There was this thing called World War 2.  My old man was in it...and he was in Army Signals...everywhere from New Guinea to Crete ...and if he didn't get it from the Morse he would have crossed paths with a number of GIs who laid claim to knowing how to spell it [couldn't do real English]...

There is nothing you can tell me Jafo about War, I have completed 5 Combat Tours, seen and done things, you and others can never even imagine. I have seen the very worst of mankind up close, things you do not read about in the news.

So yes, I know there was this thing called World War 2,and Korea, and Vietnam, as we were taught all about them, not in school, but in The Army, then later i Understand Fully about all the Independence wars in Africa, and the Civil War In Yugoslavia, both of the later, i served In. You can tell me nothing about War Jafo, Nothing!

Wasn't even trying to.

Just letting you know that I also know the origins of 'FUBAR' as you claimed to be "impressed" by my knowing...as if there was some kind of miracle involved.

What can one say except it's SUSFU.

A 'few' lonesome words of 'contra' nevertheless, trying to keep it moderate. 

Windows 7:

Yes, You can still run Windows 7 like Jafo does. BUT: I would not recommend that as a good example to any not very experienced user (You still need to take care of extra tools keeping Your Windows secure). Also pray You don't need new hardware like printers and/or scanners when doing this (that is, if You don't want to have outdated hardware also). Also be aware not wanting to use newest software versions. Also No-Go for people doing IT for living, apart having that on a spare or virtual machine for fun reasons. 

And what, apart of Aero, which was quite nice at it's time, is 'better' ? From my 30 year 'it-guy' experience and dealing with hundreds of machines during that timr and after Windows 7 being more stable is a nostalgic legend without any real substance.

Windows 10:/11

Every time I have to use Win 10 or the servers based on that kernel am always wondering how inconsistent the GUI is and how much of that mess got fixed already in Win 11. Sure, we have the taskbar not having the same functionality as that of Win 10, but that is also fixed slowly by MS listening to users, which is a good thing. And we still have Start 11 to fix the rest of it. The start menu is fully okay for me, we finally got rid of those ugly 8/10 tiles and boring icons coming with them.

And I don't think it is fair to blame MS trying to get THEIR product in the best shape they want it and testing things in the several Beta- and Insider-builds (which is what they are here for). Although third party toolmakers have their difficulties with it. But they have to get along with it. MS won't change for them.

I for one finally understood that it is more difficult for Stardock as they have a codex to not alter (aka 'hack') system files, so things might take longer than other tools simply exchanging system files to older or altered versions.

That said, NO, I wouldn't ever change back to a semi dead OS. I have seen every Windows version since Windows 386 in my professional life and I have never looked back to any of them. The desasters that  Windows ME and Vista where are long over and never reached again. Windows 8 was sort of bland, again, Yes. But we came over it quite fast. 

Just my 2 cents.

Yes, Carl makes a good point...for the casual reader.  Don't do as I do...as I've been 'doing' it since about 1969.

I may run Win 7 'interference free' [from MS] ... but I do 'other stuff' in its place...

I'm really showing age here, but my first experience in computers was in Highschool with the CDC-6600 at the University of Texas. The UI was a remote teletype machine using ticker tape to save and run simple BASIC programs we wrote in class.

In College, at the University of Texas, we used the same CDC-6600 and the UI was punch cards which had to be hand delivered to the Computation Center where the computer was housed. This computer was the size of a small house and had less computing power than the average cell phone today!

My first exposure to the PC was the IBM Personal Computer XT (model 5160 or PC/XT) in 1983. It ran DOS 2.0. The UI was text only using a keyboard and a monochrome monitor with green text. I was involved in selling hardware and software for the IBM 4300 series mainframe. Back then, a megabyte of RAM for the IBM 4340 was over $2,500.00.

In 1985 I switched to the MAC computer with a Graphical UI.

My reintroduction to the PC was with Windows 95, and I have been an early adopter of every new Windows OS ever since. The introduction of Windows 8 was really different from anything else before, but very interesting. This was my first introduction to Stardock with ModernMix and Start8.

I have been using Windows 10 since its introduction and I agree with Brad that it is a very stable OS. I can remember a time when the PC would crash at least two or three times during the workday. I probably would have updated to Windows 11 except for the hardware restrictions. I have a 7700K processor in my everyday driver desktop. I am running Windows 11 on a test PC and find it tolerable. I could really care less about round or square corners, but under the hood, Microsoft has made some real progress.

I am using Stardock Start11, Groupy2, and IconPackager to make Windows 10 look and feel more modern. Stardock rocks!

As far as leaving it running or shutting down, my current PC has been running 24/7 since I built it in 2017. The only time it gets turned off is to upgrade a component or to clean out the dust. The occasional power outage will also shut it down! Most components normally fail when switched on. In my opinion, leaving things running is safer for the longevity of the components.

The hassle was the first step the computer took was to 'read' all the cards in your 'program' and look for errors...and subsequently spit it out with "logic error on card 3" or similar...and you'd have to wait a few weeks to get access to the machine again for a retry.  The computer wasn't ours...we booked worktime at something like 3 AM and our teacher would have to go there then...

Ahh, the good old days!

