What to do with all the Windows 7 PCs

Windows 7 End Of Life (EOL)

With the windows 7 end of life date looming ever so close what are we to do with all the equipment that’s either too old or to slow to run windows 10?

Are we to simply dispose of what’s still good equipment? especially in today’s society of reducing waste in the environment when we should try and recycle?

OK, yes I’m also, if you’ve read many of my blogs known as ‘Prudent Pete’ 🙂
I like to save money, I like to get the most out of things, get the best value etc etc – so why on earth would I just throw perfectly good computer equipment away!

So what options do we have with this Microsoft end of support date (14th January 2020) for Windows 7 – this is now less than two weeks away? 🙁

Am I at risk? will my computer still work?

The Microsoft website warns, that although our PCs will still work, they will be become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses. This is because they will no longer receive updates to the software.

As you can see – Microsoft also “strongly recommends that you move to a new PC running Windows 10”.

Oh no no! that won’t do for me – One of the options I’ve decided to explore is the possibility of running a different operating system such as Linux.

This I hope will work with older PCs thus give my windows 7 computers including a desktop and two laptops an extended life.

Replacing Windows 7 (Linux)

From what I have learnt so far – Linux is an open source operating system that comes in many different guises or ‘Distributions’ I believe that they are technically known as.

Linux is used to run many of the websites on the internet and a modified version is the base of the Android mobile phone system.

Some reviews consider it to be more secure than other operating systems and others say it isn’t any more secure and put security issues of all operating systems whether Windows, MacOS or Linux down to user mistakes causing security breaches.

I have found that there are many different Linux distributions (versions or distros) available and each support different user and system requirements.

Some distros go for the look, some for speed, some for low spec systems, and others are popular for those new to Linux.

Some of the Linux distros even have desktops that look and work similar to other operating systems making it easier for users changing from a Windows or MacOS machine.

This would therefore be very helpful for me switching from Windows 7 as I have always liked the set-up.