Windows 10 can run all your Windows 7 apps, says Microsoft (except a few)
The last twelve months of official unpaid support for Windows 7 have started; Microsoft's, still very popular, operating system will receive the last batch of updates in early January 2020.
Extended support ends in January 2020 and while organizations may pay Microsoft to get an additional three years of security updates, no such option exists for Home customers.
It won't be possible, likely, to extend the end of support, like on Windows XP or Vista systems, by installing compatible Server patches as Windows Server 2008 R2 support ends in January 2020 as well.
Tip: check out our overview of Windows versions and support end here.
Microsoft wants that Windows 7 customers and organizations upgrade their devices to the company's Windows 10 operating system. While it is theoretically possible to upgrade to Windows 8.1, it would extend the end of support issue by just three years.
Microsoft guaranteed to support Windows 10, the last version of Windows according to Microsoft officials, until at least 2025. It is unclear what is going to happen in 2025 though.
Microsoft broke with the "a new operating system every three years" rule when it released Windows 10. The company did not release Windows 11 in 2018 which it would support until 2028. While there is a chance for a major refresh in 2025, all of that is pure speculation at this point in time.
Windows 10 software compatibility
Software compatibility should not keep companies and users from making the switch according to Microsoft. The company created a special program, called Desktop App Assure, in which it analyzed 41,000 applications for Windows 10 compatibility.
7000 out of those 41,000 applications had the potential for compatibility concerns according to the Desktop App Assure team; only 49 of those, however, had compatibility issues. Microsoft fixed compatibility issues for "many" of these applications.
The company failed to provide the list of programs that are not compatible with Windows 10. Organizations may contact Microsoft's Desktop App Assure team to resolve compatibility issues with software on Windows 10.
Details on how to contact the team have been published on the Microsoft 365 blog.
The company published a video in October 2018 entitled "What is Desktop App Assure and Manage Win32 apps with Intune".
Closing Words
I'd say that software compatibility was never the major problem when it came to Windows 10 adoption; Microsoft looking into this is still appreciated, though.
Now You: Do you use windows 10? What is keeping you, if not?
I’m jumping ship to Linux, not OSX, but for all of you who are considering switching to Mac, here’s a little bonus incentive: Macbook screens have a 16:10 aspect ratio and the great majority of Windows laptop screens have a 16:9 aspect ratio. It doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but you’re *really* going to appreciate that extra bit of vertical space when you’re working in an application with multiple bars on top. It’s not the old-school 4:3 (=16:12), but it’s still better than 16:9.
You can say it til you’re blue in the face, but it doesn’t make it true MS.
So they think that app compatibility is the reason people avoid 10 and stick to 7/8.1? LOL they are really clueless. The HORRID changes to the operating system’s fundamentals is why people hate 10.
Windows media center runs just fine on windows 10, I use it every day. The old photo viewer works fine too on windows 10. 2 things they should have brought forward to windows 10.
How? It was part of the Windows 7 package. It is not included in Windows 10.
Registry hack.
Secdrv was disabled by updates in all windows versions (after Windows XP/XP x64) in an update a few years ago even if it never has been known if secdrv was used by any malware or not.
At least in Windows versions after XP you can enable it easy (not sure about Windows 10 though):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Secdrv]
“Type”=dword:00000001
“Start”=dword:00000002
“ErrorControl”=dword:00000001
“ImagePath”=hex(2):73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,73,00,65,00,63,00,64,00,72,00,76,\
00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00
“DisplayName”=”Security Driver”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Secdrv\Security]
“Security”=hex:01,00,14,80,78,00,00,00,84,00,00,00,14,00,00,00,30,00,00,00,02,\
00,1c,00,01,00,00,00,02,80,14,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,\
00,00,02,00,48,00,03,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,9d,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,\
05,04,00,00,00,00,00,18,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,\
20,02,00,00,00,00,14,00,fd,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,\
01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Secdrv\Enum]
“0”=”Root\\LEGACY_SECDRV\\0000″
“Count”=dword:00000001
“NextInstance”=dword:00000001
Except for forced auto-updates and Telemetry & Data collection, Win 10 is an OK OS comparable to Win 7.
