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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
.CCH or Commerce Clearing House is one one of several major tax software vendors — they just sent me this email this morning ….. CCH will discontinue
[See the full post at: Patch Lady – vendors start to shut the doors on Windows 7]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Not really jumping the gun – end of support is January of 2020, the tax season starts then. CCH doesn’t want folks to install the 2019 tax software and then in January – before we start to efile for the 2019 tax year – they are unsupported by Microsoft. So saying as of November you are out is just a clean cut off. We need to be on a supported software platform BEFORE we start the tax filing season.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
If they think it is in their best interest to cut off up to half of their Windows customer base (depending on whose statistics you use), by all means, they should do it. I wouldn’t!
At least they understand what “not supported” means, unlike Microsoft (who thinks that “not supported” means “you’d better not try it, or we’ll break your stuff.”)
It seems to me that this would be the perfect kind of thing to use a web application for, more so than a web version of a word processor or spreadsheet. If you trust the company, anyway… but if you don’t, entering all that same data into a Win32 program published by a company you do not trust isn’t really much better.
There’s always the option of a VM, of course, even if you still run Windows. You could have a Windows 10 VM (guest) running under a Win 7 host, if it became absolutely necessary.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)
Not entirely unexpected. Will be interesting to see what the consumer tax vendors do.
As for me, NOT going to bring up and maintain a win10 system just to do taxes!
Unfortunately, support for consumer tax SW on Mac and Linux is abysmal, IMHO. So it looks like it could be online tax prep for me in future… or back to paper 
This kind of thing is what speeds up a real EOL (End of Life) rather than just EOS (End of Support). The support may get extended once the 80 or 90% of the Windows 7 users find out about it and hopefully raise cain.
If Windows 7 folks have to upgrade, then give 8.1 a try. 8.1 support ends January 10 2023, 3 years after 7’s support ends.
Once you replace the tile-infested native Start Menu with a cheap third-party one like Stardock Start8’s 7-like Start Menu, and turn off the Charms bar, it’s so much more like 7 than 10. Not a tile to be seen anywhere 
I can honestly say that my 2.5 year old 8.1 install has had zero BSOD’s, lockups, spontaneous reboots. Rock solid and reliable, even, dare I say it, more than 7 IME.
Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think there is a direct upgrade path from Win 7.1 to 8.1. If one doesn’t want to blow away all the software installs on the computer, they must upgrade to 8.0 and then apply updates until the service pack upgrading to 8.1 show up.
Under that understanding, that’s what I did about 2 years ago. Remember 8.0 is pretty old now. It kept some software installs intact, software I can’t easily replace.
Personally, I’d backup the 7 install as an image that can be file/folder accessed (Macrium Reflecty Free is my go-to for this), do an 8.1 clean install, then install all software and restore data. I’m ultra-careful, so I’d do the 8.1 install to a new SSD, keeping the 7 drive as a second backup.
Yep, 8/8.1 are pretty old now, but newer than 7. And 8.1 gives you 3 more years of support over 7.
IMO, still the preferable option over moving to 10.
Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
I plan to continue using Windows 7 with the applications already installed before its end of life, and connecting to the Web only to fulfill certain basic actions needed to keep it working safely, such as using the same anti virus until it becomes incompatible with Windows 7, or until the Windows 7 PC finally gives up the ghost (or I do).
For all other things that makes it necessary to connect to the Web, as well as for email, at first I will rely of a Mac I have been using without any trouble for the last year and a half and has, at a guess, plenty of life still left in it.
For later, I am looking at the possibility of buying another PC and installing LINUX on it (with some help from my friends), or buying a PC with LINUX pre-installed, such as one of those Meerkat machines that have already been discussed here, at Woody’s, some time ago, although I would prefer an all-in-one laptop.
