Solved Windows 7 .... what would you do with it ?

spapakons · Apr 3, 2023

Is secure enough with an updated third party antivirus and common sense. I don't need enything more. I don't use my PC for online payments, I use my smartphone for that. For paying online you can also use prepaid cards with a limited amount of money, so if they are compromised you won't lose a lot.

flashh4 · Apr 3, 2023

As i have stated many times "no antivirus will completely protect you" and you guys have stated it correctly the ideal way to protect your self is by being smart about your surfing the web ! And then there are always some things that can't be explained of how it got to you ! But there are programs we Malware Removal Specialist use to find hidden bad things so everyone be Safe & i will keep W7 running on this computer !
Many Thanks gang !!

WAI · Apr 3, 2023

I don't use any I'm smart not to click links

Hazel123 · Apr 3, 2023

All you need is an extra 3gb of ram and put Windows 10 on

And then make it look like Windows 7. And it's secure. I think Windows 10 with 4gb ram will be faster than Windows 7 with the current 2gb of ram. Even if you don't change the hard drive.

How to make Windows look like Windows 7 | Digital Trends

We provide step-by-step instructions on how you can use tools and tweaks to bring the Windows 7 experience to Windows 10 and get back features you may want.

www.digitaltrends.com

spapakons · Apr 4, 2023

I run Windows 11 heavily customized so all system icons are the respective Windows 8.1 or 7 icons, start button and start menu are those of Windows 7, taskbar behaves like this of Windows 10 and I can also have the Windows Vista/7 desktop gadgets, classic games, old calculator and Windows Media Center. I managed to combine all the good features of earlier Windows versions in 11. I have even installed the screensavers and games from Windows XP Plus. The only thing I didn't manage to do yet is the 3D look in title bars and taskbar.

Hazel123 · Apr 4, 2023

I'm still running Windows 7 Chess on 10 and 11

Courtesy of Winaero.

Wynona · Apr 4, 2023

flashh4 said:
Hey gang, i just bought a HP desk top for $10 ......... it's so old it has W7 .. 6.1 (Build7601: Service Pack 1) on it ! So what would be your suggestion i do with it !
Update it or just throw it away ?
Note: After removing all the junk & running some clean up programs to make sure there were no bad things (virus & other junk) it runs fairly fast !
So should i update it or just leave it as is ? I thought about installing W11 on it !
Your thoughts please ??

Make it a server?

spapakons · Apr 5, 2023

Another use is download machine. You can download anything there without worrying about infected by viruses. If it does simply format and reinstall Windows 7. To be extra safe you can configure network to public and store downloads at a USB hard disk. You can check for viruses before using the disk at another computer. You can also make it media server to host your movies and music and stream to other computers using Plex or similar.

flashh4 · Apr 5, 2023

@spapakons i have a VM that i use for downloading virus & the tools it takes to remove them, i go back to school every 6 months to stay up on the programs & viruses that are around being reported ! I shall use it as a play thing to remember how W7 was used ! Thanks for your imput on this machine !!

Bree · Apr 5, 2023

flashh4 said:
I shall use it as a play thing to remember how W7 was used !

I have never forgotten. I have at least three W7 machines available, two VMs and a laptop with W7/Office 2003 on it. I keep that one disconnected from the internet and regularly use Excel to keep a record of my bank account transactions. As it never goes online it's the safest place to keep my financial data :wink:

Edwin · Apr 5, 2023

spapakons said:
... simply format and reinstall Windows 7

You'd have to have an ISO with Service Pack 1 in it! I don't think SP1 would come down the pipe!
Last time I did it, ages ago, it took me about 4 hours and twice as many reboots to finally get SP1!

spapakons · Apr 5, 2023

You can download SP1 and slipstream it into the ISO. I already have

spapakons · Apr 5, 2023

If I remember correctly newer Windows 7 DVDs included SP1 by default. To slipstream it use nLite

Edwin · Apr 5, 2023

spapakons said:
If I remember correctly newer Windows 7 DVDs included SP1 by default. To slipstream it use nLite

I acquired an 'integrated' ISO some time ago, I just don't know what I did with it!

Hazel123 · Apr 5, 2023

Edwin said:
You'd have to have an ISO with Service Pack 1 in it! I don't think SP1 would come down the pipe!
Last time I did it, ages ago, it took me about 4 hours and twice as many reboots to finally get SP1!

Last time I did it, it took about 3 days lol! Slow machine.

spapakons · Apr 6, 2023

That's why I use a more current computer to slipstream the Service Pack. Not the slow target computer.

SIW2 · Apr 6, 2023

spapakons said:
You can download SP1 and slipstream it into the ISO. I already have

yes, it can be done manually a bit tedious but there is no need to reverse integrate.

extract the windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe into a folder called e.g. sp1files
cmd prompt:
path_to_windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe /X:C:\SP1files

then extract the cabs that are in the sp1files folder ( I used 7-zip because I am lazy ) , doesnt matter if they overwrite what is already there.
Then you can move/delete those cab files out of that folder as you have already extracted them.

Then a couple of lines in the mum files ( can open in notepad ) need to be changed from allowedOffline="false" to "true"
Change the couple of lines in update.ses from targetState=”Absent” to targetState="Installed".

then it can be dismed in to the mounted install.wim image

something like this:
dism /image:C:\mount /add-package /packagepath:C:\SP1files

I did it out of curiosity. But it is much easier to d/l a win7 iso that already has SP1 included . Another advantage of d/l ing the iso is the bootable wim files (boot.wim and winre.wim ) will be sp1 which you don't get if you patch it in yourself.

Because if you want to integrate the nvme updates or driverframework update for usb3 support, or the sha2 update so you can integrate the latest realtek net drivers into the bootable wims, they need to be sp1.

I have still got that sp1files folder that I prepared. I have zipped it up to keep it all together 676mb

spapakons · Apr 6, 2023

This sounds like a lot of trouble. The easier is download nLite, run it, load the plain Windows 7 ISO, select to integrate Service Pack, point to the SP1 installer. Then select to create an ISO and wait for the new Windows 7 SP1 ISO to finish. You can also inject drivers if you plan to install Windows 7 on a modern computer. Yes, it can be done, but it is an advanced task.