Windows 8.1 End of Support

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've been happily using W8.1 for years and years. Resisted the jump to 10* partly because no need and partly because, at the time it came out, lots of people (on here!) were criticising it. Now I reckon that's just what people do when there's a new OS. So now 8.1 is coming to the end of security updates, next Monday in fact. MS are recommending to jump to 11** and trying to sell me certain machines for this reason, mostly HPs.

But is it necessary? I guess nothing bad is really going to happen if I carry on using 8.1? I'm not too keen on upgrading the OS on this machine, that sounds like it probably has too much potential to go totally wrong and end up with nothing.

*And 9? Was there never a 9? Or was it released, found to be unusable and promptly withdrawn, thus the next version was 10? Or maybe 9 is an unlucky number in Microsoft world?
**Why was this version not called Microsoft SpinalTap?

[Polar Bear]

Windows 10 is fine and probably will run on your existing machine.  I suspect that Windows 11 will not.

I have a laptop currently living with a friend which celebrated it's 13th birthday this week and it came with Windows 7 and is happily running Windows 10.  The only problem is a broken screen which the clumsy oaf did a few weeks back.

Depending on age and spec of your machine an update to ram and replacing spinning rust with an SSD will likely make it slightly faster and quieter but hey, if it works and you are happy ...

[rr]

Windows 9 didn't happen because too much software could mistake windows 9 for windows 95/7/8.

Sent from my motorola edge 20 using Tapatalk

[Kim]

Resisted the jump to 10* partly because no need and partly because, at the time it came out, lots of people (on here!) were criticising it. Now I reckon that's just what people do when there's a new OS.

To be fair, the criticism is often legitimate, and some of the problems (typically driver compatibility issues) tend to get fixed quietly over time, so late-upgraders have an easier time of it.  UI changes inevitably piss someone off, of course, but Microsoft *are* particularly skilled at doing so.

[TimC]

From a user perspective, there's very little difference between 11 and 10. I use them both on the three computers I use most, and I'd have to think if you asked me which I was using! Win11 has some security requirements which an older computer almost certainly won't be able to meet, though I understand these can be circumvented if you really want to. Win 10 evolved hugely over its lifetime, and the last version (22H2) is almost unrecognisable from the original. Among other computers, I have it running on an old Mini-ITX integrated mobo running an ancient ARM CPU. It's glacial, and only done to prove it can be, but it works.

[Kim]

From a user perspective, there's very little difference between 11 and 10.

Apart from Windows 11 being excessively fussy about low-spec hardware, which is likely to be a deal-breaker if the machine is currently running 8.1.

Performance-wise, I've always been pleasantly surprised by Windows 10.  You expect the wanky fondleslab-oriented search-for-everthing UI means it's going to be a bloatfest all the way down, but it's really not that bad.

[Mr Larrington]

The wanky fondleslab-oriented search-for-everthing UI is why every Windows box in Larrington Towers has Open Shell (né Classic Shell) on it so Stuffs are found by the time-honoured way of knowing where it is, just as God Dave Cutler intended   If you gave me a Windows 10 machine set up the way Microsith intended I wouldn’t know where to start, not least because the keyboards attached to the most oft-used PCs lack the extra BillyKeys.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've remembered I have a "spare" laptop, unused for at least a year, so I might fire that up, and if it works on whatever it's got (I'm pretty sure also 8.something), and seeing as W10 can be had for one of Mr Charlie King's fivers https://www.electronicfirst.com/gift-cards/windows-10-professional-oem/ I'll try it out on that first.

[lissotriton]

You can download and install Windows 10 for free. Works fine, without needing any serial number etc. But it will popup with occasional messages suggesting you activate it, and some limits on what you can customise, eg changing the wallpaper. OK for testing it out anyway.

[Cudzoziemiec]

You don't need a "licence"?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

[Feanor]

I've remembered I have a "spare" laptop, unused for at least a year, so I might fire that up, and if it works on whatever it's got (I'm pretty sure also 8.something), and seeing as W10 can be had for one of Mr Charlie King's fivers https://www.electronicfirst.com/gift-cards/windows-10-professional-oem/ I'll try it out on that first.

