Operating System (Windows 7/8/8.1?/10)

I'm wondering what operating system would be best to get. I'm most likely going to have to rebuy windows and I'd like to know which would be optimal for streaming, gaming, etc. I currently have Windows 7 Home Premium and I've loved using it, but I kinda want to get Windows 10 just because of the new Gears of War. But other than that no real reason to get Windows 10 in my book, then again I haven't done my research. I've looked up the differences between all of the windows 10 and it seems the Pro would be the best? Maybe? I don't know, that's why I'm asking here .

Let me know your experiences with your operating system .

 

Windows 7 premium is by far the best in my opinion. It's what i currently use

 

Most of your responses are going to be Windows 10, but personally I would go for 7. Windows 10 is still new and not perfect, also noticed it has the habit of doing a lot of things without asking you.

Gaming-wise, Windows 7 will do you fine (however if you want DX12, you have no choice but to go for Windows 10).

 

I'm surprised that someone in the IT field would recommend 7.

7 was released in 2009. That's seven years ago. It's old. Mainstream support ended in 2015, so you're not going to be receiving updates or hotfixes for it anymore. It's non-UEFI out of the box, so you're going to have to deal with legacy vs. UEFI during your install. Soon you'll have to deal with legacy drivers and non-standard drivers to fit 7 to newer hardware, just like people had to do with XP when Vista and 7 were released. 7 is a dead end. 10 is not.

The lifecycle plan for 10 is to released large updates (think Windows 8.1) on a semi-regular basis. Instead of focusing on releasing new versions of Windows every few years, 10 will be updated with support for new hardware and appropriate security hotfixes. That's why they did the free thing for a year; they wanted everyone on it because it's THE version of Windows from now on. Windows 11, if it will ever happen, is a long ways off. You'd be absolutely stupid to buy 7 at this point in time.

Speaking from a performance standpoint, 10 is also faster. It takes advantage of the new booting tech introduced with Windows 8, so your boot times should be cut by roughly half on disk drives, and by a factor of 3 or so on SSDs. It makes better use of RAM and cache, so applications typically run faster and open faster as a result.

Now from the "it spies on you, does things you don't want, blah blah blah" bullshit standpoint, it's all settings you can turn off. You can even do it on first boot during the install. It's fucking easy. This has always been a moot argument to me. I don't get why people are so butthurt about having to flick a couple switches.

tl;dr you're braindead if you choose 7

 

You dare mock the almighty Windows 7?

It is old yes, mainstream support has ended but it does still seem to be getting some nice feature updates (although minor). Improvements to the disk cleaning tools in last month's Windows updates were quite surprising.

10 is faster yes, however in an enterprise enviroment you will be wanting to stay with 7. My place of work is still running 2003 on some servers, it's an absolute nightmare trying to get them upgraded as for one - management see that they are working as intended and "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and two taking them offline as they are critical is quite a nuisance. Back to the topic though, people may want to stick with 7 as it is 100% reliable, yes it is old but XP was supported from 2001 - 2014 and that still had a lot of people still using it.

10 might be the "latest and greatest", but 7 has a 7 year head-start over 10.

Obviously the day will come when support will go out for everything but Windows 10, but until that time I will still be rocking Windows (and then some nice DX12 titles waiting for me when I finally upgrade).

Lastly, in regards to the spying - you have to be on the professional version to be able to turn every single setting off, and even then there are still some features that are awkward to disable (the antivirus one will re-enable itself after a certain amount of time after disabling it for instance).

 

Hm

I'm also going to address the following

That doesn't make any sense. Each version of Windows builds over the previous version. They don't just start from scratch every time. At its core, 10 is an improved 7. This is like saying you're going to buy a car made in 2010 that's received one or two QoL improvements over a brand new 2017 that'll last you a decade longer, easily. It just doesn't make a lick of sense.

 

At this point, I'm more worried about trying to find a version of the OS that isn't heavily 1 star'd on Amazon. A lot of people are saying it pirated on both the Windows 7 and 10. Also my new case doesn't have a optical drive slot...So how would that work?

 

Who even uses drives anymore.. Usb

 

Windows 10 hands down. I fully support everything blypig has stated in this thread.

I started testing 10 when it was still in early release, almost a year before the official release, and I've only watched it improve tenfold since then.

The bloatware that Microsoft packages in is very easy to remove, and the "tracking" easy to block.

I recommend checking this out if/when you make the move to 10. This enables you to automate basically everything.

Releases · 10se1ucgo/DisableWinTracking · GitHub

@Blupig have you seen/used that above link? I have with great success, might be something worth adding to your toolkit.

 

From a security perspective go for Windows 10.

I keep seeing more exploits on the Metasploit framework for windows 7 and 8. Also keep in mind that Microsoft will stop Windows 7 updates in the next year or so. An up-to-date and patched system is something that should be your top priority.

 

How the hell do I get windows 10 onto a USB? Because that would be the best way to do all this.

 

I won't Google it for you but a downloadable USB installer is available on the Microsoft site.

 

It just comes down to your personal preference, if you like everything to be nice and simple, get 7. If you like all of the extra customization and features, get 10. I personally don't care for 10. It's gotten a lot better but after running it for a couple weeks I had to make the switch back to 7.

 

You can download everything (W10 image file, and usb installer) you need from the microsoft website. Ofc you wont be able to activate windows unless you buy a key.

 

Windows 10 I presume that this that?

Thank you. I'm still on the fence but kind of going towards Windows 10 atm, but still skeptical.

I have windows 10 on my laptop (Pre installed), could I use the same product key? I doubt I can, just wondering . I know I probably have to buy a product key and I've come to terms with it, but still trying to see if there is a work around .

 

You can bypass the Microsoft auth servers very easily. Again, I can't elaborate, but if you have a legit copy just without a key, there are very easy ways to get around that.

 

I wish I could figure out what your saying. It's in my face but I just don't understand

 

add me on skype and I'll explain how to mount windows 10 to a USB drive and set it as your boot device in your BIOS. If there are any other problems I'll see what else I can help you with.

 

You can download the windows 10 installer directly from Microsoft legitimately

Windows 10

After downloading and running, it'll give you the option to create a boot disk(or drive) - Select the USB option.

 

I use windows 7 because I don't like my computer randomly restarting for hours to do updates and I prefer the original start menu. It's still supported by Microsoft and I still get updates. There is literally nothing that I haven't been able to do with it, using Visual Studio, SQL Server, Eclipse, and Android Studio.

Yes, I'm sure there are some things that only 10 will be able to do, but I've never needed them. And yes 7 is old, but because it's old it's much more tested and stable. I know eventually I'll need to upgrade, but as of now I'm very happy with windows 7.

That being said, you should use windows 10, so you don't have to upgrade in the future. My laptop is over 2 years old and I will be looking for a new laptop by the time 7 is no longer supported. Also, as it was earlier mentioned, your hardware drivers either won't be supported or not nearly as much as they would be on 10. I've had a lot of trouble getting my network card to work well on my 2 year old laptop, and would probably be a lot worse if you try finding drivers for a brand new laptop.