Yes, I am well aware that MS will soon end official support for Windows 7. In truth, MS haven't "supported" the OS for years - they quickly lost interest in releasing improvements, and began doing everything they could to disparage Windows 7 and drive people towards Windows 10. Nevertheless, the OS remains incredibly popular, and that popularity isn't about to disappear overnight. Many people love it and rely on it, and MS will actually still continue to offer Windows 7 support for a premium. (In the same vein, there are still about 3% of people happily using Windows XP - long after official support ended.) All the scares about Win7 systems becoming immediately at risk to viruses kind of remind me of the Y2K scares. All the major vulnerabilities were fixed years ago, and since MS won't be changing the software any more, new vulnerabilities won't be introduced. Obviously that doesn't mean Windows 7 won't be vulnerable - it will, but many of us will continue keep our systems safe with a combination of good AV software and common sense. I also happen to know for a fact that Windows 7 can be safely run without Windows updates. How? Because I permanently disabled them back in 2016! This was after Microsoft began sending aggressive updates nagging me to upgrade to Windows 10, before actually installing Windows 10 without my permission! (I'm sure many of us remember that nightmare.) It was then that I started to see Microsoft "support" more as a form of malware than anything else. In the end, Microsoft are really giving us no choice here. I loathe Windows 10 and could never even consider using it. I could spend hours talking about why I hate Windows 10 so much - there is so much to hate. In fact, I'd much rather use a Mac than Windows 10 - which is saying something, given how much I hate Apple products! It does seem inevitable that the day will come when Windows 7 will be truly obsolete, used by hardly anyone. But right now that still seems far off, especially considering it was still the world's most popular operating system just a few months ago. As for the problem with the missing Dolby decoder, I haven't read this full thread, but the way I fixed it was by simply installing this codec pack (carefully scanned for viruses, of course): « unauthorized, black-market software link removed by moderator »
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