Your all time favorite Windows version

[ad4mg]

Besides Windows 10, I have numerous versions of Windows running in virtual environments. This had me pondering this morning which of these I thought was my favorite overall.

The list represents which versions I have licensed copies of running in VirtualBox. In each case, the specific versions are 'professional' or equivilent, and 64 bit when available.

[N8YX]

You forgot Win3.x.

I have a WfW 3.11 VM with sound card support and a full TCP/IP stack running in VB to support some scanner-control software. :neener:

[ad4mg]

You forgot Win3.x.

I have a WfW 3.11 VM with sound card support and a full TCP/IP stack running in VB to support some scanner-control software. :neener:

Well, I have WfW 3.11 in a DosBox environment. The sound card support was tricky, but I did get it going. I also have DOS 6.22, and FreeDOS installed for DosBox. To be honest, fiddling with the autoexec.bat and config.sys files gives me a headache.

All of that, plus Windows ME and Windows 8.0 are the primary reasons that I love my Linux! I do, however, still enjoy tinkering with some older versions of Windows, and I also have some older software that won't run right in newer versions of Windows.

[KG4CGC]

W7 was the last OS that Photoshop ran properly on. CS2 on the HD. On 10 it runs like a memory suck.

[N8YX]

There is a LOT of software I still use that doesn't quite make the cut on 10.

Win7 was the most stable of the lot by far, assuming your hardware wasn't on the way out to begin with. I have a work laptop set up with 10 Enterprise, and a VB VM with 10 Pro. Each has had to be reloaded from scratch at least once due to upgrades completely pooching the OS.

I find that the vast majority of "personal computing" tasks (things which don't require a specialized application suite) are readily handled on Linux, so that platform gets the nod here as my main PC platform. I also have a couple of backup work laptops whose primary OS is Linux, and with the exception of interacting with Office documents that don't cleanly import into a Linux Office alternative, I can move seamlessly between OSes as I work. Infrastructure access is easier under Linux too - I'm accessing that type of system, rather than managing forests of AD-connected Windows servers.

Many folk including myself are waiting with (not so) baited breath for the release of Win11...primarily to see what they screwed up this time around. Were there an option to keep 7 on life support forever I'd gladly choose it over anything else.

[n6hcm]

"which screwdriver is your favorite?"

That's what this question feels like to me. I feel like they are all pretty unremarkable. I do most of my reading and writing on Android tablets (extensive writing is done on one of my macs or pcs)

[KG4CGC]

I have an old machine with W7. I dare not put it online.

[KJ3N]

W10, with W7 a close second. The rest of them aren't even a consideration.

Someone once brought me a virus-laden laptop with 8.0 on. What a fucking nightmare that was. Just trying to navigate the OS had me pulling my hair out. It was enough for me to completely skip any 8.x version and jump directly from W7 to W10.

People seem to complain endlessly about W10 updates. I have to tell you, I've only had 1 or 2 instances where an update did something to my shack PC in the roughly 5 years I've been running it. It amounted to a reshuffling of USB ports, which caused WSJT-X to lose the audio settings for input and output. It took all of 60 seconds to fix. BFD. :icon_rolleyes:

Of course, I build all my desktop machines, so maybe that's the reason I don't have issues. There's far too much bloatware and proprietary hardware running on most OEM machines you buy. It's more like venereal diseases that never completely go away, resurfacing now and again.

Anyway, YMMV. Offer not good in all 50 states.

[N8YX]

Of course, I build all my desktop machines, so maybe that's the reason I don't have issues.

In the two cases (actually, three - two on the same system) I've seen this happen on, the OS started out as a fresh install. My personal copy of W10 is Pro, and my work copy is Enterprise. A minimum of additional software is installed on either, and it comes from reputable sources - not sketchy Internet "repositories".

Work system is a model which we literally have tens of thousands of dispersed throughout the corporation. My experience with the failed feature level upgrade and subsequent OS bricking was by no means the only occurrence. I keep current copies of our installation ISO images on removable storage so about the only thing I lost was a day or so spent in staging the system.

Home...this particular platform was built from scratch by me (you can see a thread in this forum section listing the particulars). Running Mint Tricia 19.3, the system is as stable as the Rock of Gibraltar. I had it set to dual-boot Win10 Pro and when the MS OS was "live", it typically wouldn't stay up longer than a week if I was doing any sort of I/O intensive operations (such as CAT control of radios, scanners, peripherals). An upgrade which made this condition worse (well known in the W10 user groups) prompted me to install, re-register and run W10 in a virtual machine via VirtualBox.