I do have a Windows 8.1 installation disk, and could go the 8.1 route, but I am deeply allergic to fiddling with the operating system, let alone replacing it with a different one in the same machine, so I probably won’t.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
I’ll have to eventually use only Linux for going on the web. While I prefer to stay with Windows, MS has lost me as a customer. I don’t want to have to do a face job on Win 8.1 just to gain 3 more years of support which will fly by.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the tax code was simplified so that most or all of the IRS was no longer needed and companies like CCH were thus obsolete and discontinued too.
I may be the only one who is not “going quietly”, but I am going to try and do everything possible to raise a ruckus so MSFT finally extends the life of the OS, or someone steps up to support it for a small yearly fee.
It worked for XP, where there were actually FEWER users vs. Win 7 now.
We have the clout. Let’s stop being herded and push back!
The family motto is “Nihil Sine Conflicto”; (Loosely: Nothing gained without a fight.)
Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330 ("The Tank"), Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Newbie
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty
The extension of Windows XP support happened during the Ballmer era.
I think it’s a safe bet that support is not going to be extended for consumer versions of 7 in any way, no matter how many still use it. They’ve already shown they are willing to deliberately expose their customers to malware (by denying Windows 7 updates on hardware they’ve declared is the sole property of Windows 10) in order to force them to upgrade. They haven’t gotten any more accommodating since then.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)
Hi Okabe Rintaro.
The number of discovered CVEs for W10 has just passed Windows Vista & XP.
-lehnerus2000
Interestingly enough, my old IT Guru said, “Just because they’re not supporting XP doesn’t mean you can’t use it, even to go on the Web…just shift to some good, free AV ware, don’t visit questionable sites, use Malwarebytes, and keep good backups. Practice good PC sanitation. Don’t jump when the elephant in Redmond stamps it’s foot! The users have the power, not Redmond.”
And you know, I was able to use XP on both sides of the firewall until AV outfits and many others no longer supported it. The machine I built for it is still going, doing some really complex things, albeit offline. it’s been as stable as a table.
I might not recommend this for non-techies and tyros, but if you have any PC savvy, you can do it.”
Don’t give a toss. I’m going to keep using 7.
If I absolutely HAVE to switch, it will be to 8.1, since I use Classic Start Menu anyway.
If that is still a problem, I’ll have to give Linux a try.
One thing’s for sure, I am NOT going to use Win10 unless MS backs off and makes something that isn’t 10. It has nothing I want, and a LOT of stuff I don’t want..
@BobT , I admire your resolve and agree with your conclusions. You already have defined your desires and fallback positions. The timeline has been known for quite a while now. I encourage you to start moving on this transition soon, like February rather than October. Having the whole summer in front of you will be a buffer against the stress of a forced move later. Having more time available when a setback occurs can prevent bad decisions and costly equipment purchases.
Good luck, and see you on the other side.
Good advice to anyone considering an alternate OS, start working on the transition now so you know what adjustments you will need to make.
Cheers for the advice but despite all the tech blog hysteria, this ain’t win2k remember, it’s not like my PC is just going to pack up and stop working on Jan 2020…
I update nearly a month behind nowadays already (manually, when most of the issues are known), so that isn’t a gargantuan issue either.
I keep my PC secure enough that I’m not fretting. If I do sense it will become a problem then sure I’ll start the transition earlier, but my good old Win 7 will still be here and working, till ‘I’ decide to upgrade. And that’s the beauty of it, the responsibility and control all lies with me. Another thing I don’t like about 10..
Report: Windows 10 Takes Over Windows 7 https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/196570/report-windows-10-takes-over-windows-7
Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).
In the bigger picture, Windows world netmarketshare has again dropped from 87.03% in Nov 2018 to 86.20% in Dec 2018.
Bad move from a business software perspective as for enterprise/volume licensing customers Microsoft is offering paid extended windows 7 support until 2023! There are still plenty of business customers that have their mission critical software only certified for Windows 7 and the cost of re-certification is way more costly than simply purchasing an extended windows 7 support contract. There where loads of XP shops that did not convert over right away to windows 7 either mainly for the very same reason in the form of the expenses related to the costs of certifying mission critical business software on any new OS.
