeks ago. It had a license for Windows 7 Home. It now has a Digital License for Windows 10. I had been running MX Linux on it, so I wiped that and reformatted the Hard Disk Drive to NTFS and then I did a "Clean/Fresh" install of Windows 7 and then I Activated that with Microsoft (Online) and then I began the Upgrade to Windows 10. I will try to find the URL that had the article I followed about how to do that for you. I think I have it in my email, because I am contemplating doing the same to this Dell Latitude E6410, which has a license for Windows 7 Professional. It is running MX Linux at this time. Here's the link I followed. I did that upgrade several weeks ago: https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/ If you try it, I hope it will work for you. From what I read in that article or a related article on that web site, people were reporting about 85% success on older Hardware. It will work better, if you "wipe" the current Windows 7 installation and install Windows 7 "Clean" (as I did) and then Activate Windows 7 with Microsoft and then begin the Upgrade to Windows 10. Edited October 7, 2019 by Lanny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Ds uses Windows 7 and we've been telling him for a while to upgrade. The problem is he won't get security patches and is on our network. That's a big deal. We bought him a bigger hard drive the Christmas before last and he never installed it. I'm frustrated over that - it wasn't cheap but we gave dss a fairly large gift that year and wanted to match it for ds. Every time there's a new os for Windows people complain but other than Vista I've never had issues with any of the upgrades. There's a lot to like about Windows 10. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 They'll tear my Windows 7 out of my cold, dead computer.... That us what it'll take to get me to upgrade. That's sad about TurboTax, though. Not sure what I'm going to do about that. Twice, I've bought a bigger hard drive, cloned the current drive, and installed the bigger one in its place. It was harder when it was for the booting drive than the extra internal. (I've done this once for each.) Actually, I think I did it three times as I took one if the smaller ones & made it a new internal drive on a desktop that we aren't using right now. I'm about as un-techy as you can be, so if I can do it with some online articles & YouTube help, you sure can. I'm actually trying to figure out how to do a completely clean install of Windows 10 on a laptop that is too small to keep getting updates. I'm hoping with less bloatware that I can get the latest update on there (as I need 3 MB more internal space (plus the external it already has access to) to get it done & everything that can be moved has been). Supposedly that will get me through the October upgrade & it should work after that - for awhile. Blerg. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Follow-on to my first reply in this thread: What is my motivation for moving from MX Linux, which is THE best Linux distro I have ever used on a Desktop, to Windows 10 with the Free Upgrade from Windows 7? We have an extremely inexpensive Epson Inkjet printer. The very low end Printers are not really Printers. They depend upon Windows to make them work. Could I get it to work from a Linux box? Probably yes, but I'm not positive about that or how well it would work. Possibly with it running on WiFi and with some sort of Epson or other Software, to make it work in the Cloud. We have a VPS and I have OpenVPN Access Server running on that, which is our family VPN. Primarily for DD to use now that she's in the states and on WiFi most or all of the time. I spent approximately one hour trying to connect to the VPN from MX Linux and so far, no go. That should be much easier from Windows 10. I have one (1) Legacy Windows App. There is a Utility available for MX Linux (and probably other Linux Distros) called "Play on LInux". Possibly my Legacy App will run under "Play on Linux", possibly not, and not sure of the quality. I have not tried to install my Legacy App under "Play on Linux". So, although MS Windows is in many ways a PITA, it is easier. And, for us to exchange files within the house, it is easier if they are all on Windows boxes. IMO MX Linux is the only Linux Distro I would use on a Desktop PC or a Laptop. I have tried a bunch of different Linux Distros and this one is a Middle weight distro and very very slick. So, my suggestion is move to Windows 10 with the Free upgrade from Windows 7 Home or Professional or go to MX Linux. There will be a lot of individuals, and even businesses, who stay with Windows 7 for one reason or another, but they risk bad things happening to those boxes and then to the network in their house or business. Everything has risk and that's one of them. That said, I understand that a lot of ATM Machines are running WIndows XP and cannot be upgraded? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanier.1765 Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 23 hours ago, Lanny said: So, my suggestion is move to Windows 10 with the Free upgrade from Windows 7 Home or Professional or go to MX Linux. There will be a lot of individuals, and even businesses, who stay with Windows 7 for one reason or another, but they risk bad things happening to those boxes and then to the network in their house or business. Everything has risk and that's one of them. That said, I understand that a lot of ATM Machines are running WIndows XP and cannot be upgraded? Unfortunately, upgrading to Windows 10 isn't free any more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 dd's W7 computer just died. . . . she's forced to update. (she has multiple computers, depending up on what she's doing.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 1 hour ago, stephanier.1765 said: Unfortunately, upgrading to Windows 10 isn't free any more. Stephanie. PLEASE, read, slowly, the article I linked to on ZDNet. What you wrote is what Microsoft wants everyone to believe. The reality, for those with machines that have licenses for Windows 7 Home or Windows 7 Professional, is different. The last update to that ZDNet article that I linked to indicated that approximately 85% of the people who reported their results with the Upgrade to him, recently, were successful. After reading that, I did a successful Upgrade, on my Backup Laptop, from Windows 7 Home to Windows 10 and as the article indicates, it DOES have a "Digital License" from Microsoft for Windows 10. There is also an associated web page on ZDNet that has some other information regarding this topic. U.S. English is my native language, but if I was tired when I tried to explain that, and/or, ambiguous, I apologize. I guarantee you, that if we had to pay $$$$ to upgrade our machines from Windows 7 to Windows 10 that we would not do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 1 hour ago, gardenmom5 said: dd's W7 computer just died. . . . she's forced to update. (she has multiple computers, depending up on what she's doing.) Sorry about that. If it has a license for Windows 7 Home or for Windows 7 Professional, by following the blog post I linked to above in this thread, she can end up with a "Digital License" from Microsoft for Windows 10. I did that on my Backup Laptop 2 or 3 weeks ago and will probably try to do it on this one within a week or so. Free is a good price if it is a successful upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 On 10/7/2019 at 3:16 PM, RootAnn said: I'm actually trying to figure out how to do a completely clean install of Windows 10 on a laptop that is too small to keep getting updates. I'm hoping with less bloatware that I can get the latest update on there (as I need 3 MB more internal space (plus the external it already has access to) to get it done & everything that can be moved has been). Supposedly that will get me through the October upgrade & it should work after that - for awhile. Blerg. Quoting myself as I tried this task using the only free available USB in the house. And after rendering the laptop ccompletely unusable, I tried over 10 times (in different ways) to install a clean version of Windows 10. Finding the error message I always got if I even got that far could be caused by a bad USB, I attempted to buy a new one. Except no where in this Podunk town was one available for purchase. So, two days after I killed the laptop, I got to a big enough town to have a Wal-Mart & picked up a new USB. First try with the new USB was successful & the laptop is back in business. Best of all, it still has 7 Gb left on the hard drive (before updates). Rejoicing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alewife Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 On 10/7/2019 at 11:55 AM, mlktwins said: What's your plan when it is no longer supported in January 2020? I love Windows 7 and am so sad :-(. I bought a MacBook Air... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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