A machine running a licensed version of win7 or win8 will still automatically activate a free new installation of windows 10.
This free upgrade offer was supposed to be time limited, but it never actually ended.
You don't need to purchase anything from anyone.

Download the win10 image as a bootable memory stick ( or an ISO if you want to use optical disk).
Run it as an upgrade in the first instance, so it can 'see' the old version of windows, update, and allow the background activation to happen.
This new win10 activation is now stored on the MS activation servers.
You are now free to blow away the old installation and perform a clean bare metal installation on the same hardware if you wish, and it will just pick up the existing activation from the MS servers.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Thanks. I'll be getting myself a suitable memory stick.

[Pingu]

I've remembered I have a "spare" laptop, unused for at least a year, so I might fire that up, and if it works on whatever it's got (I'm pretty sure also 8.something), and seeing as W10 can be had for one of Mr Charlie King's fivers https://www.electronicfirst.com/gift-cards/windows-10-professional-oem/ I'll try it out on that first.

A machine running a licensed version of win7 or win8 will still automatically activate a free new installation of windows 10.
This free upgrade offer was supposed to be time limited, but that never actually happened.
You don't need to purchase anything from anyone.

Download the win10 image as a bootable memory stick ( or an ISO if you want to use optical disk).
Run it as an upgrade in the first instance, so it can 'see' the old version of windows, update, and activate.
This new win10 activation is now stored on the MS activation servers.
You are now free to blow away the old installation and perform a clean bare metal installation on the same hardware from the same USB if you wish, and it will just pick up the existing activation from the MS servers.

I did this for the previous lapdog running W7. It was mostly harmless. The only issue, which was solved, was a driver for the sound gubbins.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Oddly, the 8.1 has done an update today, although support supposedly ended yesterday. Or even the day before.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ah, it was the 10th, so yesterday. But maybe working on California time for the whole world?

[Kim]

Oddly, the 8.1 has done an update today, although support supposedly ended yesterday. Or even the day before.

Is that support ending in the sense of "we're not making any new updates" rather than "we're removing the existing ones from the server"?

[sizbut]

If my Windows 2003 server was anything to go by, they won't turn of the services that provides existing updates to PCs for quite a while. So your 8.1 machine may have been picking up the last few things that developers had been working on.

End of support at the moment will just means no longer working on new updates. Somewhere within Microsoft someone probably has a date for when they will turn the existing updates service off (though working for a big'ish corporation myself, it may run for a long long time with everyone who ever knew about it having moved on and many no longer working for the company. Big server farms have that habit, even more so now many of them are virtualized. It will need an accountant querying the rising cost to eventually cause a review somewhere down the line, IT then asking if anyone knows who's responsible for this and that service (resounding silence), and a meeting (because no one will want to take individual responsibility (always hide it in "the ABC meeting made that decision"))).

[barakta]

I would also backup my data before any major upgrade as well as having a general backup strategy, just in case.

[Ham]

Oddly, the 8.1 has done an update today, although support supposedly ended yesterday. Or even the day before.

I still get the odd update to W7 when I occasionally fire up the VM

[Cudzoziemiec]

Oddly, the 8.1 has done an update today, although support supposedly ended yesterday. Or even the day before.

I still get the odd update to W7 when I occasionally fire up the VM

W7 support only ended same date as W8.

End of support at the moment will just means no longer working on new updates. Somewhere within Microsoft someone probably has a date for when they will turn the existing updates service off

Does 'existing updates service' mean those which have already been released but not yet downloaded?

[Cudzoziemiec]

I seem to now be using Windows 10. It works, and I'll get used to the slightly different appearance. It was painless to install apart from keeping me up till midnight, and it was free. And I don't appear to have lost any data, unless you count a desktop background. Browser even reopened with the same tabs! I've also installed Office 2021 "Professional Plus" which cost £9.99 and required W10 to operate. Work was getting fed up with my Libre Office docs getting mangled when opened in Word (except they didn't know I had Libre Office). I was getting fed up with it too.