game pc: stick with win 7 or go to win 10 ?

[StinkyPinky]

People hate change and this thread is a good example of that. It reminds me of the people that stayed with XP to the bitter end because "it works".

Never had a problem with Windows 10, it's fantastic. Runs quick, has better features, and will give you better support for games in the future.

 

[Red Hawk]

Windows 10 will actually have performance improvements in some games over Windows 7 thanks to DirectX 11.1 and 11.2 features that Win 7 lacks.

Windows 10 will be supported much longer than Windows 7. If you opt to just wait, you'll miss out on the offer to upgrade for free. No time like the present.

 

[XiandreX]

:thumbsup:

Welcome to the world of big data and data collection. Most of the FUD was because Microsoft - mainly for legal reasons, I'm sure - was actually upfront in the ToS about what they can do or are legally required to do if the government comes knocking. Unfortunately misinterpreting and creating sensationalist article headlines and thread titles have led to much ado about (mostly) nothing.

Anything you think Microsoft is doing to "spy" on you can be done on mobile, and even worse is that it can be done by far more dubious third-party apps that can have permissions to the cameras, sensors, and files on your phone. And if you aren't on an encrypted connection all the time, your ISPs can (and some do, for advertising purposes unless you opt-out or don't opt-in) collect just as much if not more data than Microsoft could, especially with more and more IoT devices becoming commonplace.

At least on Windows you can relatively easily opt-out and/or disable the offending data collection features/spying tools. Have fun rooting/jailbreaking or flashing custom ROMs (which themselves require a certain amount of trust) on mobile devices and trying to figure out how to use apps without granting them half the permissions they demand.

The bigger reason to not use 10 is if you have older hardware or peripherals that aren't well supported or aren't supported at all on 10. Also cryptocurrency minng is still better on 7 in many cases. I haven't had any issues on 10 with gaming, though. I think it's better to switch now while it's free. Not too risky if you have a new-ish gaming system and do a clean install.

:thumbsup:

 

[xantub]

Just use Google if you are going to state facts. Windows 7 is still in extended support and gets critical security patches until 1/14/2020.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=windows 7

I think he was confusing it with Windows XP.

 

[Dahak]

I will add this that I say to anyone trying to decide between Win7 and Win10.

Even if you dont want to go to Win10 now and plan to stick to Win7, may as well go to it with the Free Upgrade and that way if you want to go to Win10 later you wont have to buy it, as after June it will not be free anymore

Now this is only for the same hardware, if you are going to do a major upgrade between now and then, this wont matter as much

 

[XavierMace]

I've been running 10 since beta, no issues with any of my games here. I'd take it over 7 in a heartbeat.

 

[gorcorps]

I don't mean to derail the thread here, but since it's kind of on topic I'll ask:

Is the windows 10 upgrade on a 5 year old windows 7 install going to be fairly seamless? Or should I go through and fresh install windows 7 before doing the upgrade? I know I SHOULD do a fresh install just (obviously) to start fresh, but I'm not looking forward to hunting down and reinstalling all of the stuff I already have on the PC. I'm not too worried about my games as everything is tied to some digital account these days, but the other stuff that needed product keys might be get lost.

Just didn't know what to expect, but since the free upgrade time is expiring soon I'll need to make a decision.

 

[Vivendi]

I've been running 10 since beta, no issues with any of my games here. I'd take it over 7 in a heartbeat.

Same. No issues related to gaming on Win 10.

 

[Mem]

I would stick with Win 7 for two reasons. First, I have not experienced any gaming problems on Win 7 with the exception of mid 90s PC games that use 16 bit installers. Win 10 has (in my subjective view) considerably more reports of games not working properly. So stick with Win 7 for better game compatibility.

Second, there is no real reason to use Win 10. DirectX 12 is just now coming out in new games so unless you are going to play mostly newer upcoming games, there is no benefit to the vast back-catalogue of games.

For the vast majority of games, Win 7 is a more stable, more tested choice.

And I am not even going into any privacy/consumer concerns with all the forced/sneaky upgrade shenanigans Microsoft has been engaging in.

I had no issues with gaming on Win10, DX12 is a really good reason because all modern games regardless will be designed for Win10 rather then an ageing OS like 7.

IMHO as a very old gamer go with Win10, fact is sooner or later you have to move off 7, get Win10 while it's free.

And I am not even going into any privacy/consumer concerns with all the forced/sneaky upgrade shenanigans Microsoft has been engaging in

I guess you forget that is now on Win7 as well if you install all the 7 updates so works both ways, anyway plenty of free software programs around that so not an issue either way.


