Windows 7

[New Judge]

I'm helping a neighbour get back online after a long absence due to illness. She has a laptop with Windows 7 which she is thinking of resurrecting. I know W7 is no longer supported and I believe using it will cause her more problems than she really needs or can cope with. She is prepared to buy a new laptop (my recommendation for a number of reasons) but in case she decides not to, anybody got any ideas on the practicalities of continuing with W7?

Ta in advance.

[dannyk13]

I have Windows 7 and no problems.I have had the occasional update for it long after it was said to be unsupported.

[diddlydo]

My elderly laptop is still running absolutely fine on Windows 7.

[bhg481]

She's probably better sticking to the W7 system that she knows rather than trying to get used to the newer O/S. Changing O/S might mean that some of her applications no longer work; even some attached hardware might not (I lost a perfectly good laser printer when I moved from one Windows O/S to a newer one with a change of computer). I still use W7 on two of my computers and prefer it to W11 on my wife's.

[ToraToraTora]

It's unsupported but it will work fine for most things that most people are likely to do. Has she switched on the PC? has it connected to the net? It may try and update itself with any updates before it went out of support.

[bhg481]

Whilst Microsoft say it's out of support I (and Danny) still get updates occasionally.

[barry1010]

You could think about installing W10 - you can do it for free
https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/14/21065140/how-to-upgrade-microsoft-windows-7-10-free-os

[New Judge]

Thanks all. I know her broadband works as I've tried it with my laptop. I think I'll just get her to power up her laptop and see what happens. She only really wants it for the internet and e-mails, so she should be OK. Thanks for the help.

[sandra4444]

Still use it despite all the threats that it wouldn't work after a certain time.