Using a Windows 7 laptop as a daily driver in 2024

[RobertJasiek]

OpenOffice? Why not switch to LibreOffice?

LibreOffice is not for all purposes better than OpenOffice. Some do not work well on LibreOffice but work on OpenOffice. Or maybe LibreOffice has caught up by now? I still use OpenOffice because it works for my purposes while, last time I checked, LibreOffice failed.

[Hotz]

OpenOffice? Why not switch to LibreOffice?

LibreOffice is not for all purposes better than OpenOffice. Some do not work well on LibreOffice but work on OpenOffice. Or maybe LibreOffice has caught up by now? I still use OpenOffice because it works for my purposes while, last time I checked, LibreOffice failed.

Strange. It's completely reverse actually. Approximately 10 years ago OpenOffice got stuck in development. It was somewhere around version 3.5 or 4.0, which wasn't updated like forever (a couple of years). It was like development was completely given up, while LibreOffice continued developing features and fixing bugs. That's also why I switched to LibreOffice. Now I checked the OpenOffice website again, and it seems they are again releasing some OpenOffice versions. Not sure this makes sense anymore, because they must be years behind.

That being said, I would have to do an indepth evaluation again, as "adding new features" (LibreOffice) doesn't necessarily mean it is a better product (it could also be more bloated). Still unlikely I'll change back...

[hfm]

Using a Windows OS that hasn't gotten security updates in years is a monumentally horrid idea.

It is ok if only used offline.

This is the only 99% valid answer. Any other answer is just an admission of how much you don't actually know about security.

[Sеrgey]

LTSB is a direct replacement for W7

A direct replacement? I don't think so. Besides, how many of us actually have a Windows 10 Enterprise license?

OS's don't slow down by themselves, MS fubars them with patches!

I mostly agree. Some of the updates are actually useful but most of them are not. Actually, I fully believe that the same goes for Apple. Mac OS X used to look great, it was a simple and fun to use OS several years ago. Today, it's a bloated mess. Concepts such as notification center work great for smartphones and tablets but on a desktop/laptop, I'd rather have unobtrusive Windows XP-style pop-ups, and just a generally distraction-free environment that is active by default, as in, one that does not require the user to change a gazillion of settings.

Yeah, it is not (as they aren't those little horrid speakers! :D). After all my actual A515-44 still has a comfortable but still dull screen!

The speakers on the V5-131 are a joke indeed. Thankfully, decent portable Bluetooth speakers such as the Sony SRS-XB13 that I use daily are fairly affordable these days. I purchased a $6 USB Bluetooth dongle and now it's no problem to listen to a Web radio station whenever people living in adjacent apartments start making too much noise. (I have to boot Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 to do that because Bluetooth speakers/headphones are not really natively supported by Windows 7. Usually, 3rd party software is required to set things up because the built-in Bluetooth stack is very, very basic.)

An Aspire A515-44? It's powered by a Ryzen 4xxx processor, correct? I hope you'll be able to get many years of use out of it. It's so unfortunate that the screen is dull. The industry is seemingly not yet ready to wave goodbye to IPS and TN panels and embrace the OLED technology, unfortunately.

I used XP on the internet for a long time after it was expired and never had any problem.

That was quite a lot of time ago, right?

It is not really possible to use Windows XP on laptops released after 2011 or so. There will be no suitable graphics driver, no suitable Wi-Fi adapter driver and so on. Those using desktop PCs are a lot more lucky. Nvidia's GeForce GT 1030, GTX 1050, GTX 1060, GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 grahics cards are fully supported on Windows XP; Nvidia still sells the first two options and you can actually play many games using either one.

That being said, Chrome 49 and other browsers released in 2016 or 2017 (that's when most software developers flipped XP and Vista off) are useless at this point. They won't be able to load/display most Web pages correctly.

you should switch it to Linux, it will run much smoother than windows 7 and you get security updates still

I have tried using several Linux distros. Most of them look plain terrible. Some (Elementary, Deepin, Feren) look fine but are slow, or buggy, or both. Last time I installed Elementary, that was in mid 2023 I think, it worked great out of the box and I enjoyed using it for two or three days. Then, I got tired of seeing the "You have XX updates to install" notification and downloaded/installed the damn updates. Doing that broke my Wi-Fi. I was not able to connect to the Internet until I removed Elementary from the SSD and installed Windows 10.

