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smantzFlag for United States of America

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Win 7 EOL

Hey there,

I'm getting ready to update a few machines from xp to win 7 or 8.1.

I think it will be easier for the teaching staff and me to go windows 7; especially for moving the desktops, favorites, documents.  Although, most of the equipment should run 8 OK , I have a few that are Win7 only.

That said, is the EOL for win7 far enough out that I won't be repeating this in a couple of years?

--SM
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Member_2_6492660_1
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Windows 7 is still OK

Windows 8.1 is also OK

I would go with 8.1

I would not do an in place upgrade

I would recommend you get a new hard drive and install on that.
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Trenton Knew

I'm personally hoping that Windows 9 comes along and let's us all forget about 8 and that it ever happened.  That being said... Windows XP hung around for 14 years or so.  EOL on 7 is January 14, 2020.  I doubt any computers you are using today are still in service come that date.
source, btw:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

Windows 8, you will waste MUCH time with support and training calls
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Windows 8.x is so different from previous versions of Windows that it should be a crime to call it "Windows." Simple functions that users used every day in XP or Win7 are so difficult to find in Win8 that they will require Internet research or a Help Desk call. And that will happen every time they want to do a simple task.

Win7 is intuitive, users like it, and it will be supported for several years. Even if you have to replace or upgrade some of your low-end systems again in a few years, that should be a much smoother experience than trying to use Win8 now.
Thomas, I upgraded a dozen users to 8.1 - none of them had any 8.1 experience. They did not generate any additional support time. They all like it - no, I don't work at Microsoft.
People use the programs, not the OS.
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Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the feedback. This is really helps a lot in my decision making process (flip a coin).  Seriously,  I have struggled with this but not having had the time I like to really get to know windows 8 I would probably be doing my faculty, administration and staff a disservice installing a product I'm not really sure I can support at this time.  

As many of you know, being a one person department covering not only the client and server computer administrative and support aspects but, audio/visual, phone, security, electrical, and some mechanical, I need to be able to breath once and a while.

Most of your posts affirm what I thought but I needed to make sure windows 7 is not going away for a little while.

SM
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@McKnife

Ok, so hovering your mouse in the upper right hand corner of their primary monitor until they saw the pop out menu or hitting the windows button...not one of your users had an issue with this?

Not one?

Or, wait...they never had an issue when an App (as MS likes to call them now) took over full screen?

I run 1/3 of my organization on 8, I am quite aware that it's a decent OS, with a terrible UI decision.

I highly doubt your end users were that keen to it.
Hi englanddg.

When we migrate OS's, we plan ahead and do trainings (1x 30-minute introduction prior to migration (full audience), another half an hour after two days of using it to answer questions and show some more use cases for small groups of ten users per admin).
That was enough.

When we moved from win2k to vista 6 years back, we did the same. The step from 2k to vista created much more support work than vista->8.1 because back then, we did clean installs, now we upgraded most machines.

When MS sold their promotional copies for 30€ right when 8 came out, I grabbed 5. Installed four of them on friends' machines, not a single one of them had any problems yet that are related to the UI. And those are no techies.

It is no secret that many admins love to debate about it and nearly tear it to pieces, when the UI is discussed. I have no problem with it but was surprised to find how quickly the users adapted to it.
@McKnife

I appreciate your thoughts, but honestly, while there was some "culture shock" between Vista and 2k, it's nothing compared to Metro.

It's apples and oranges.

I have about 1/3 of my network on 8, and I get significantly more calls about those systems...and that's WITH training...

Though, a lot of the issues are IE or UI related (not the OS, as I said, I find the OS itself is rather solid).  I will say this about 8...it's one of the easiest OS installs I've ever done.  :P
For us to get the 1000 plus users together especially the doctors together to train everyone is quite impractical as everyone schedule is different. It would be next to impossible to have everyone trained for a mass roll out of window 8. But then again our organization is quite different then many of your places of business as those workers may work 9-5. In a university especially in the when I work with both professors and members in the health care team windows 8 just would not work. We will wait to see what happens with windows 9.