First off I'll say that I love, love, love my PC. It's a sentimental thing. Now, I started having problems this year with it shutting down with an error message that to this day I still don't understand. I tried all the You Tube stuff, and Windows help but it continued. The thought of losing all my photos and documents was weighing heavy on me so I transferred them all to a compact/portable SSD and grabbed Johnny's laptop. Always wondering what I could do to fix it. Re install Windows 7. Secondly I'll say I love, love, love Windows 7. I know that it's not supported any longer but what the heck. When I did call they would make it a point to mention how 'old' my computer was. My thought, 'It's still working.' Moving on. I couldn't reinstall because I didn't have the program CD. I searched high and low and couldn't find it. If I remember correctly there wasn't one when I purchased it everything was already installed. So that's why we are told to backup your PC. I think Windows XP was the last to have the program CDs with it. I say that because I have all my Mom's computer programs which XP is still in the box. Someone thought it was a good idea to save time and money by installing all the programs on the hard drive. It's not a bad idea, I'm just saying. So I went on Ebay and did the 'Buy It Now' to purchase Windows 7 because it's not offered on Microsoft. It arrived Wednesday. So today I am on my 6+ year old PC at 'Ground Zero' and I am a happy camper.
Sorry to say this, Von, but Windows 7 isn't going to cut it with your computer. Windows is a "main course" for a computer and, if the Windows is too old, with no updates, your computer could fully crash. Just be aware of that. Or, could become very slow. Being too slow is very frustrating, no matter how much you "love" it, it's not going to "love" you back. I've been using a computer since 1987, both home and job.
As long as the hardware doesn't fail, a fresh OS reload will run just like it did when new. Some security patches will be missing but Win7 is a stable operating system. My Dell laptop did something annoying a couple of days ago. It has been prompting me to upgrade to Win 11 and I've been ignoring it. When I started up my machine, I got a "ransom" screen advising me to update to 11. I couldn't get the damn thing to go away so I rebooted. I resent Microsoft's Nazi tactics.
Yea, I know. If any part of the computer itself fails and can't be replaced I'll sadly but gracefully surrender.
Beth, that happened to me with Windows 10. Very annoying until I found the 'Don't show this to me again.' box. The next time see if you can find it. I do have a computer with Win 10 I'm sure it will weasel in there too when I log on.
I've been upgrading my PC too Von It's been fun and I've learned a lot. Laptops I know better, so this was a first on my PC. I have lots of geeky friends that still love their Windows 7, and so glad you found it on Ebay! I looked for a gal that lives in one of the other apartments and nope, I couldn't find a download for it. Smart move going on Ebay Denise
Seems like I ran into that when putting in the model of that friends PC I couldn't fix. 6 years old doesn't sound that old to me, and all I know about the neighbors was it had Win 7 on it. I find a lot of good info at either tenforums, majorgeeks, xdadevelopers, and Tomshardware (which I get that last one confused with Tomsguide, same owner). I did upgrade my laptop from 2012 with Windows 7, but I upgraded to Win10. I know it did have all the updates though too.
Von, the "ransom" box took up the entire screen and there was no option to close or clear it, no "escape", and no boxes to click except "Install". Literally held the machine hostage until I shut it down. I don't like Microsoft's methods these days.
If you don't need the stuff that comes with the more recent upgrades of the OS, it could make sense to downgrade the operating system. While the security patches are, at some point, no longer delivered for the older OS versions, I think it's fair to say that there aren't as many people trying to hack into old PCs running Windows 7, so it might just be a wash. It has always seemed to me when I was running PCs using the Windows OS, that, at some point, while the newer versions of the operating systems might install, the result would be a slower operation of the computer, probably because the hardware doesn't fully support the software, despite the fact that the software installs.
@Von Jones Do keep in mind that if a computer crashes, your photos and other files are still likely recoverable even though you can no longer boot (start up the computer) from that hard drive. You can take the drive out of your computer and connect it to a working computer using special cables, then read it just as you would a thumb drive or an SSD or any other external storage device. The only time this would not work is if the hard drive itself has a physical failure to it. I only mention is because recovering files this way is pretty easy, should the need arise.
Thanks Denise. The only downside was my not knowing that there is a Service Pack 1 or 2 needed. Unfortunately the software that I bought did not have either so I bought that after trying to print and a message popped about it. Cost less than $40 for the one I got using Buy It Now. It should be here before Christmas, hopefully. I'll use Johnny's laptop for printing.
That doesn't sound right at all. One popped up today when I was going to install a program and I got out of it easily.
I saw that on a Youtube video as an option but elected not to. It's been years since I took off the case of a computer.