There was another upgrade (around the fall of last year) which bricked that VM and even screwed up my snapshot of it. So...re-install. A number of scanner-control programs I use flatly will not run for extended periods of time with W10 - though they're flawless on W7 and according to their authors, should be on 10 as well. Similar to Charles's shack, there are two W7 systems here with a lot of ham radio specific software installed. These are blocked from 'Net access.

I have another big VM host that's going together this fall and winter and will replace the system which I'm using to post this. If W10 doesn't play nicely there either...

[W3WN]

A lot of backward functionality (especially for 8 & 16 bit apps dating back to Win 3) was deliberately removed by Micro$oft in Win X. That's why a lot of older apps now break.

They're trying to force us into a 64 bit world. Which means that older software will have to be replaced, and older hardware that can't support the OS will have to be replaced as well.

[KJ3N]

They're trying to force us into a 64 bit world. Which means that older software will have to be replaced, and older hardware that can't support the OS will have to be replaced as well.

Welcome to Windows 11. :lol:

Seriously, if you're running on 10 year old hardware when you don't have to (which is most people in the consumer space), yeah, it's time to move on.

[W3WN]

Welcome to Windows 11. :lol:

Seriously, if you're running on 10 year old hardware when you don't have to (which is most people in the consumer space), yeah, it's time to move on.
My philosophy is more on the lines of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

A LOT of people use their computer/tablets/whatevers the way that the Boss does... access FacePlant, play a few games, read their emails and texts. For the bulk of what they do, outside of security concerns, they don't NEED the latest and greatest software, not the latest and fastest hardware. These are the people who are getting squeezed out (even if they don't realize it yet) by newer OS's that have dropped backward compatibility.

You and I and the rest of the folks on this forum? No problem moving up a level. But we have some legit needs for more memory, faster CPUs, better graphics, faster networking, and more efficient OS's... ok, so that last one may exclude Windoze. We take this in stride. The person who wants to reconnect with their high school crush and exchange pictures of their grandkids? Nope.

And, yes, Linux is a good alternative. Once you get it installed, and then get the user through the learning curve. Again, WE take this in stride. Most civilians? They throw up their hands and want their old system back.

[N1LAF]

Windows 11 does not go well with me from what I am reading. Since most of my engineering programs/software/tools will now run on Linux, Windows 11 will force that move. Even 5 year old computers will not make the requirements for Windows 11. Here are the requirements for Windows 11:

Internet connection and Microsoft accounts: Windows 11 Home edition requires internet connectivity and a Microsoft account to complete device setup on first use.
Switching a device out of Windows 11 Home in S mode also requires internet connectivity. Learn more about S mode here. For all Windows 11 editions, internet access is required to perform updates and to download and take advantage of some features. A Microsoft account is required for some features.

- in other words, no internet, no use of your(?) computer.

System firmware: UEFI, Secure Boot capable

- may not be able to multiboot with non-secure boot partitions. I may be wrong on this.

TPM: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0

- version 1.2 will not work. No TPM min version 2.0, no Windows 11. This will not go well with many.

Rest are minor issues, here are the rest of the requirements:

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC)

RAM: 4 gigabyte (GB) (minimum)

Graphics card: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver

Display: High definition (720p) display that is greater than 9” diagonally, 8 bits per color channel

Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifications

Also stated somewhere: Windows 10 will continue to be used after loss of support, no more updates after 2025 if I remember right.


I am doing what our all wise bartender is doing - Windows 7 doesn't touch the internet.

[N1LAF]

Fun Quotes: found at https://www.pcworld.com/article/155984/worst_tech_predictions.html

Worst Tech Predictions of All Time

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

Thomas Watson, president of IBM, 1943


"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977


"Apple is already dead."

Nathan Myhrvold, former Microsoft CTO, 1997


"Two years from now, spam will be solved."

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, 2004

[N1LAF]

Consumer Market Dictates Computer Technology

Always have.

In the beginning of consumer "interference" in computer technology was the rise of Commodore Vic 20, Commodore 64, The Amiga's, The Atari's, and Radio Shack TRS-80. The consumer demand for graphics, games, and sound/music pushed the technology in this direction. Those who said computers do not need high end graphics got run over by the consumer market.

The demand for faster, higher resolution graphics, with the slowness of Microsoft, IBM and Intel to get there, brought forth the VESA local bus, as we saw in the 486 PC's. PCI bus came afterwards. IBM tried to get into the game with microchannel architecture, but failed due to high royalty fees. Besides, we had VESA local bus, who needed microchannel?

Consumer market infiltrated the internet, marketers saw this and further exploited the internet use. Multimedia shaped the www standards to be included. Websites now look like tabloids in appearance. All this are good things, but you can see how the market shapes technology.