OpenOffice? Why not switch to LibreOffice?

Windows Wordpad and Windows Notepad work fine for writing short articles. For everything else, I use Google Docs and Google Sheets.

[NikoB]

A direct replacement? I don't think so. Besides, how many of us actually have a Windows 10 Enterprise license?

All version W10/11 free for home use.

I'd rather have unobtrusive Windows XP-style pop-ups, and just a generally distraction-free environment that is active by default, as in, one that does not require the user to change a gazillion of settings.

Like all professionals, but their opinion no longer cares about M$ - they are not the target audience even in the Enterprise versions, no matter how funny/sad it is.

Nvidia's GeForce GT 1030, GTX 1050, GTX 1060, GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 grahics cards are fully supported on Windows XP

It's a lie. Latest NVidia cards that are supported at the 9xx driver level. For AMD it is 2xx.
At the same time, drivers for 2008 cards under W7 still work in W11...

sed in 2016 or 2017 (that's when most software developers flipped XP and Vista off) are useless at this point.

As I have already written many times - version 49 of Chrome was the last in which it was possible to enable sharp fonts with normal grayscale anti-aliasing (as in XP) - by disabling the ugly Direct Write.

Starting from version 50 - all Chrome users on PC, if they do not have a monitor with a ppi above 220 - 100% spoil their eyesight.

And only FF up to version 68 could use the correct grayscale anti-aliasing, as in XP. Starting from version 69 this is also not possible. But unlike the bastard Chrome/Edge, you can turn off anti-aliasing altogether. That's why I've had FF as my main browser for many years. I am forced to use Chrome only on sites where there is no normal support for html standards (i.e. the developers are stupid/lazy idiots who write only for the Chrome engine), on YouTube - so the creatures from Google, using criminal anti-market methods, deliberately block the normal operation of YouTube under FF and then when I need automatic translation of sites from another language, this is a key drawback of FF, because it does not have built-in translator integration, like Chrome with Google Translator, which is very sad.

It is thanks to these 3 sad shortcomings that you have to keep the crappy Chrome browser on your computers, which is otherwise completely inferior to Firefox. And in terms of the clarity of fonts - the defeat of Google/Chrome/M$/Edge is simply catastrophic - only an idiot can use Chrome as the main browser for a computer with a screen whose ppi is significantly lower than 220+.

I have tried using several Linux distros. Most of them look plain terrible. Some (Elementary, Deepin, Feren) look fine but are slow, or buggy, or both. Last time I installed Elementary, that was in mid 2023 I think, it worked great out of the box and I enjoyed using it for two or three days. Then, I got tired of seeing the "You have XX updates to install" notification and downloaded/installed the damn updates. Doing that broke my Wi-Fi. I was not able to connect to the Internet until I removed Elementary from the SSD and installed Windows 10.

Exactly. Linux is for red-eyed nerds and those who, through its support, are just trying to find a job in IT and increase their reputation in their resume for a job search. In all other cases, as a desktop OS it is completely miserable, in all variants. That is why no one needs it even after 25 years, except for servers where paid employees of large companies finish and maintain its distributions on their own.

[NikoB]

Windows Wordpad and Windows Notepad work fine for writing short articles. For everything else, I use Google Docs and Google Sheets

A lot of professional software requires DDE, which is not available for Linux (and professional software itself too). Therefore, there is simply no alternative to Microsoft Office in the Linux world and there will not be in the near future.

Only an idiot uses the cloud and cloud services to write private correspondence.

[Sеrgey]

It's a lie. Latest NVidia cards that are supported at the 9xx driver level.

Oops. You're right, NikoB. GeForce 10xx cards are compatible with Windows 7 but not with Windows XP. My bad.

version 49 of Chrome was the last in which it was possible to enable sharp fonts with normal grayscale anti-aliasing (as in XP)

Sleipnir and a few other modern Web browsers let you adjust font rendering and, technically, you can just disable the "make fonts smoother" options in Windows Explorer to make your fonts super-sharp no matter the application. (Super-sharp and super-ugly at the same time.)

[Sеrgey]

"make fonts smoother" options

option not options.

Only an idiot uses the cloud and cloud services to write private correspondence.

