I dunno about “true” privacy, but there are things you can do with minimal impact to your life to improve your privacy. Disabling OS telemetry is one of them, as is turning off google’s tracking stuff (web & location in particular), running uBlock Origin in medium mode with tracking list providers enabled, not using the same handle or email address on multiple sites, never re-using passwords, locking down your social network profiles to friends-only, and so on.
My main thing about to is their new Settings window, I avoid that shit completely and use Control Panel for everything. The new start menu is also a sack of shit. Also takes an extra step to get to Network and Sharing Center which I use constantly and that pisses me off.
AFAIK everything they’ve added since 7 is virtually useless in a business environment and makes things more confusing to users. Your average computer user cannot adapt to the slightest change in interface. 90% of the users I service with my MSP cannot handle typing in DOMAINNAME\USERNAME without already having the domain there for them…
What do you mean Google’s tracking stuff? Talking about Chrome? AFAIK even using Chromium it phones home to Google servers every time you launch it.
If you go to your Google account settings on their website, you can turn off web and location tracking. Before you do, check your timeline. That’s some scary stuff!
1 Like
Yeah quite scary. I’ve been working on De-Googling myself honestly, only thing holding me back is the backlog of shit I have waiting to watch and people I subscribe to on YouTube. But I think I can manage that without using a YouTube account, just been too lazy.
Name me one thing that you dislike about Windows 7?
1 Like
RAM is on its lunch schedule. Back in tte day I used XP on everything. Even got a W7 machine and put xp on it. Still would rather have xp because I know how it works. When I went to 7 I went from 400mb ram used to 1.8gb by default on machines that I had 2gb of ram in.
I hate the file browser, updates force reboots in the middle of howework or a movie, if drivers crash EVERYTHING crashes, the search is shit, the kernel can’t support a good enough ntfs structure to not need to be defragged every 3 days, the system turns into a smashed slug in 4 months… Should I keep going?
1 Like
I can’t recognize any of that to be honest, how do you manage to make it act up like that? 
No seriously. To me Windows 7 has been the most stable most smooth Windows experience ever.
Because I’m a hacker. The tools that I use to do the stuff I do makes windows throw a hissy fit.
1 Like
So what applications will make Win7 go haywire?
I’ve yet to run into any problems and have been using it since RTM.
Couple memory readers, couple of the old old android tools (adb exists so IDeK if that qualifies anymore), flash (I use flash all the time), etc. Its not that I hate windows 7, I just hate windows. Theres cool stuff in there, but I’d rather not have a computer than use a windows machine.
1 Like
In hindsight, being forced to go back to it (job requirements), it’s ugly and dated, even with Aero and all of it’s effects turned on. After years of using Gnome, 8.1, and 10, it’s become unintuitive to say the least. It breaks my workflow every time I have to use Windows 7. See below.
I loathed tool building on Windows 7. After experiencing the pure magic of Windows 10, PowerShell v5, and built in integrations of other operating systems, I’m flabbergasted how developers can use Windows 7 for anything. Environment variables are always breaking, you have to install every little obscure update to get Visual Studio to work, VMware Workstation goes through 40,000 reboots, and Python, ohhhhh fuck you Microsoft. Setting up Python on Win7 is a pain in the ass.
Yes, I’m aware you can install PowerShell v5 on Windows 7, but it’s not the same.
Also, x2 on the memory usage.
To me Windows 10 is a horrible experience and Windows 7 is pure bliss and joy, always stable, always perfect.
I don’t care much about looks, but hey, I’m the sort of guy who thinks Windows 2000 looked freakin’ awesome!
Good thing we can pick what we want and what works for us! 
I lived with 8.1 happily for years. I never navigate the start menu with the mouse, I just type the first few letters of the program I want without even looking at the screen. So the start menu redesign didn’t really impact me. The only reason I upgraded from 7 to begin with was the faster boot times, though. These days, I use 10 when I have to, Linux otherwise. Keeps the warm fuzzies going.