Dedoimedo: Windows 7: A 2025 perspective (rose-tinted or not)

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Quite often, I wonder how much nostalgia plays part in our perception of past events. Luckily, with software, you can go "back" and retest it, and so there's no need for any illusions and misconceptions. To wit, I decided to reinstall and try Windows 7 again (as a virtual machine, but still), to see whether my impressions of the dross we call "modern" software today are justified.

If you're wondering how I feel, I've said it before. Windows 10 is about the same as Windows 7. There aren't any big differences, except more annoyances and more "online" nonsense that adds zero value to the actual user experience. For me, the leap from XP to 7 was a good one, mostly because the latter came with improved 64-bit support. But ever since? I left XP with three years remaining on its support clock. I left 7 with maybe a month left. With 10, I have absolute zero intentions of moving to the low-IQ Windows 11. Linux, it is, but if push comes to shove, Mac might also be an option. But I digress. Let's check the last real desktop Windows.

Windows 7: A 2025 perspective (rose-tinted or not)

Short review of Windows 7 with 2025 perspective, including setup and installation, system updates and associated tweaks, security posture with up-to-date browser, standard user and EMET, available programs, look and feel, speed, ergonomics, privacy, comparison to more modern versions of Windows...

www.dedoimedo.com

 

[simmerskool]

a good read, I might put windows 7 on a VM and return to "truly the last proper desktop Windows"

 

[Sorrento]

I suppose I'm one of the rare people who feels that Win 11 is the best OS MS has made & I've used them all from 3 - MS do add irritations from time to time that have always to this point been easily removed esp using 11 Pro, however we all have our opinions & all are valid to us.

 

[BSONE]

I was somewhat disappointed with Windows Vista. I loved the new Aero GUI as I brought a new PC at the time with the capacity to run it , but it was a buggy OS out of the box. The final service pack made it good though, and I think Microsoft learnt some lessons when they released Windows 7.

 

[simmerskool]

I suppose I'm one of the rare people who feels that Win 11 is the best OS MS has made & I've used them all from 3 - MS do add irritations from time to time that have always to this point been easily removed esp using 11 Pro, however we all have our opinions & all are valid to us.

my opinion is "I don't know!" because MS will not provide me with an official way to install 11 on my otherwise powerful 2016-17 hardware. IS MS in cahoots with hardware guys to force me to buy new hardware, when other than 11 requirement I do not need it. chatgpt says win10 share is 60.3%. And since 11 apparently installs and runs ok with unofficial hacks, it seems more like a scam then a development. All it did is force me to become more proficient running linux (so I guess I'm not really complaining)

 

[nicolaasjan]

a good read, I might put windows 7 on a VM and return to "truly the last proper desktop Windows"

I have it fully updated in a VM (Server 2008 R2 updates; don't ask me how).
Mainly used to compile yt-dlp for Windows 7.