Agreed, never seen a reason to stick with an OS that is as old as the hills. Hardware would be a huge issue, and more. I am also in IT, so have to have the latest OSs that are being used by the mainstream to offer support. I have no interest in nostalgic things, give me the latest any day of the week. That's what keeps me interested at my old age. Yes i do have an SSD with Win 10 on, but it is not my Primary Drive. My Win 11 Enterprise has been super stable, and i have managed to adapt my Themes Skillset, to fully Skin Win 11, so going backwards, for me, is, I've seen and Done that, put in untold man hours on Win 10, so it is more less Behind me now, so can see no reason to ever go back. Not really too long now before Win 12 comes into play, when that happens i will move forward using it, and learn how to create and adapt Themes using Win 12. I would think, Win 12 will be the last OS i need to offer support for, as the time frames are close to my Retirement, but even if i live past Win 12 (not sure how long i have with Vascular Parkinsonism Dementia), i would still move to the latest OS available

Couldn't agree with you more, but Microsoft, in all its wisdom, restricted the upgrade to newer hardware! So, here I am stuck with Windows 10. I applaud Stardock for making it possible to make windows 10 feel more modern.

Hi pelaird.

Do not let Microsoft tell you what to do. If you think your Win 10 machine is running well, you can run Win 11 just as easily.

Grab the latest edition of media creation tool Rufus, as this can easily patch the Win 11 installation to not require a TPM Module and all those other silly Hardware Needs, it can even pass all the MS opting in stages to say NO.

I did make a topic a while ago

https://forums.wincustomize.com/513062/page/1/#3857096  

Those requirements will be needed at some point, but we are no closer to that point right now, I myself am Running an I5 Desktop PC, in this way since MS launched Win 11, but as i built my machine myself, with loads of Memory, and fast cheap SSDs, it runs Win 11 just as well as it did Win 10, even though MS says i should not, right now i am also working so have about 40 open Tabs in Chrome, running my firewall and AV and other progs, and my PC is as fast as it ever was running Win 10.

Thanks for the info. I do have a very fast machine and meet all the requirements except for the CPU (i7-7700K).

I use my daily driver (Windows 10 desktop) to run my construction business and can't afford to have it screw up and then have to rebuild the OS and reinstall all my software again. I plan to build a new PC once Windows 10 expires, and will then upgrade to newest OS that is available.

I am running Windows 11 Canary channel on a test machine (i5 Surface Pro 4), and I like it.

Since Moores law is pretty much dead with cpu's, that i7 still outperorms many of the newer processors that do in fact support Windows 11 (I.e. the entire celeron class)

It seems silly to have to upgrade "a very fast machine" all in the name of software. I suppose Microsofts plan was to mimick smart phones strategies of selling basically the same model of phone in order to get the latest operating system running on it.

Thank goodness that strategy flopped for Microsoft and we likely won't be forced into their new pluton chip once Windows 12 drops in the near future.

Dont get me wrong, If you want to go for an 8+ core cpu then it can be worth the build. Sometimes we just need an excuse to build ourselves a new pc. Just make sure you are doing it for more the just the OS though

Hello Naroon,

I agree. I have always had a fear of falling behind in tech as it all changes soo fast. I don't really like staying behind with old operating systems because then I don't know how to work the new stuff.

I suspect that Windows 12 will be the more complete version of Windows 11 as this is always the case with Microsoft. Ie.Windows Vista wasn't realized fully until Windows 7. Windows 8s tiles didn't mesh with the rest of the operating system until Windows 10 put them into an actual start menu. Hopefully we can continue this trend with Windows 12.

Hi Pelaird. You mention your PC is a Desktop like mine. You could buy a cheap 120GB SSD, install windows 11 on that, then use BCD to create a Multi Booting PC with both Drives, this allows you to test out how well Win 11 runs on your Rig, but after hearing what you say about your specs, it should Fly and be just as fast using Win 11, and as the drives would be both installed on your PC as a Multi Boot, no harm would come to your work stuff.

Agree with you Phoenix about not wanting to look back to older OSs, only Win 10 and Win 11 needed right now for offering support for my Job, as soon as Win 12 arrives, i can maybe remove the Win 10 one, as i have so many Hands on hours with Win 10 now under my belt, most in my head for work needs, even then, i may still keep the SSD for Win 10 , but only as a comparison tool for my Theme work, got the explorer Borders sorted now in Win 11, but due to MS changes, they are never fully the same, but look very good regardless. I work with what i have , always have mate, i am looking Forward to Win 12, and i am determined to make Win 12 look just as good Themed with my Favorites.

I do think you are right about the the OSs not being fully realised until the next one. It may make Win 12 Easier to Theme for, who knows, tick tock mate.

Yeah, since Windows 10, at least, Windows has been fairly stable.  I've had long uptimes, too.  Much better as a server environment, now, too, if Linux wasn't absolutely perfect and great for it.   But, yeah, no quicklaunch bars.  Have to install 2 annoying things that get purposefully borked by M$ every so often at different times, so I just use Start 11, and leave any box I can on Windows 10.  Kinda lame.   I both envy and don't envy the time served.  I'm glad I didn't have to, but the experience must have been something.   Maybe, no one should experience it, maybe everyone should.  Hard to say, it sounds like it can have some pretty devastating effects on people.  Personally, I don't like people dying.  I'd hate to be around it that much, and it must be terrifying.   Thank you for your service.  Much respect.

My daughter got a replacement laptop that only came with Windoze 11 (aka the New 8).  The GUI is a disaster, partially dealt with by Stardock (except for no toolbars).  WU tends to ignore the 'block updates for x weeks' and on Update day, goes ahead and install them anyway even while the laptop is sleeping, then reboot, and BSOD during the reboot - every single time.  Microsloth destroyed the GUI, didn't properly test 11, then told us we have to take it or else - and then said that most of us would need to buy new PC's to get it.

At least Stardock makes it less unusable.  Thanks!

It would be nice if Microsloth, like they did with 10, after the Win 8 fiasco, would give us a decent GUI again, though it did take a year or two before 10 was stable.  They won't, though.

"The GUI is a disaster" Your personal opinion. Quite a few people including myself like it.