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I literally just want Windows 7 again but with security updates, driver support, and back end technology upgrades.

For now I’m settling with Window’s current state with some Linux use mixed in with the intent to nearly fully migrate for my next desktop build. I’ll only use Windows for whatever games refuse to budge on anti-cheat, assuming by then I’m even still interested in playing pvp games at all considering how enshittified they are with engagement based matchmaking and FOMO battlepasses.

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merci3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I personally see Linux Mint exactly as a Windows 7 but with modern support (there is even a cool Aero theme for it) :P

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- mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  It’s… It’s beautiful
  
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- M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I use mint in my stores so I am no mint hater, but I still find windows 7 to be a nicer user experience. And funny enough “modern support” is still seemingly a thing for my old windows 7 machine. I am often shocked at how well new hardware just works with it. I would have changed it to mint years ago if it showed even a hint of obsolescence, but it seems to just keep trucking on and on. The same can not be said for other windows machines I have tried to put on line (for fun I have done windows XP, vista, 8 and 2000).
  
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  - merci3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    In my case I didn’t have much luck with support for newer hardware, sadly. And as much as I love Mint I have to agree that no OS beats Windows 7 UX up to this date. But I even then, I personally don’t feel much safe using it nowadays because of security vulnerabilities (since it’s EOL), I had issues with ransomware on Win 10 so God knows what I would infect myself with on win 7 😁
    
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xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
there is a program that makes windows 11 exactly like windows 7, it’s called StartAllBack:
www.xda-developers.com/startallback-review/

i switched to windows 11 recently, spent about a week battling all the bullshit, then found StartAllBack and it’s been beautiful.

i also recommend MalwareBytes “Windows Firewall Control”, which is actually free without pirating it… which i’m sure no one on here would ever do… but it lets you control exactly what programs can access the internet….
like, every time i open the file manager, explorer.exe tries to access the internet, i’ve been manually denying it for a while and it works exactly the same, so now i can just permanently disable it from going online….

but, StartAllBack is amazing, and everyone should have it… or really there should be an open source version by now….

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- MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Like Glasswire i think it was? And Tinywall. That category is called application firewall.
  
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  - xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    neato
    
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- mutual_ayed@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Do you get a licensing cut or a referral link?
  
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- xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  lol, no… the link i posted is to a review about it.
  
  i do love it, though….
  
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lessthanluigi@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
What made me switch permanently to Linux was the KDE Plasma Desktop Enviorment, using Archlinux (SomeOrdinaryGamers had this as his setup.) Basically has what I love about windows 7, and more. Even the desktop widgets!

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- HalfSalesman@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  For me, learning the GUI isn’t the biggest issue but taking full advantage of my hardware and some online game’s anti-cheat.
  
  I know Linux driver support that Nvidia has put out has brought it to a pretty good place, but my understanding is that its still not at parity and there is a performance impact to switching.
  
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  - Panamalt@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Can’t say much on the technical shit, but I’ve only had one game perform worse on linux. Most actually seem to do better, and I have an nvidia card. Though I don’t play much in the way of multi-player or online stuff, so mileage may vary.
    
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    HalfSalesman@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Fair enough, maybe I could give it another try.
    
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  - mutual_ayed@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Think of the steamdeck. That’s Linux, it’ll play modern games on decent settings and it’s 3 year old hardware now. It’s not an optimized OS like a PS4 ( nearest analog in terms of performance specs) it’s a full linux desktop OS.
    
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    HalfSalesman@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I know, I own one. I just also have a desktop with a 4070 super.
    
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  - djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    It’s a big incentive for me to make my next card upgrade an AMD card. That’s already a laundry list of other good reasons to do so nowadays, but it’s real hard to justify buying a graphics card in this economy.
    
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  - _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The performance issue is there’s no frame gen with DLSS yet. Other than that, I get better performance from my NVIDIA card on Linux than I do on windows.
    
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M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I still use 7 on my media PC in the living room. Its wild how much better it still is to use. Gamepass seems to be all that keeping one PC running windows 10, and when that ends so will my use. Never going to 11.

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- Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Unless that windows 7 computer is entirely air-gapped from your network, you should switch it to Linux or Windows 10 (which is going out of support in October).
  
  Even if you have it on a separate VLAN or have it restricted from accessing the internet, there are attacks that can use another device on the network as a starting point for attacks.
  
  Having a Windows 7 computer anywhere near your network is an enormous security risk. And one that is frankly not worth it, given the alternatives that exist.
  
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  - M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Ha, no it is not. As someone who worked many years in the industry, nothing is really secure but also nothing is really attacked in that way anymore. (Unless you think people are going around warwalking looking for vulnerabilities in private networks). There are are still many networked devices running old windows even now (in some really sensitive areas as well). The constant fear mongering about security updates from Microsoft being anything but too little/too late is just crap talk to keep people employed.
    
    The main risk currently is social engineering, to a degree that (outside major nations/companies) the other attack vectors are a rounding error. You and anyone else worth less then a few millions best approach to online security is to back up often, change passwords often, and don’t click links in emails.
    
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- HalfSalesman@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Window’s 11 is pretty annoying to use on various levels. I only upgraded to it because my brother encouraged me. Hes always been a little bit of a mainstream tech cheerleader though. Hes always cheered on Intel, Nvidia, and Windows. Its funny though right now I (somewhat resentfully) have a Nvidia because of my performance demand and he has a Radeon because of budget.
  
  I think I might need to start trusting myself on my hardware searches a lot more. Of course I probably wont be buying new hardware for a while anyway.
  
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subatomic4771@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
what about win10/11 ltsc?

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- M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  No, they are bad. Boo windows 10 and the one that is even worse.
  
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  - subatomic4771@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    damn, I should’ve know that I’ll get this respond haha. I personally use dual boot Ubuntu 25.04 and win11 ltsc (cursed by some people’s standard I know but just hear me out I hate snap as much as you do) and I just thought win11 ltsc is the closest thing (the security updates, no AI, bloat bs) to what op was looking for from my experiences:
    
    I literally just want Windows 7 again but with security updates, driver support, and back end technology upgrades.
    
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