I'm on W7 now.  Answers greatly appreciated.  I'm planning on staying with P3DV4 for a long while.

Non-supported doesn't mean non-functional.  I probably wouldn't continue to use it for online banking or anything else that might be a security risk.

I still have a 2006-vintage Conroe machine with Windows XP on it that I use on occasion for some older orphaned hardware and software.  Still works just fine, but I don't go web surfing with it.

At some point in the future, you may have to move to Windows 10.  Just as I have seen with Windows XP, third party flight sim developers will support Windows 7 for several years, but somewhere down the line, they will drop Windows 7 from their installation software or they will use features available only in Windows 10 and that will prevent an add-on from working in older versions of Windows.

1 hour ago, stans said:

At some point in the future, you may have to move to Windows 10.  Just as I have seen with Windows XP, third party flight sim developers will support Windows 7 for several years, but somewhere down the line, they will drop Windows 7 from their installation software or they will use features available only in Windows 10 and that will prevent an add-on from working in older versions of Windows.

I agree.  Which programs are affected will be determinative of the move.

 

Install Windows 10. I honestly don't see the big deal.

Move on, Windows 10 is so much better. You will be surprised in a positive way

 

2 hours ago, nas123 said:

Move on, Windows 10 is so much better. You will be surprised in a positive way

You'll be surprised, all right.  Like the first time an update resets all the power management settings on your USB ports, causing your flight controls to drop offline in the middle of a long flight, ruining the flight.  Or when it auto-installs a poorly-tested update that breaks programs you need, and they first claim there's no issue, then after 10,000 complaints announce that they'll fix it...in the next monthly update.  Or when the network shares you set up for your multi-PC sim stop working because the last update reset a bunch of the security settings that you had configured.  That's all been part of my not-wonderful-at-all Win 10 experience.

Move on when they pull the hammer back on a gun held to you your head!  Seriously, I would not leave Win 7 unless you have to, like with a hardware upgrade to a mobo with a chipset not supported in Win 7, for example.

Regards

Bob Scott offers good advise as usual. In real life, choosing the version of operating system is like buying a snowmobile or outboard motor for your boat. No matter how much you shop and compare, all three are going to screw you and leave you stranded sooner or later. It is just part of the "fun"

1 hour ago, w6kd said:

then after 10,000 complaints

I feel for those who have had issues with Windows 10 (although I have yet to have a single problem with it). However, a conservative estimate of Windows 10 usage worldwide puts it at 400,000,000 installations so that 10,000 represents only 0.0025% - worth fixing but statistically almost insignificant (unless you're one of them, of course). The chances of most of the problems affecting the average user are almost nil. I had far more problems with Win 7 updates than I've ever had with Win 10. It's only the fact that Windows 7 isn't still getting regular updates that's stopped the complaints about them.

Edited October 4, 20196 yr by vortex681

1 minute ago, vortex681 said:

I feel for those who have had issues with Windows 10 (although I have yet to have a single problem with it). However, a conservative estimate of Windows 10 usage worldwide puts it at 400,000,000 installations so that 10,000 represents only 0.0025% - probably worth fixing but statistically almost insignificant (unless you're one of them, of course). The chances of most of the problems affecting the average user are almost nil. I had far more problems with Win 7 updates than I've ever had with Win 10. It's only the fact that Windows 7 isn't still getting regular updates that's stopped the complaints about them.

Win 7 didn't force installation of updates without giving the user having the ability to turn them off...Win 10 does.  Therein lies the rub. 

43 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Win 7 didn't force installation of updates without giving the user having the ability to turn them off...Win 10 does.  Therein lies the rub. 

I'll grant you that. However, as I said earlier, I've yet to have a problem with a Win 10 update. I do have automatic driver updates (within the Windows updates) turned off so maybe that's partly responsible for my success. I also never manually check for updates - I wait for them to be offered. MS has previously said that Windows carries out a basic check for compatibility before offering an update which is, apparently, overridden if you check manually.

Edited October 4, 20196 yr by vortex681

Also, if you ever want Microsoft's new Flight Simulator, to be released sometime next year, you will need Windows 10.

I'll keep running win7 on my sim box with an image backup and on a dedicated network. My other win7 computers are being replaced with Apple products.

MSFS runs on DirectX 11. That's all I needed to know. I have a can do attitude.

Ted

I will be upgrading my PC soon, but I will be keeping my existing hard disks and Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. I really do not like the sound of "forced updates", particularly with respect to graphics drivers. The only person who decides when stuff is updated on my own PC is me.

1 hour ago, Christopher Low said:

I will be upgrading my PC soon, but I will be keeping my existing hard disks and Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. I really do not like the sound of "forced updates", particularly with respect to graphics drivers. The only person who decides when stuff is updated on my own PC is me.

You can easily set Windows 10 so that it doesn't update any drivers on your PC. In between major version releases, my W10 system only accepts bugfixes and security updates (no drivers) - who wouldn't want these if you go online?