Private correspondence? If you mean article drafts then I personally do not see anything wrong with storing those in the cloud. The texts will soon be published on Notebookcheck for everyone to see anyway so what if Google can have a sneak peek at them? It's not a big deal.

We would not be able to keep Notebookcheck running without Google ads.

[A]

I have tried using several Linux distros. Most of them look plain terrible. Some (Elementary, Deepin, Feren) look fine but are slow, or buggy, or both. Last time I installed Elementary, that was in mid 2023 I think, it worked great out of the box and I enjoyed using it for two or three days. Then, I got tired of seeing the "You have XX updates to install" notification and downloaded/installed the damn updates. Doing that broke my Wi-Fi. I was not able to connect to the Internet until I removed Elementary from the SSD and installed Windows 10.

Generally, the recommended starter distro for those new to Linux is Linux Mint. Cinnamon if you have a good PC, MATE if you have an old one. If you like Ferin like interface that is KDE Plasma, and most popular KDE Plasma are OpenSuse KDE, Fedora KDE and Kubuntu

That said, you have Nvidia which historically has bad drivers which is likely the source of your slowness issues. You want a distro that will install the proprietary Nvidia drivers for you for smoothest experience like Linux Mint, if you still have issues, upgrade to latest 6.X kernel in their kernel manager

Windows Wordpad and Windows Notepad work fine for writing short articles. For everything else, I use Google Docs and Google Sheets.

I was referring to the person above saying they use OpenOffice which is pretty much a less updated LibreOffice. With LanguageTool it also does grammar checking (highly suggest ngrams and word2vec for better grammar checking)

A lot of professional software requires DDE, which is not available for Linux (and professional software itself too). Therefore, there is simply no alternative to Microsoft Office in the Linux world and there will not be in the near future.

By DDE you mean Dynamic Data Exchange? LibreOffice does support it just fine.

That said, I will note even MS doesn't recommend using DDE as it is a big security risk, hence why it is disabled unless explicitly enabled on MS Office and recommends to use OLE instead

[lmao]

lot of professional software requires DDE

HAHAHAHAHA DDE, oh my god, replaced by OLE years ago, and that was long overdue, DDE wasn't exploited only by the blind
typical nbc low-quality commenter

[NikoB]

Sleipnir and a few other modern Web browsers let you adjust font rendering and, technically, you can just disable the "make fonts smoother" options in Windows Explorer to make your fonts super-sharp no matter the application. (Super-sharp and super-ugly at the same time.)

You simply do not understand the essence of the problem that I described long ago on dozens of forums and which was also described long ago on the Google bug tracker by many developers, but these scoundrels deliberately ignore a serious problem for vision with incorrect font smoothing.

Any average person can easily check by zooming in on any page in Chrome/Edge/Firefox (default settings) by 400%. There are shadows around the vertical elements of letters that should not exist, which leads to blurring of the text to the eye and damage to vision. And then compare font antialiasing in XP or install Firefox to version 69, disable hardware acceleration (otherwise Direct Write is forced on), and then in about:config enable normal antialiasing mode, as in XP. You will be amazed at the difference by eye.

The majority of the population is illiterate and does not even suspect that it spoils their eyesight on a PC with ppi below 220 in Chrome and Edge under Windows.

In XP (and in FireFox up to version 68), ideal anti-aliasing - grayscale gradient is added only where needed in letter elements. The letters look almost perfect.

In Chrome/Edge there is no way to disable this nasty text smoothing error. But this opportunity exists (ironically) in Linux with the command line switch in Chrome, as its users assure. This key does not work under Windows.

Google doesn't care about Windows users - because... they are not his target platform for theft of personal, private data - his main audience is the owners of Android smartphones, of which there are billions. And on smartphones, ppi has long been above 250, even on cheap ones, so these shadows and dregs in fonts are simply not noticeable if the same incorrect anti-aliasing is going on there.

And only in Firefox you can disable incorrect anti-aliasing altogether - with one param in the about:config settings. It is much clearer for the eyes. Especially on screens with less than 150 ppi and according to statistics, there are more than 80% of screens on the planet...

[Sеrgey]

you have Nvidia which historically has bad drivers which is likely the source of your slowness issues

There are three systems in my apartment and they are all powered by integrated Intel graphics adapters.

You simply do not understand the essence of the problem

Trust me, I do.