.
Most consumers only need to upgrade Windows about once every 5 years. Most businesses only need to upgrade Windows about once every 10 years. This was not compatible with M$’s hyper-greed for $¥€£. Hence forced auto-upgrades in Win 10.
How come M$ did not put out a tool to check for old Win 7 era hardware device compatibility with Win 10.? Because M$ will likely soon make all hardware devices older than 5 years to be incompatible with the latest version of Win 10 = Planned Obsolescence = copying what Apple has been doing with iDevices.
I have clients running XP for hardware and software compatibility.
They spent thousands of dollars on specialized printers for blueprints, CAD programs, store inventory systems, unique industrial control systems, truck,bus, farm tractor maintenance programs, their profit margins don’t leave much room for what can easily end up to be multiple thousands of dollars for hardware and software upgrades. The ice rink with cooling system controls that only runs on an XP system. A few months back I converted a Win 7 tower used by a graphic artist to a dual boot WIN 7/10 system. A few of his key programs just don’t work well on Win 10 even with the latest program updates, which is why he wanted dual boot. I just finished rebuilding up a bare case a 10 year old e-machines XP PC used for a store inventory system. The is no Internet access at the site, never will be, in the middle of state parkland and the replacement software is cloud based and the manager also did not care to manually reload thousands of inventory items into a new system.
Its the invasive unstoppable telemetry and incessant “calling home” that keeps me away from Windows 10. I can deal with difficult “Apps”.
that telemetry doesn’t contain your name, phone number, credit card numbers and other personal information. its data that helps resolve p roblems and helps the company understand better how people use their software etc. al I don’t really understand the opposition to this. It doesn’t hurt you outside of a wild presumption that there’s some ulterior motive to harm you, which is just a conspiracy theory not rooted in real evidence.
@Al: “that telemetry doesn’t contain your name, phone number, credit card numbers and other personal information”
It may not contain my name, etc., but it absolutely contains personal information: it contains information about my use of my own computer. That’s personal.
“I don’t really understand the opposition to this.”
I don’t understand what’s so hard to understand. Lots of people resent having them or their computer use spied on. Seems easy enough to understand to me.
“It doesn’t hurt you”
Maybe, maybe not. But not only is that beside the point (the point is that collecting data related to me without my explicit consent is wrong), but that’s not something that anyone can judge for anybody except themselves.
Let me ask you — why do you think it’s OK to collect data about me and my machines against my will? Why should I not have a say about this?
“It may not contain my name, etc., but it absolutely contains personal information: it contains information about my use of my own computer. That’s personal.”
Not according to definitions of personal information. Depending on your configuration (e.g., whether you have signed in a Microsoft account) absolutely none of the information is personal. Microsoft also does not retain all collected data—a policy known as sampling actually limits data collected—and a vast majority of telemetry can be configured to be disabled. Additionally, unlike previous versions, Windows 10 provides the ability to actually witness the information that is being sent and when.
“Let me ask you — why do you think it’s OK to collect data about me and my machines against my will? Why should I not have a say about this?”
Let me ask you — Where were you when data collection was introduced? Versions of Microsoft Office as far back as Office XP, for instance, collected telemetry. Windows Vista introduced CEIP (the Customer Experience Improvement Program, the main point of telemetry collection of future versions). Windows Vista also introduced Microsoft Active Protection Service (formerly SpyNet) for product improvement purposes, which entails the collection of content that could contain personally identifiable information.
Even Windows 7 either introduced new forms of telemetry or enabled it where it had been previously unavailable (e.g., the express setup option enabled the aforementioned CEIP by default, unlike Windows Vista).
@ Ian
“Let me ask you — why do you think it’s OK to collect data about me and my machines against my will? Why should I not have a say about this?â€
Why do you not answer his question? instead you question with a juxtaposition.
The simple answer is: It’s not OK. Though if you use it, you are consenting to it.
If you don’t like being spied on, use Linux.