Folks the cost of a copy of a new OS/license does not usually represent the reason most businesses put off converting to the latest new and shiny OS. It’s the cost of certifying that enterprise’s mission critical software to work under any new OS that keeps most businesses not wanting to move to the latest OS. That was true for windows XP and doubly true for windows 7. Windows 10 is not the most stable of OSs what with the release cadence undertaken by MS starting with windows 10.
I suspect that because of windows 8.1 being very similar under the hood to windows 7 that it’s rather easy for MS to offer the extended paid windows 7 support until 2023 anyways and most businesses that took their time converting to 7 will still want to properly amortize their windows 7 conversion costs before they undertake any expensive mission critical software re-certification for windows 10. Even for windows 7 enterprise licensees that have in the past 5 – 7 years just converted from windows XP to windows 7, those businesses would rather get their money’s worth out of that steep expense of re-certifying mission critical software for any new OS.
If I where any business I’d expect that any software provider would not try any force the matter or they may just risk losing some software sales.
These Third Party software suppliers better think twice about dropping support for Windows 7 or even 8.1 because most businesses will not look kindly at being forced to go through any expensive mission critical software re-certification process that costs many many times the cost of any OS license. Microsoft is sure one not to upset their enterprise/business customers and these third party software producers better re-think that forcing of any potential business clients!
I don’t care either. I will continue to use Windows 7 and 8.1 (8.1 with Classic Shell using the classic menu). If any of these third party software companies want to drop support for 7 and 8.1 and force their customers to 10 as early as now, they will lose my business.
I am preparing for a switch to 8.1 once the support for 7 ends. It is pretty easy for me to do since I have installed 8.1 on each of my Windows computers alongside 7, so it will be a simple matter of designating the Windows 8.1 partition as the default OS to run. But I will keep a copy of Windows 7 on each of these computers to run older softwares I still want.
One thing to worry about using Windows 8.1 is that the hardware companies like Nvidia / AMD / Intel have dropped support for 8.1 already in their latest hardware. So you will have to keep using older hardware to run 8.1. For example the new Nvidia RTX graphics cards and the AMD RX and Vega cards are no longer supported in Windows 8.1 since Nvidia and AMD do not provide drivers for 8.1 (but there are Windows 7 drivers still).
Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.
I doubt that Nadella and Co. will go back on their vehemently stated goal to have Windows 10 be “the last Windows ever”
OscarCP, resistance is never useless, even if you fail. The only thing useless is rolling over and not trying. And CEO’s come and go, as do policies. We shall see. Nadella’s taking a lot of flak lately.
(And, yes, I did and still do admire the Firefly series-excellent scripts, due to he fact that the writers had “a good ear”; in other words, the knew the answer to the question, “Do people really talk like this?” Truly a shame they cancelled this in favor of “Dog The Bounty Hunter” and the like; the basest form of ingratiation with The Great Unwashed, who, it must be said, have their story to tell as well; but this great piece of work should never have pulled down and replaced with a pinball machine, metaphorically speaking. And BTW, I’m sure you know a movie “Serenity” was made, and won several awards after its release. Resistance is never useless.)
As for me and Win 7, to quote the old maxim, “Go and return with your shield, or on it.”
But then, it wouldn’t be the first time if I came back lying on my shield.
A good and happy year to all!
Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330 ("The Tank"), Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Newbie
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty
I run Linux Mint as my primary OS. And I run Windows 8.1 in a virtual machine. The Windows 8.1 VM is there in case I need it, for situations just like this.
The tax software companies have no choice about this. In one year Windows 7 will go out of support – no more security updates from Microsoft. Well, guess what — in one year you will use the 2019 tax prep software. In other words, in the view of the tax prep company, it won’t be safe to use Windows 7 when doing your 2019 taxes with their software.
If they claim that their 2019 software will work with Windows 7, they will be opening themselves to all sorts of liability. If anyone has any problems related to filing their taxes, and they used this software with Windows 7, a lot of those people will sue for damages. For this reason, they have no choice but to announce to everyone that the 2019 software won’t work with Windows 7.
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