Now we have cell phones which are much more than phones, they are everything the consumer wants. Games, web browsing, commerce, and office suites... all this has put a serious dent in the computer market... Samsung is there, Google is there, Apple is there, but where is Microsoft?

Windows 11 may be the beginning of the end for Microsoft. There are alternatives, Apple is just a user interface wrapper around a Linux core, and so is chromebook. If someone can put together a close windows wrapper around a Linux core, they may hasten the move away from Microsoft.

Did I miss anything?

[n6hcm]

Well, actually, macos is a user interface atop a *BSD* core...

But msft always floats requirements like this before they launch a new os that nobody wants. Many of the proposals never come to fruition.

For instance, I don't think that the msft account will be required... Doing this obviates the use of the new OS in secure environments. They said this would be true for win 10 as well.

[kb2vxa]

I couldn't vote because there is no "none of the above" option. Windblows never did hit its stride, unlike open source Linux, the Redmond Gang has users as lab rats in a never ending constantly upgrading beta test. Then when W7 became easily defeated spyware, and trying to force downgrade to W10 (8 & 8.1 joined the list of failures) with ever increasingly difficult to tame being spyware in itself, and Micro$haft products like Office 2019 following suit started on a slippery slope down to Hell. Now W11 the worst spyware yet, and has made millions of perfectly good computers obsolete, that's THE LAST STRAW! I'm learning Linux with Mint in the virtual environment. FOO YOU REDMOND GANG, EAT SHIT AND DIE!

[N1LAF]

We shouldn't forget Win NT, nor the failed Windows Vista.

[W3WN]

We shouldn't forget Win NT, nor the failed Windows Vista.
Which NT? 3.51 or 4?

Don’t forget NT’s original name, either... Micro$oft OS/2.

Vista gets a bad rap, but it was really a good OS... if you ran it on the proper hardware platform. Too many Vista machines were underpowered out of the box, and some of the bloat that M$ built or left in didn’t help one bit. A few inevitable bug fixes, some bloat removal, and Vista 2.0 turned into a good, stable OS.

Don’t remember Vista 2? Sure you do. It also got a name change for marketing reasons... to Windows 7.

[n6hcm]

Vista worked well for me... Even on older hardware. No idea what I did thst was different...

[N1LAF]

Which NT? 3.51 or 4?

Don’t forget NT’s original name, either... Micro$oft OS/2.

Vista gets a bad rap, but it was really a good OS... if you ran it on the proper hardware platform. Too many Vista machines were underpowered out of the box, and some of the bloat that M$ built or left in didn’t help one bit. A few inevitable bug fixes, some bloat removal, and Vista 2.0 turned into a good, stable OS.

Don’t remember Vista 2? Sure you do. It also got a name change for marketing reasons... to Windows 7.

I do remember NT 3.51 and NT 4, both can be a real PITA to install, frequent BSOD during install. Before Windows 3, I had Windows 2.11. A saw Vista once, and performance was a dog - did not last long.

Before Win98SE, there was Win95 (I skipped this one, and OSR2 as well, and Win98. It was Win98 SE that really took off. I have two low importance programs that would not work after Win98 SE, so it lives on VMware.

I had chronic problems with Windows 7 early on, so I stayed with Win XP (from SP2), util the Windows 7 multicore code was fixed. Some of my engineering programs was fine when running 1 or two cores, more than 2, some programs became sluggish to the point of crashing. At some point, this was fixed, and when this happened, I left XP.

[n6hcm]

Win NT's original name ... was VMS!

[W3WN]

Win NT's original name ... was VMS!
No.

When IBM & Micro$oft ended their partnership over OS/2, IBM kept the OS/2 name. That's when Micro$oft OS/2 was rebranded Windows New Technology 3.1, later NT 3.5. The marketing implied that it was an off-shoot of Microsoft Windows 33.1, but of course, it wasn't.

Now, that said, a later version of NT (NT 4 if memory serves, but it might have been NT 5 aka XP) was an almost complete top-to-bottom rewrite, from the developers who had worked on VMS for Digital. Little of the old M$ OS/2 code remained. That actually started out as a separate, independent project, again if memory serves, which later supplanted the original M$ OS/2 / Windows NT as it's successor.

[N8YX]

I'll say this:

If various hypervisors won't support TPM 2.x emulation and/or Win11 won't run with a virtualized TPM, MS just seriously shot themselves in the foot. Further, if a given hypervisor won't support TPM pass-through calls...ditto.

Should MS' market be more focused towards the embedded end of things, most people won't notice or care. Those institutions which can make use of alternatives, WILL.