As to games being more stable on 7, not true ,none of my old Win7 or even XP, Vista games have had any issues on Win10, yes there are exceptions but that goes for any OS.
I also like the improved security Win10 has over Win7 and FAR longer life span, so more reasons that are valid.
I even have some really old DOS games working great on Win10.

So no brainer Win10 IMHO.

 

[zinfamous]

I don't mean to derail the thread here, but since it's kind of on topic I'll ask:

Is the windows 10 upgrade on a 5 year old windows 7 install going to be fairly seamless? Or should I go through and fresh install windows 7 before doing the upgrade? I know I SHOULD do a fresh install just (obviously) to start fresh, but I'm not looking forward to hunting down and reinstalling all of the stuff I already have on the PC. I'm not too worried about my games as everything is tied to some digital account these days, but the other stuff that needed product keys might be get lost.

Just didn't know what to expect, but since the free upgrade time is expiring soon I'll need to make a decision.

I just updated mine from a ~2 year fresh install of Win 7, but I also have kept it rather bare in this time.

I had no issues with the process or after.

This is the first time I did not do a clean install, but I figured it would be easier. I hate devoting an entire day to these things (well, I usually do that when I have new components, so maybe not the most accurate comparison with time).

And yeah, I only did it because the upgrade time is expiring soon. I held off for quite some time.

 

[digiram]

Whoever said dual boot, that's the best option right now. I can't fully commit to Win 10 because of my audio programs right now, but wanted to test out the xbox apps and such so that's what I did.

 

[ritditditdidoo]

I play too many old games for it to be worth the hassle. I play an old version of Everquest on an emulator server which takes some screwing around to make work well. I also regularly play 90s games and I have various bits of software that I use. They might all work by now but I tried Win8 when it first came out and the first bit of software I tried (Logitech Gaming Software) was not compatible. I use that for every game so it was a no go. I also use Sonar music software and stuff like that is a bitch to set up even if it is compatible.

I'll probably just wait a year or two and then do it when I know everything will have caught up.

 

[balloonshark]

What features? I can disable updates... Win7 took your info also, so does steam, origin, battle.net, uplay, google, apple, and the rest. I have never had microsoft try to sell me something from within my OS and I have never seen an ad either.

Do you enjoy regurgitating disproved crap you read somewhere else?

For win7 users they lose media center which some folks want to keep.

You cannot disable updates in 10 home and you can only postpone them in pro. If you want you can remove a driver or update but you have a download a separate tool to keep them from installing again. Or you can disable the update service but you cannot disable updates within the OS itself. Or at least not like you can with older OS's.

The telemetry in 7 and 8.1 can be avoided or uninstalled so they don't spy on you. In Win10 some but not all telemetry can be disabled. But just remember MS controls updates so that policy might change in the future.

What do you mean Win10 is not trying to sell you anything? Win10 has an app store, games, programs, music and a music service, movies, cloud storage, etc.

I honestly would not have a problem with 10 if it was just an OS or it would let you pick and choose what "features" you wanted during the install and it would let me disable all telemetry and updates within the OS itself. I don't think that is asking too much considering it's my PC and the OS costs money. Is that asking too much?

 

[mnewsham]

W10 all day for a pure gaming system.

It's stable, fast, DX12 support, etc.

Anyone worried about M$ telemetry are mostly just paranoid or it's all about "muh principles" and they have no REAL reason to care.

 

[Blue_Max]

I've got twin machines, both i5-2400 w/16gb and GTX 960's.

One is on Win7, the other Win10. So far I can't see any difference with the same Steam library... no better, no worse. Knock on wood.

 

[quikah]

Only reason to stick with Win7 is Media Center. If you don't use Media Center upgrade, Win10 is superior is almost every way.

 

[Revolution 11]

People hate change and this thread is a good example of that. It reminds me of the people that stayed with XP to the bitter end because "it works".

Never had a problem with Windows 10, it's fantastic. Runs quick, has better features, and will give you better support for games in the future.

Better support for games in the future vs better support for every game released so far to date. Theoretical future benefit vs current real benefit? Pretty obvious to me.

I am not saying that Windows 7 is a good choice 20 years from now but it is the better supported OS for the vast majority of games right now. Unless the OP never plans to play older games, you can't dismiss Win 7 so carelessly.

The test I use for usability is if I am stuck on a island and I could only pick one OS and the software that works on it, it would be Windows 7, not Windows 10.

