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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
I know there are a fair amount of Askwoody readership that are still using Windows 8.1. Microsoft will be including a nag notification soon to indicat
[See the full post at: Windows 8.1 is getting close to the finish line]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
I have a Windows 8.0 laptop that hasn’t received Windows updates in years (except for the occasional Office 2010 updates that now seem to have stopped completely). 🙂
It’s served me well, protected with the same multi-layered strategy described in this thread.
Did you know that Server 2012 updates will install just fine on Windows 8.0?
If you’re so inclined, all you have to do is download them from the MS catalog and install them manually and you’ll have yourself a completely up-to-date Windows 8.0 system as of June 2022 (and going forward).
Anticipating the end of support for W8.1, I recently did an in-place upgrade from W8.1 Pro to W10 Pro. I downloaded the W10 ISO using the MS Media Creation Tool and installed from a USB thumb drive. W10 Pro was automatically activated with a perpetual digital license based upon W8.1 Pro having a valid product key. In effect, the free upgrade to W10 from W8.1 still worked despite MS saying the offer expired a long time ago. I did my upgrade at the end of March of this year. This has also been reported by others but I cannot verify anything other than my experience.
Susan,
Thank you for the “heads up” on 8.1’s end-of-life. I’m one of the “fair amount of AskWoody readership” that has used 8/8.1 since inception and have been very satisfied with the platform. It has done everything I’ve needed and I’ve avoided all of the missteps/hiccups/mistakes/problems of subsequent Windows releases that have occurred. I have checked in with <b>OPatch</b> and at the time a decision had not been made for future support so it’s good to hear that you’ll follow-up with OPatch as the countdown proceeds. I can pay a reasonable price to continue to use 8.1 if support occurs.
Thank you too for all of the rough, tough, it ain’t easy work you do each day to help us all navigate through the WorldWideWeb.
Start planning now? I don’t see why I need to.
I shall continue to use 8.1 (and 7) on most of my machines while switching one or two of them to Windows 10 1607 LTSB or 1809 LTSC as the main OS, which is already installed on the system disk in another partition (but the older Windows will be kept in case I need it in the future). Other versions of “newer” Windows are not worth my time, including the rubbish 11.
I don’t care about the so-called “security” as I am strongly convinced it is blown out of proportion regarding most people. I have never had a problem regarding “security” using unsupported operating systems in the past and I don’t expect any going forward.
While 8.1 won’t have an ESU, the server sibling of 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 (whose end of support is in October 2023 and not January 2023), will have an ESU that ends in October 2026 :
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/extended-security-updates-overview
Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.
I don’t care about the so-called “security” as I am strongly convinced it is blown out of proportion regarding most people
You’re wasting your time fixing 97 percent of vulnerabilities
According to new research only three percent of ‘critical’ code vulnerabilities are attackable, which means developers should be able to better prioritize efforts and significantly reduce their workload.
The study from automated security testing firm ShiftLeft finds that focusing on the three percent allows teams to greatly speed up and simplify efforts. ShiftLeft saw a 37 percent improvement from last year in mean time to remediate new vulnerabilities with a median scan time of 1 minute 30 seconds…
According to this post it works with W11, so 10 should be OK.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/o9vp8b/windows_11_build_2200051_on_my_i7_980x_rig/
cheers, Paul
Hi Paul,
You were correct.
I used the Media Creation tool for Windows 10 and it checked my older Windows 8.1 system for compatibility and began downloading Windows 10. So it appears my system is compatible after all.
Many thanks for this.
…I suspect if I was to begin the installation Windows 10 I would simply receive an error message. Instead I intend to replace the CPU, motherboard and RAM with a new Intel 12th generation CPU. I’ll then install Windows 11 (I’ll install it on an SSD since I realize Microsoft will require this soon)…
I’ve never owned a Win 8.x computer, but does anyone know if Win 8.x users can still use Microsoft’s Get Windows 10 app mentioned in the 04-Jun-2021 groovypost article How to Check if Your Computer Can Run Windows 10 to see if their system meets Win 10 minimum specifications? Is there a third-party utility that can do this for you?
I have a relatively new Win 10 Pro v21H2 computer and used Robert Maehl’s WhyNotWin11 utility to confirm my machine will be able to upgrade to Win 11, although I have no plans to do so for now. The system requirements on the download page <here> say that WhyNotWin11 should run on Win 8.1, although it’s optimized for Win 10.
—————
Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1766 * Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620
Thank you for the “heads up” on 8.1’s end-of-life.
I dislike seeing the phrase “End of Life” when referring to an operating system. It’s really End of Support by Microsoft in the case of Windows. For me still using Win 7, that means I can’t get album covers for my mp3 songs anymore (not a real big deal). I’ve got old computers (with HDD’s) that are still running Win 95B, Win 98 SE, and Win XP Pro.
When Antivirus and Web Browsers stop offering updates, that’s when you have to consider whether it’s still safe to go on the web. Other than that you can keep using your favorite OS for a long time. I have a museum piece – an IBM PS/1, ca. 1993 with DOS and Win 3.1 that is still running well! I mostly play old games on these older computers, and have and use Lotus SmartSuite ’97 on the Win XP laptop.
Thank you for the “heads up” on 8.1’s end-of-life.
I dislike seeing the phrase “End of Life” when referring to an operating system. It’s really End of Support by Microsoft in the case of Windows. For me still using Win 7, that means I can’t get album covers for my mp3 songs anymore (not a real big deal). I’ve got old computers (with HDD’s) that are still running Win 95B, Win 98 SE, and Win XP Pro.
When Antivirus and Web Browsers stop offering updates, that’s when you have to consider whether it’s still safe to go on the web. Other than that you can keep using your favorite OS for a long time. I have a museum piece – an IBM PS/1, ca. 1993 with DOS and Win 3.1 that is still running well! I mostly play old games on these older computers, and have and use Lotus SmartSuite ’97 on the Win XP laptop.
Hi Charlie,
I hope you are doing well.
Like you I have older virtual machines running Windows 98, Windows XP and Windows 7 that I use for various old software including games from 1992 which I bought on floppy disks back then and still love to play. I intend to keep using those OSes for a long time since they aren’t on the web any longer.
But for those less technically savvy than you and I, they will need a system for their daily lives that they can rely on.
> Nah it’ll be fine
that sounds reassuring 😉
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