Updated: February 5, 2025
Quite often, I wonder how much nostalgia plays part in our perception of past events. Luckily, with software, you can go "back" and retest it, and so there's no need for any illusions and misconceptions. To wit, I decided to reinstall and try Windows 7 again (as a virtual machine, but still), to see whether my impressions of the dross we call "modern" software today are justified.
If you're wondering how I feel, I've said it before. Windows 10 is about the same as Windows 7. There aren't any big differences, except more annoyances and more "online" nonsense that adds zero value to the actual user experience. For me, the leap from XP to 7 was a good one, mostly because the latter came with improved 64-bit support. But ever since? I left XP with three years remaining on its support clock. I left 7 with maybe a month left. With 10, I have absolute zero intentions of moving to the low-IQ Windows 11. Linux, it is, but if push comes to shove, Mac might also be an option. But I digress. Let's check the last real desktop Windows.
Installation and setup
Having done a lot of tweaking in Windows 10 and Windows 11, it's sooooo refreshing to install a system that asks, well, nothing. No stupid questions, no mobile-like toggles for apes, no smartphone nonsense that ruins the classic mouse-and-keyboard experience. None of that. Simple, quick, hassle-free installation.
My Windows 7 is an old, old installation. We're talking early days old. Not even with a service pack. That meant doing some updates. Well then, updates. Initially, they did not work. I had to some manual tweaking to get going. Namely:
- Install a prerequisite package, followed by Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
- Install two more prerequisite packages.
After this, Windows Update worked just fine, and it downloaded and installed all of the necessary patches save for three. For some reason, it struggled with a few 2019 KBs, but no matter. It is what it is. The nice part is that the process still works and works fast. The Update Catalog is online, alive and well, and it has all of the packages, if you need them. Even though the system is no longer supported, you have access to everything, dating back to 2009 or so. Very neat. And this is important to mention, because when I wanted to upgrade my tiny eeePC (with its Linux distro), the EOL archives were gone. Not there anymore. And we're talking a much shorter update frame. Also, the update process was lightning-quick - quicker than it was when Windows 7 was still actively supported. Go figure.
Eventually, we were ready to party:
Applications & security
Next, I grabbed some goodies. Firefox still offers a supported version of its browser for Windows 7, 115 ESR. Dandy. I also downloaded the latest IrfanView, LibreOffice, Notepad++, VLC. All of these work superbly, and give you an up-to-date user experience. Swell.
Then, I configured a standard user, and on top of that added the beautiful EMET (version 5.52). Strangely, for this program, I couldn't find an online installer on any Microsoft website, but since I kept a copy, I simply used that to install and configure this wonderful, useful mitigation toolkit. Splendid.
Comparison to newer Windows versions
So what do we have here? Looks? Yup, still nice, still relevant. And much better ergonomics, too. Thick, human scrollbars, good clarity and separation between foreground and background elements. None of that modern flatness crap. No touch-like crap, either, so everything is easy to use. Faster, more efficient, too.
You don't get asked five million questions about camera and speech and Bluetooth and location and other pointless nonsense that have no place on the desktop. Smartphones, okay, but classic PCs, hell no. The software works as it should, and you don't have to contend with low-IQ website wrappers pretending to be "apps". The system is super fast and responsive, even as a virtual machine.
Most importantly, you have all the functionality you need for modern-day use. Sure, companies have arbitrarily, deliberately culled their own products, so they no longer work on Windows 7 and/or are no longer supported (which means nothing considering how buggy modern software is), but technically, there is really nothing, nothing at all in this operating system that's missing. Everything you can do in Windows 10/11 is here, only faster, lighter, crisper, nicer, less intrusive, less stupid. Security? Meh. Nothing that couldn't be backported, or nothing that should make you lose any sleep. After all, it's the companies and their "clouds" out there you should be worried about, not random hax0rs pwning your machine. The likelihood of your machine being hacked is tiny. The likelihood of some company losing your data, immense. It's happening daily. Everywhere, all the time. And on that sad realization ...
Conclusion
I'm not advocating going back to Windows 7. As time goes by, it will become less and less relevant, less and less supported. But its demise was entirely arbitrary. Entirely. The same can be said of XP, of course, and the upcoming "death" of Windows 10. And you can see that newer systems are less good. The numbers speak for themselves. When Windows 7 departed for binary pastures, about a quarter of people were still using the operating system. Today, 65% of users are still on Windows 10. Two thirds! By October, this number is not likely to drastically change. That tells you something. Two things really. One, people are fed up with arbitrary greed, and they don't care. Two, people don't really like the "modern" crap.
I'm going to be responsible and say Windows 7 probably isn't suited for "serious" use online, like say banking or such. But as an ordinary machine for common tasks? It does everything you need and then some. Apart from some system updates, Windows 7 is modern and relevant. With EMET in place and running as a standard user, you'd be just fine. But hey. The great wheel of greed must turn. Intellect and user control are not profitable.
Thus, we reach the end of this bittersweet article. Windows 7 is truly the last proper desktop Windows. Everything since is a weird smartphone delirium. On one hand, Microsoft missed the boat with Windows Phone, and THAT, in my view, was (and still is) the BEST smartphone system ever made. Lumia FTW! On the other, they keep on pushing their pseudo-vision of touch, even though no one wants it or needs it. Going forward, it will be more and more toggles, more annoyances, less privacy, less control. You can see this "evolution" through Office products, too. I own Office 2016, and when I installed it on my desktop a couple of years back, I could simply download the installer and get going. Some drama, but nothing major. Now, you "must" have an account to be able to get to the installer links. The new versions of Office even mandate it. The support times are shorter. Slowly, soon, the good perpetual license thing will be dead. But hey, Office 2003 still works fine, so we have another 10-20 years before we must contemplate this stupidity in full. Keep hold of yer old licenses like gold, me hearties.
No rose-tinted nostalgia to report, then. Windows 7 is elegant, fast and very quiet. It can run the full gamut of important software (including Firefox, which is extremely commendable), and it doesn't ask a million questions on how to make your "experience" more "connected". Well then, take what you will from this article. We shall speak soon, or something.
Cheers.