There are several ways to make fonts look better on modern Windows operating systems and modern browsers; one of them is to simply remove the graphics driver and use the basic Microsoft VGA driver. However doing so creates a bunch of various problems, hence my suggestion that you should try Sleipnir. It lets you tweak the way fonts look with just a couple of mouse clicks. This is not a great solution either but it's better than nothing.

[NikoB]

you have Nvidia which historically has bad drivers which is likely the source of your slowness issues

There are three systems in my apartment and they are all powered by integrated Intel graphics adapters.

You simply do not understand the essence of the problem

Trust me, I do.

There are several ways to make fonts look better on modern Windows operating systems and modern browsers; one of them is to simply remove the graphics driver and use the basic Microsoft VGA driver. However doing so creates a bunch of various problems, hence my suggestion that you should try Sleipnir. It lets you tweak the way fonts look with just a couple of mouse clicks. This is not a great solution either but it's better than nothing.

This once again proves that you do not understand the essence, people like you, only need pictures, in words you do not understand the problem.
In Windows you can't disable anything except ClearType - it turns off for me right away. In Chrome/Edge, you cannot disable incorrect defective anti-aliasing. If you
If you know this method, post the instructions.
In Firefox you can. Therefore, it is the single most famous and comfortable browser for the eyes. That's why I've been using it for many years. I only use Chrome for YouTube (because Google deliberately prevents normal operation in Firefox) and crookedly made sites from idiot developers and for automatic translation of pages, which works absolutely everywhere in Chrome, which is not in Firefox and other browsers and when there is another translation option in Firefox does not give quick results.

[Neenyah]

)))))))
Author, this is just funny. Compare this runt to my Dell G5 5587 15.6" - 2.83 kg and almost 17" body dimensions. This is a truly quiet machine!

Lmao, bro has a brick laptop with a 57% sRGB, 220 nits, 1080p 15.6" panel (that's 141 PPI, yes) but is trolling all the time about displays and calling them all s*** with his superior eyesight that's far beyond of what any hawk or owl can even imagine with their shameful eyes.

You are an amateur layman talking complete nonsense.
Only 4k panels at the pixel level are compatible with point-to-point fhd resolution.

That is why your 2.5k is the most idiotic option possible, which I have already written about 100,500 times, but every time there is a new stupid amateur (apparently even a child who has not received a matriculation certificate and does not have basic mathematical training at the elementary school level) who categorically talks nonsense.

2.5k can't even beat the mobile 4090 in 2023 releases in ultra quality, much less the 2024 releases.

2.5k is NOT compatible with 4k and fhd video, because... in both cases there will not be perfect pixel sharpness.

The best screen options are multiples of fhd - 4k, 8k.

We work in 4k/8k with ideally sharp fonts and vector graphics, and play in fhd if fps up to 60 is not enough. Getting a perfectly sharp picture in 4k->fhd, instead of the idiotic 2.5k resolution is incorrect for both games and 4k video/ fhd.

Lol. All that spamming around every damn board and you don't even have anything even close to your "needs". But hey, at least you upgraded from your 768p MSI from 2008, that's at least something 👍

You are an amateur layman talking complete nonsense.
Only 4k panels at the pixel level are compatible with point-to-point fhd resolution.

You have a 1080p, switch to 960x540 - which is exactly 4:1 same as 4K to FHD is 4:1 - and enjoy your clear and sharp image. Oh wait...

[Hotz]

Lmao, bro has a brick laptop with a 57% sRGB, 220 nits, 1080p 15.6" panel (that's 141 PPI, yes) but is trolling all the time about displays and calling them all s*** with his superior eyesight that's far beyond of what any hawk or owl can even imagine with their shameful eyes.

Yeah... I've experienced similar behaviour with friends wanting to purchase a new laptop. The high requirement wasn't the display though, but the dGPU. This one also having a brick from more than a decade ago, now wanted an ubergaming laptop with the best dGPU and everything else is unacceptable or sh**, despite the fact he hardly played games at all and could never use that much power at all.

Not sure where this behaviour comes from, but I guess it's when you sit on the same laptop for too long, and only observe see the progress and features of new devices, your expectations for a new laptop rises at the same pace. And when you finally want to buy one, the requirements for the new laptop are way way above from what they actually need.