Micro$haft starts nagging W7-users soon about support-EOL

[RealBlackStuff]

Microsoft to start nagging users in April about the January 2020 Windows 7 end-of-support deadline

[Thinkpad4by3]

Its April 8, 2014 all over again

[AndyMH]

Switch to linux

[w0qj]

I was wondering what that "urgent" Windows Update was on our Win7 machines, requiring a mandatory reboot...
(One of our machines almost lost data, lucky we pressed [CTRL]+[S] to save before leaving machine unattended).

Now we know why...

[dr_st]

What I think about all such threads:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ueq8bUwdm ... =93&end=96
(embedded short segment, need to click play to view)

[MikalE]

I've had updates turned of for over a year. Guess I won't be getting that nag.i

[TPFanatic]

Windows 7 is a perfectly capable operating system with less redundancy, intrusion, and reliance on the cloud than 8 and 10.
And will remain so until people and companies stop developing for it.

[Thinkpad4by3]

Windows 7 is a perfectly capable operating system with less redundancy, intrusion, and reliance on the cloud than 8 and 10.
And will remain so until people and companies stop developing for it.

At the current rate, not for a long time. And I bet the same XP tricks we did 5 years ago to get stuff to work, we will do again.

[Omineca]

Switch to linux

I have one old machine with Win7, just for playing around with old BlackBerry and PalmOS devices (you can't get the full functionality of the Palm and BlackBerry Desktop and OS installation software in Linux and passing USB connections to virtualbox can be a real time-wasting hassle).

Otherwise, I agree completely. Cold boots and update times alone make it worth the switch.

[w0qj]

On a side note, how do you enable USB connections to VirtualBox?
Couldn't do it (maybe I'm not technical enough)...

VirtualBox (or Hyper-V for that matter) that cannot access USB is totally useless to us...

...passing USB connections to virtualbox can be a real time-wasting hassle).

[skx]

On a side note, how do you enable USB connections to VirtualBox?
Couldn't do it (maybe I'm not technical enough)...

VirtualBox (or Hyper-V for that matter) that cannot access USB is totally useless to us...

...passing USB connections to virtualbox can be a real time-wasting hassle).

no idea which distro you use, but you need to install the proprietary virtualbox-ext-pack, for debian it is available in the non-free repository. otherwise download it directly from virtualbox website.

then, once installed, you need to add your user in the vboxusers group
# adduser $USER vboxusers

works 100%, I even use virtualbox to read/flash xbox360 nand with usb reader which only has windows application to dump/write nand images. it is not a hassle at all, takes same amount of time to mount usb as under normal windows environment. above claim by Omineca is fake news, it is just selecting the usb you want to be available in your virtual machine, you click and it automounts


so yeah, all, switch to linux

[Cigarguy]

Been switching slowly to Linux. Always dabble with Linux but started to transition slowly when Win 10 came out. Now I'm 50/50 and can easily make the transition. There's no software that I'm so reliant on that I have to use Windows.

Having said that, I'll miss Windows 7 but will continue to use it for a long time even after the security updates are done. Like XP, I will have to move on once I can't browse the web and do basic office type stuff on it anymore.

[AndyMH]

On a side note, how do you enable USB connections to VirtualBox?

As well as the extension pack and membership of vboxusers, you also need to install guest-additions in your guest OS. When this is all done and with the VM running, in the VB devices menu you can select which usb devices to pass through the the guest OS. Easy! Running mint 19.0 cinnamon as my primary OS on a T430 with win7 as the guest OS.

What a surprise that linux has been mentioned in this thread

[Dekks]

Microsoft to start nagging users in April about the January 2020 Windows 7 end-of-support deadline

Given EOL it's bout the only time they have done this where you cant really complain about it.

[WarhawkCZ]

I've just came across this thread. I confirm it works brilliantly. Yesterday, I had a skype call with terrified, non technical, parents if they need to buy a new laptop(s).
They are too old to switch to linux but I am really happy that I did. I got a new corporate laptop two days ago, the second experience with W10 and I hate it even more.

[Omineca]

it is not a hassle at all, takes same amount of time to mount usb as under normal windows environment. above claim by Omineca is fake news, it is just selecting the usb you want to be available in your virtual machine, you click and it automounts

I completely missed this comment back when it was posted. Virtualbox is very picky about which USB connections it will pick up and forward -- and which ones it will not. The average USB drive is simple. Working with other devices *is* a time-wasting hassle, and it's a problem that's well-known. See, for example, these threads: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1038 and https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/6465 As you'll see, connections work in some versions of Virtualbox and then stop working again. Current status: not working, yet again.

[skx]

it is not a hassle at all, takes same amount of time to mount usb as under normal windows environment. above claim by Omineca is fake news, it is just selecting the usb you want to be available in your virtual machine, you click and it automounts

I completely missed this comment back when it was posted. Virtualbox is very picky about which USB connections it will pick up and forward -- and which ones it will not. The average USB drive is simple. Working with other devices *is* a time-wasting hassle, and it's a problem that's well-known. See, for example, these threads: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1038 and https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/6465 As you'll see, connections work in some versions of Virtualbox and then stop working again. Current status: not working, yet again.

I usb read/write 360 NANDs through virtualized win7 environment from my Debian machines. It works and that's not the average USB storage device mounting action