Have a few old PCs at the office that are working fine (mainly for data input , not used for local storage).

Lately more and more websites are showing "Browser version too old" or messages along that line. Is there a browser that is still recieving updates for Windows 7 ? Tried Firefox ESR but still get those messages.

why not use win10 instead?

I'm still with Windows 7 in office and also use Firefox and never see such msg. My job gets me to search websites a lot.

time to upggrade, the browser is sending your pc to junk yard, so sad.

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This post has been edited by anakkk: Aug 16 2024, 12:30 PM

when you said old, how old? what gen or year are those systems?

i still have a old x58 system that i boot up once a while... its running fine with windows 10...

none. everything either win 8 or above already.
you can get community support browser but dont expect 100% smooth.
they are from community update, not from official update

Many browser already switched to chromium engine thus all of them stopped Win7 support already. Firefox is the only one left still using their own engine. Even browser like Brave, Edge, Opera GX all running on chromium. It's a google problem for refusing to support Win7 since they are the maker of chromium engine.

If you are using 6th gen Intel then just buy and install Win11 since Win10 also EOL liao. You want support, then you need to pay MSFT.

Personally I bought a N97 (or N100) mini pc that came with W11 Pro. Not sure how legit is their OS thus I only bought 1 to try.

This post has been edited by andrekua2: Aug 16 2024, 12:33 PM

Just disable the message from FF itself. Google for methods. Just need to add some lines into the config file.

because Windows 10 license is RM600++

around 10 years old, Dell desktops.

Yes they can run Windows 10, but it'll mean purchasing the licenses (no free upgrade path Windows 7 to 8 then 10 unfortunately).

If we need to purchase the license, then may as well buy a new low spec Dell for RM2.5k.

This post has been edited by corad: Aug 16 2024, 12:33 PM

What? Few year ago got free upgrade windows 7 to 10, you no upgrade it?

Slow pc possibly...

Like my office pc, free also I reluctant to upgrade. CPU mostly G620, ram between 1-2GB. Upgrade W10 boleh jalan kah? Somemore last time heard about auto update but my office still using streamyx 1mbps, scare later stuck whole day updating.

yea, desktop with 8GB RAM. Few years ago thought no point, but now seems forced to have the latest browser version for some websites

Lucky my home branded pc not too slow, even max out 8GB RAM, is i5 2300
Yes the problem some office line too slow, stuck windows update

Ever heard of zero click exploits? The OS itself is the main concern.

Zero-Click Exploit Concerns Drive Urgent Patching of Windows TCP/IP Flaw

Windows 7 : Security Vulnerabilities, CVEs

yes, I understand that Windows 7 is already End of Life, hence no reason to keep updating software for it.

However I should be able to use at my own risk, instead of getting locked out. Any way just asking here to see if there are any alternative browsers.

These are just a few PC in the office, the rest are on the latest Windows. Just a shame to need to replace a perfectly working computer because of this.

they forced you to upgrade due to old browser + old OS = big security issue, if you use the old pc and connected to internet, you're opening gate to hacker/malware infestation.

another option would be upgrade to linux, Fedora, Ubuntun, Mint, Debian, Manjaro are greate choice

This post has been edited by 1024kbps: Aug 17 2024, 12:53 AM

You had 9 years to take advantage of the free upgrade, and it’s understandable that Microsoft and software developers have moved on from older versions. It’s not really their fault.

From a developer’s perspective, supporting older operating systems is challenging because updates for newer versions can often break compatibility with older ones.

This is also why banks eventually stop supporting outdated versions of Android and iOS for their online banking apps.

And keep in mind, support for Windows 10 will also phase out eventually.

plus maintaining new and old software will double their job, they need to back port from new version to old version, then testing before releasing...
there are no magic there, all need to do manually for software QC

Us consumer are using the browser for free, unless you paid like Google or Microsoft to maintain it.

In short, they dont really do maintain old version and new version, there are no LTSC (Windows) or LTS (Linux) for browsers

which Linux is the most "similar" to Windows ? Just being used for browser access to web.

Well ... it's office PCs. Not upgraded because they were used to run out-dated software.

Software is now updated and running on new PCs (well, 2+ years old now)

These old Windows 7 one kept on the network as spares, some connected to projectors/screens as presentation PCs or video conference hosts.

This post has been edited by corad: Aug 19 2024, 04:57 PM

If there isn't a need to run apps and only a browser is needed, installing ChromeOS onto it might be a good way to revive them

https://chromeos.google/products/chromeos-flex/
https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11552529

Thanks for the idea !

Thinking along this line, if there is a seperate OS that I can run off a thumbdrive (while still booting off windows) would be ideal. Something like Parallels for Mac. So those who are not familiar can use the PC as is ... and if browsing dosen't work, plug the thumbdrive in to use the browser from there.

you can trry live USB, plenty of linux distro have it, but better choose the light weight one as Ubuntu/Fedora are heavy in terms of performance impact when running on thumbdrive

there are two that you can use:
1. thorium
https://github.com/Alex313031/thorium-legacy/releases

2. supermium

https://github.com/win32ss/supermium/releases


i'm using both.
both are fork from chrome

if for data entry... and internet based...

just go linux... would recommend linux mint quite lite and easy to use...

Or just get Refurbished PC and use cos Windows license is OEM come with and able to update to windows 10 too.

Spec also not bad overall enough for data entry task only.

example

A valid option but windows 10 support is ending Oct 2025
so it will be good for 1 more year

yes, it will take more time for apps to slowly lose support for win10
but still, something to be aware of

Windows 11 can be hacked to work on older systems, but MS can decide to block it at anytime

Mozilla makes Windows 7 users happy by keeping Firefox 115 ESR supported until March 2025

Firefox version 115 will be the last supported Firefox version for users of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/4056-firefox-esr.html

You can use the same Windows 7 product key to try to upgrade to Windows 10 product key. In fact, many Windows 7 was entitled for Windows 10 free upgrade previously. So I have upgrade all my Windows 7 product key to Windows 10 product key, even I did not install Windows 10. Which mean I got both Windows 7 and Windows 10 product key.

But Windows 10 will soon EOL too by 14th October 2025.

But yes, you can use your Windows 10 product to activate in Windows 11.

If your old computers was below recommended spec, I also suggest you to run them on Linux (Mint or Ubuntu).

This post has been edited by montaguespirit: Sep 17 2024, 12:21 PM

Thorium







This post has been edited by Muusyc: Nov 3 2024, 09:23 PM

I don’t understand why not just use chrome

One major issue is that you can't do or use banking websites anymore. Google recently announced that it would end technical and security support for the Google Chrome browser running on Windows 7 by January 15, 2023. This means the users will have to update to supported Windows versions like Windows 10 to receive the latest security updates from the Chrome browser.

Exactly. Banking websites or for work case certain cloud-based ERP software.

Hardware used to be the limitation (not enough RAM,HDD, slow proc etc) , but now even software is being phased out for no good reason

Yes I get that there are "security" flaws but even if we buy the latest versions and get "hacked", Microsoft isn't going to compensate us. So it's just free money to them.

may i know the spec of that old pc?
as suggested by other user, kindly use linux, can even boot as liveUSB.

That's why you cant let USA dominate the industry... MSFT and Intel working together to phase out everything.