Because you can’t disable it in windows. It’s mandatory spying ;)
Ugh, I wonder if the apologists for spyware have a brain parasite or just a bad case of communist/socialist indoctrination?
If telemetry works for the stated purpose of improving the product, then they are just awful programers. They have tons of user data and their programs are still buggy, unsecured, slow, need patches (that might cause data loss or cause other problems) and updates, constantly.
I notice that the “telemetry” programs always work 100% from the get-go. They never need patches or updates at all. Really shows where their priorities lie.
@Lux
I did answer the question. I even mentioned how the information that is collected is not personal.
I notice you cannot answer *my* question—instead you only replied with your own question.
“Spyware”? Hardly. It is interesting that you bring politics into this discussion even though any political affiliation (or rather, in my case the lack thereof) has absolutely no bearing on my position in regard to this technology. I guess I just have a brain parasite, hehe. On the bright side, even with this parasite not once did I mention politics, imply that you were indoctrinated, or otherwise insult your intelligence.
In regard to the last to paragraphs, you apparently have no idea of the nuances of the data collection. One need only to look at the way Windows 7 was built—telemetry was a crucial aspect of many major design decisions.
@Ian
John Fenderson: “Let me ask you — why do you think it’s OK to collect data about me and my machines against my will? Why should I not have a say about this?â€
Ian: “Let me ask you — Where were you when data collection was introduced?”
You replied with a question/juxtaposition without directly answering his main two questions. ;)
My apologies for indirectly/implied ad-hominem.
“In regard to the last to paragraphs, you apparently have no idea of the nuances of the data collection. One need only to look at the way Windows 7 was built—telemetry was a crucial aspect of many major design decisions.”
IMO: my statement still stands true.
I appreciate your eloquent and humerus reply, take care.
@John Fenderson
I agree with you 100%
Some people are just incredibly complacent, ignorant and apologetic to tyrannical forces.
It’s sad that people won’t or refuse to understand until the jackboot is on their neck, and then it is too late.
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” – George Orwell
A great documentary is – America Freedom to Fascism by: Aaron Russo
Edward Snowden disagrees with you.
Why do you think Microsoft was one of the first partners to volunteer in the:
PRISM (surveillance program)
Xkeyscore (surveillance program)
Muscular (surveillance program)
Echelon (surveillance program)
Most spy programs are still classified.
Cyber-Warfare / Surveillance is the new digital frontier.
To call this “conspiracy theory” is idiotic as well as ignorant.
Because: There is plenty of evidence and whistle blowers from government agencies speaking out against this.
BTW “conspiracy theory” is a word of propaganda first used by the Warren Commissions:
To dissuade people from privately investigating the assassination of JFK.
Watch / Read: The Report from Iron Mountain and Operation Paperclip.
lmfao, you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Most of those things you’ve listed are simply applications most people call malware. It just so happens to be malware that was sanctioned by the US Spy Agencies, so now they’re called something else.
They’re not going to waste their software being detected by infecting random people like you. The XKeyscore, for example, is only found on foreign spy / embassy / political tergets, as per the wiki. Even the Wiki for PRISM notes that it was only used on foriegn infrastructure.
So yeah, this is all conspiracy theory — unless you think Snowden was a false flag operation to limit damage?
Nobody really gives a shit about the average user’s inane chatter about their haircut or what they ate last night. Worst case, they want to make a user profile for advertising purposes… and while that can be bad for privacy and there is a potential for abuse, it’s a far cry from what you’re advocating.
@someone asdf
;) looks like you are the one that does not know what they are talking about. I’ll explain.
If you would simply read everything there is to be read on wiki about the programs I listed (which is only scratching the surface)
there is massive amounts of data collected from all internet traffic.
“According to the leaked document the NSA’s acquisitions directorate sends millions of records every day from internal Yahoo! and Google networks to data warehouses at the agency’s headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. The program operates via an access point known as DS-200B, which is outside the United States, and it relies on an unnamed telecommunications operator to provide secret access for the NSA and the GCHQ.”
