You mean “Open-Shell / Open-Shell-Menu” (Reborn of Classic Shell.)? I used … because I prefer the W7 “menu” a hundred times more than what 10 offers.
Yes I stand corrected, I meant Open Shell. But you can still get the Classic Shell from the developers web site. It also hadn’t been updated since late 2017.
There are some not insignificant security flaws that openshell patches. not huge issues but definitely still issues.
Open-Shell 4.4.131 Sep 29, 2018
Both are already a bit outdated… Possibly, maybe “Start Menu 8”.
Try Windows 10 LTSC (No bloatware).
Unless you are part of a company or Subscribe to one of the Edu or Homelab programs for around 500 bucks a year, there is no legal way for a private person to use that.
On topic, there is no reason to keep using Windows 7. Yes Windows 10 isn’t the best OS out there, but Windows 7 is soon unsupported, most recent Hardware won’t work Properly, lots of Games and runtimes simply don’t install anymore etc.
If you want Windows, Windows 10 it is. No way around that.
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Agreed. The only reason i use it is because otherwise my WMR headset won’t run properly with pretty much any other OS.
Well you could use Windows 10 and get StartIsBack for like $4. It’s what i use because it feels a lot more like Windows 7. While not as nice as just having 7, it’s still better than vanilla 10.
You paid for something openshell does for free?
shiggy diggy
i bought it a while back, i had like 5 bucks left on a prepaid Visa card i got for Christmas so i said why not and got it. Still don’t regret it.
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I agree with one exception:
- you have a non-windows 10 compatible application (or potentially hardware device) that there is no budget for to replace or upgrade
AND - you isolate this machine from the internet and other potentially hostile machines
I have a friend who was in an environment where they were still using WINDOWS 98 (mostly for its proper “dos” support) until recently.
Why? Because they were using some obscure ISA slot hardware that later machines/platforms did not support, for some robotics process stuff.
I believe they had spares available, it wasn’t network connected, etc.
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So… sorry for the bump but this is the only thread i saw on search that seems to mention ReactOS… which is a possible Windows replacement strategy… even if its just in a VM.
Has anyone actually played with ReactOS? 
I just downloaded 0.4.11 and fired it up in liveCD mode in VMware… seems to be very WIndows 2000-ish.
Apparently some games even work according to the FAQ.
I might do some testing with it to see what other stuff does/doesn’t work - it seem to be very lightweight. 75mb download or something. Supposedly compatible with WIndows drivers.
If you need windows for some specific windows app, it’s maybe a “proprietary license free” way to get off Windows 10…
I am not sure if it is such a good alternative for W10. Quite a specific system in a very early phase after years. How about security?
Surely you can consider it for the old computer as options but is it better than some linux distro instead of W10 … debatable.
Not suggesting it as superior to Linux. But maybe capable of running some old Windows application without Windows (even in a VM) - if WINE can’t handle it.