 

[mnewsham]

Better support for games in the future vs better support for every game released so far to date. Theoretical future benefit vs current real benefit? Pretty obvious to me.

I am not saying that Windows 7 is a good choice 20 years from now but it is the better supported OS for the vast majority of games right now. Unless the OP never plans to play older games, you can't dismiss Win 7 so carelessly.

The test I use for usability is if I am stuck on a island and I could only pick one OS and the software that works on it, it would be Windows 7, not Windows 10.

This would be fair if windows 10 had any huge glaring issues with current games, it doesn't. It behaves essentially identically to Windows 7 in most every current game I can think of. And has the benefit of being supported in the future with DX12 games and so on.

 

[Markbnj]

Just use Google if you are going to state facts. Windows 7 is still in extended support and gets critical security patches until 1/14/2020.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=windows 7

Mainstream support ended over a year ago, on January 13, 2015. I haven't seen an update for this system in a long time.

Edit: Revolution 11 was right: windows 7 is out of mainstream support but still getting security patches. I don't use it much any more other than for games, and had an issue that was preventing update notifications.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah you should try that. Mainstream support ended over a year ago, on January 13, 2015. I haven't seen an update for this system in a long time.

Then your WU is screwed up. There has been a continuous trickle of security patches every month.

 

[Mem]

Better support for games in the future vs better support for every game released so far to date. Theoretical future benefit vs current real benefit? Pretty obvious to me.

I am not saying that Windows 7 is a good choice 20 years from now but it is the better supported OS for the vast majority of games right now. Unless the OP never plans to play older games, you can't dismiss Win 7 so carelessly.

The test I use for usability is if I am stuck on a island and I could only pick one OS and the software that works on it, it would be Windows 7, not Windows 10.

XP users say same thing about their games library over Win7, end of the day, gaming is fine in general and is always blown out of proportion by some users,99% of time it's normally a driver issue with some sound cards that is the culprit.

I've yet to find a game I can't play on my games library and I've been saying that since XP days, nothing changes around here with some comments.

I can and do dismiss Win7 for older games, fact is my games library goes back to DOS 6.22 games ands yes I play most DOS games on Win10, trying doing some research, not hard to get a lot of old games running on any OS.



Right, off to play XCOM-Apocalypse, btw that's pre Win98 game that I play on Win10.

Last comment, if I wanted every game to work regardless then I would probably have DOS 6.22,Win95,XP,Win10 in a multi boot system, but then that would cause more headaches then it is worth with drivers etc...

 

[you2]

I guess my only real concern is media center (for use with prime home-run). The linux stuff works fine with vlc but it doesn't support the drm channels. If I upgrade to win-10 and then run into an issue am I still able to reinstall with my win-7 license from dvd ?

(I know new machines - after haswell are a pia with win 7 due to lack of driver support at install time; so not sure what I will do with the eventual death of media center).
-
When I originally asked the question I was also concern about games (I have r290 and use mother board sound; i'm fairly sure the sound will be well supported given the popularity of hte chipset but amd seems to struggle when it comes to drivers; though i suspect will upgrade to the 1070 (not 1080) if it is not too expensive.

 

[sweenish]

Better support for games in the future vs better support for every game released so far to date. Theoretical future benefit vs current real benefit? Pretty obvious to me.

This is a false comparison.

 

[Markbnj]

Then your WU is screwed up. There has been a continuous trickle of security patches every month.

You're right, my WU is messed up. Never mind then. Spend 90% of my time on Ubuntu anyway. But I heard they are going to start charging for Windows 10 so maybe I should go ahead with the upgrade.

 

[Mem]

I guess my only real concern is media center (for use with prime home-run). The linux stuff works fine with vlc but it doesn't support the drm channels. If I upgrade to win-10 and then run into an issue am I still able to reinstall with my win-7 license from dvd ?

(I know new machines - after haswell are a pia with win 7 due to lack of driver support at install time; so not sure what I will do with the eventual death of media center).
-
When I originally asked the question I was also concern about games (I have r290 and use mother board sound; i'm fairly sure the sound will be well supported given the popularity of hte chipset but amd seems to struggle when it comes to drivers; though i suspect will upgrade to the 1070 (not 1080) if it is not too expensive.

There are alternatives to Windows Media Centre, VLC works fine on Win10.
I guess the real question is what you want to actually do with Media Centre?

Personally I thought lack of Media Centre would be an issue for me, but not the case.
As to AMD drivers if you are talking about video drivers then they have been fine with my AMD 280x card in ALL my games on 10.