“the MUSCULAR program collects more than twice as many data points (“selectors” in NSA jargon) compared to the better known PRISM. Unlike PRISM, the MUSCULAR program requires no (FISA or other type of) warrants.
Because of the huge amount of data involved, MUSCULAR has presented a special challenge to NSA’s Special Source Operations. For example, when Yahoo! decided to migrate a large amount of mailboxes between its data centers, the NSA’s PINWALE database (their primary analytical database for the Internet) was quickly overwhelmed with the data coming from MUSCULAR.”
As per the wiki it’s spelled “target”. Though, “tergets” sounds very credible.
Mal ware is hacking and spy-ware programs.
It’s called global boundless information gathering for a reason.
Lol, if you even looked at the usage map, it includes every country in the world. Agreed, the middle east is in the highest surveillance.
They’ve manufactured a global surveillance grid with muti-country government partnerships.
For instance, the united states is in “yellow” which is 5:10 on the scale.
I notice you ignore ECHELON, which is a program that records vast amounts of internet activity, as well as phone calls, fax, email, digital data. This is not a “targeted” program.
Keep being an apologist for this, plenty of ignorant sheep to be sheered.
“By the end of the 20th century, the system referred to as “ECHELON” had evolved beyond its military and diplomatic origins to also become “…a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications” (mass surveillance and industrial espionage)”
“ECHELON was capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks (which once carried most Internet traffic), and microwave links.”
“Two internal NSA newsletters from January 2011 and July 2012, published as part of the Snowden-revelations by the website The Intercept on 3 August 2015, for the first time confirmed that NSA used the code word ECHELON and provided some details about the scope of the program: ECHELON was part of an umbrella program code named FROSTING, which was established by the NSA in 1966 to collect and process data from communications satellites.”
“A global network of electronic spy stations that can eavesdrop on telephones, faxes and computers. It can even track bank accounts. This information is stored in Echelon computers, which can keep millions of records on individuals.”
Once again this is only scratching the surface. most programs are still classified.
“unless you think Snowden was a false flag operation to limit damage?”
Do you not even see the ironic stupidity of your statement? Your ignorance is staggering.
You are proposing a “conspiracy theory” while saying that – actual documented spy programs – are.
oh well, can’t fix stupid ;)
People actually do care, that’s why comment sections exist. You are full of logical fallacies.
I’m not “advocating” anything, I’m pointing out spy programs and their partners.
Enjoy your ignorance, good day.
Windows Media Center. Nothing else tried (quite a few) does it as well.
emby server or mediaportal does well.
Eventually all people will move to Windows 10 without exception. There’s no available driver for newer devices in older Windows
NOPE. still on XP :P and getting a mint Linux 3700x rig some time as well.
Win10 is the definition of: Slow bloated spyware.
@Anonymous: “Eventually all people will move to Windows 10 without exception. ”
This is certainly false. There will be a percentage of people who will move to a different OS entirely.
@John Fenderson
Drivers are made by the hardware manufacturers. That’s the reason why many (uncommon)devices don’t work on Linux.
https://www.howtogeek.com/213488/how-to-install-hardware-drivers-on-linux/
2019 is the year of Linux desktop!
@Anonymous: “Drivers are made by the hardware manufacturers”
Not necessarily — it depends on the hardware manufacturer and how hardnosed they are. The majority of device drivers in Linux, for instance, are not made by the hardware manufacturers.
But I was not saying that all of the people who leave Windows would shift to Linux. I was saying that they’ll shift to a different OS.
(as an aside as someone who prefers Linux, I do not want Linux to become the predominant consumer OS, because that would have problematic consequences for Linux).
Windows 7 = I control my PC
Windows 10 = Microsoft controls my PC.
That is why I’m still running Windows 7 at this time.
Couldn’t have said it any better than that!
@DaveyK:
I think you’ve stated the crux of the matter, although I might have put it:
Windows 7 = With a few basic precautions (e.g., blocking GWX, vetting updates, and preventing or turning off unwanted diagnostics and telemetry), I control my PC.
Windows 10 = I have to maintain *constant vigilance* in order to retain some semblance of control over my PC, and even then, I don’t always succeed.
The only thing keeping me from making the change from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is the number 10 itself. I really don’t like the number 10. On the other hand, I’m in love with the elegance of the number 7. Look at it: that steep slope, falling off the top dash… just perfect.
Other than that, I really have no beef with Windows 10.
PRISM (surveillance program)
Xkeyscore (surveillance program)
Muscular (surveillance program)
Echelon (surveillance program)
Windows 7-10 (surveillance program)
7, the number of perfection.
Well, 6.1.7601 to be specific…
Damn, i hate the word “app” in such a contest…only things in Win7 that could be called apps are sidebar gadgets.
App = something meaningless/useless/pointless for mobiles that you can make in less than a day after watching or reading some tutorials; notable examples are virtual lighter, virtual drinking beer, virtual gun, burp & fart soundboards, Flappy Bird, etc.
Program, application = real software like operating systems, Steam, VLC, Office, Autocad, Photoshop, etc.
“app” is shorthand for application. It means the same thing that application does because it is short for that. You don’t get to change the meaning just because you don’t like it.
It’s just a name. I used to hate “app” also when referring to programs like Microsoft Office. However, it’s what people are used to these days. I also don’t get made when people call Internet file storage “the cloud”. Relax, things change over time.
@Harro Glööckler:
For my part, I think “app” is just shorthand for “application”. I make no distinction between the two.
@Harro
That’s your opinion. I would say an app is a non-compiled, scripted application that runs on a mobile operating system. Your “old man tripe” such as
” …. meaningless/useless/pointless for mobiles that you can make in less than a day after watching or reading some tutorials; notable examples are virtual lighter, virtual drinking beer, virtual gun, burp & fart soundboards, Flappy Bird, etc. …. ”
is a bunch of generalized whooey. I’m more a desktop person as well, but I don’t delude myself into thinking that mobile OS and app development doesn’t require talent. You either need to adapt and open your eyes to reality, or else shut up and go collect your pension.
Apps are a lot like lefties. They make up some new vocabulary, change its meaning then proceed to try and convince everyone that its something different. App, short for application, a program and software are all synonymous. Creating apps is much easier now than creating a program or software, especially in the early days when it took far more effort since you didn’t have api’s, programing languages and scripts all put together for you by somebody in the past who may or may not be ready to collect their pension.
What Microsoft won’t tell you, is that many older games will not run on Windows 10, because they come with digital restrictions malware that loads custom drivers into Windows in order to check whether you have the official game disk in the drive. If you don’t, the game refuses to run. This presents not only a problem for users of Windows 10 (as loading of such drivers is no longer allowed even if you have an optical drive), but indeed anyone using a computer without an optical drive; something that has been common place for years now, ever since the Netbook took off. Even if you installed the game to a USB stick or using an external USB optical drive, the game won’t run without lugging around the bulky optical drive, and not at all if you are on Windows 10 even if you do have an optical drive!
If they were decent people, game publishers would produce official patches to solve the problem for their paying fans. Remember that indeed, the above only affects the paying fans and not the people who torrented the game without paying for it: torrented copies of the game still work correctly, because they don’t check for the presence of a CD. So as a paying fan who bought a game on disk, I’m the one who gets punished.
Treating fans this way isn’t a viable long term business strategy. Because of the above, I don’t believe in supporting game developers anymore. Not that I torrent games either; most modern games are nothing but un-moddable cut-scene sequences where the player is on a strict linear path today anyways. (compare the design of Duke Nukem Forever to Duke Nukem 3D!) I only buy games used now for consoles to ensure that the developers don’t get a dime from me. muhahaha I’ve even paid more for a second hand game disk than a new one was going for, just to stiff them, the way they’ve stiffed me, as I’ve clearly outlined above.
“digital restrictions malware.”
The correct terminology is digital rights management, and it is designed and implemented for a very noble cause: to hinder or prevent copyright infringement.
Grow up.
@Jon: “If they were decent people, game publishers […]”
Game publishers (the big ones, anyway) haven’t been “decent people” for at least two decades.