Modern motherboard with windows7 drivers available?

Not sure how much it helps you, but can you virtualize the Windows 7 install?

From just a quick perusal of Microsoft's site, Windows 7 will support up to 9th Gen Intel Core CPU's, those were released back in 2019. The corresponding motherboard would be a 300 series (8th and 9th Gen) chipset. A little bit of Googling made things even weirder. I can find Asus's Intel Prime Z370 motherboard, but the support page only lists drivers for Windows 10 and 11. If I fall back a generation, I can find Window 7 drivers for the Prime Z270 (6th and 7th Gen).

I'm not as familiar with the AMD side of things. So, I've included the Microsoft links for the supported CPU's for Windows 7 for both vendors. Hope it helps a little, at least knowing what Microsoft says is officially supported.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...upported/windows-7-supported-intel-processors

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w.../supported/windows-7-supported-amd-processors

This seven-year-old article from Anandtech is on point and sounds miserable.

This B550 motherboard has a PS/2 port, which might get you thru the install as described above - https://www.newegg.com/biostar-racing-b550gta/p/N82E16813138471

(Obligatory comment that you really should migrate your friend to a modern system, at minimum for security updates [i can't imagine the hellhole that is a Win7 box connected to the internet in 2024] and for modern versions of the graphics software, etc.)

Eventually you just have to accept that you need to move forward. Windows 7 hasn't been supported with updates for a LONG time, many common pieces of software like web browsers won't install on it with current versions, drivers may or may not work but aren't going to be optimized and updated. It's a huge security issue. Even Windows 10 isn't going to be supported pretty soon so it's hard to even recommend moving to that. If you're just adamant about not moving on, get used parts, the least-old models that would still be fully-supported with Win7, and let that run until they die and then accept that it's time to move to Windows 12.

Even with Windows 7, by this point, her system probably needs a wipe and rebuild anyway.

alkaprim said:

So looking for any recomendations of a good system that still has Windows 7 drivers available.

Click to expand...

A system that's online receiving no security updates, used for business, is a recipe for disaster.

You're better off either buying an off-lease business PC or building a new PC with Windows 11, then keep both online for a short period of time as she migrates over.

I've done this before for someone. The learning curve wasn't too bad, and they were happy things like websites were working once again.

What the heck, how are you in design business without up to date software? If clients send me Illustrator / InDesign files and I can't open them then next time they will use someone else. Sure it costs money monthly but less that your hourly fee right?

Browsing on an EOL system is asking to get hit by malware / ransomware. Such bad decision making... Chrome has stopped updating a year ago for Windows 7 so all the security vulnerabilities since then are available to own that system.

alkaprim said:

Thank you all for the insight, I'll probably just stick the larger cloned SSD into the original box. I know for a fact that she has no issues whatsoever running win7 in 2024, actually she's notorious for having like 20 chrome tabs + a dozen apps opened at the same time.
I may try to upgrade the box to win10 after cloning just to have a way to go back painlessly to win7 if problems arise.
If that goes well I may be looking at upgrading the mobo and cpu later, but for now she'll be ok with just a ssd upgrade.
I'm very reluctant touching the software installed as it's all expensive stuff with licensing that goes 10+ years back that cost thousands back then, pretty sure nowdays all this stuff requres monthly/yearly subscriptions.
A small issue i see is that she uses a vinyl cutter with a serial interface, but pretty sure usb-serial will do the job.
Thanks again.

Click to expand...

You're just BEGGING for problems with all this piecemeal upgrading you propose (instead of a completely new install) and use of far out of date software and OS, and your friend is begging to have her business destroyed. Her system is probably absolutely fine as far as performance, yes. People haven't really needed to upgrade hardware for 10 years if they're just doing web browsing and specific software that hasn't gotten bloated with updates and upgrades, and with the type she seems to be using, she probably hasn't updated any of it anyway. If she was happy with it 10 years ago, she'd have no reason to be unhappy with it now since basically nothing has changed. Websites may be a little heavier now but that'd be it. A new SSD with plenty of free space will seem blazing fast at this point because of the performance loss when an SSD gets full. (Should try to retain 1/3 or more free space, though with some models additional free space beyond a certain point doesn't help.)

Chrome 109 is the last version that supported Windows 7, meaning she hasn't had any updates (security or bug fixes) for over a year for the browser, let alone the 4+ years since Windows itself was patched. Eventually websites aren't going to even let her view the site, or will have functions that don't work, and you'll have to start getting her into alternatives that she won't want to have to learn to use with their slightly different sets of features.

PCIe serial adapters are readily available and work just fine, and many OEM systems still come with serial ports built in (or at least headers for them), and many or most retail boards have headers too, with the controller being built into the LPC chipset just like older systems. USB serial adapters are generally highly compatible as well, but as with all USB devices they can be a little flaky with initializing or losing connection to the host. I've had systems where the adapter needed to be moved around to different ports repeatedly before it would finally be recognized, or would randomly change to a different COM port number. PCIe adapters weren't 100% without problems but were more reliable.

Your friend (and you) need to understand that IT is simply part of business now, and requires occasional investments of time and money, and unfortunately now that may also include subscription costs if you have special software needs. You can stretch it out for a while but eventually you need to invest again or you're going to fail. When it fails, either it's going to cost MUCH more to recover from it, or you're not going to be able to recover at all.

By the way as far as sticking with AMD if you just swapped boards/CPUs, due to worrying about switching to Intel, a 20-year-old AMD chipset and CPU are just as different from a modern AMD chipset and CPU as an Intel system would be. Even a difference of 5 years would be enough to make AMD/Intel an irrelevant concern. Windows is going to completely replace nearly all the system drivers in either case, except for the generic ones like "SATA Controller" and any bugginess from having old drivers and files leftover will be present regardless of which brand the new board uses.

I would not even consider Windows 10 either, just go straight to Windows 11 so that you wont have the same thing again to do in just a few years, or have the system being owned due to lack of updates at the end of next year.

I would build the newest future proof box with Windows 11 on it, load it up with the software your friend needs and move everything over slowly, not touching that old box until everything is up and running just because you wrote "software and thousands of $".

That old box i would have put to work doing daily backups with some fresh drives in it.

alkaprim said:

So looking for any recomendations of a good system that still has Windows 7 drivers available.

Click to expand...

A system that's online receiving no security updates, used for business, is a recipe for disaster.

You're better off either buying an off-lease business PC or building a new PC with Windows 11, then keep both online for a short period of time as she migrates over.

I've done this before for someone. The learning curve wasn't too bad, and they were happy things like websites were working once again. Chrome stopped supporting Windows 7 over a year ago.

As for your plan to upgrade from a 1TB SSD to a 4TB SSD, that's probably not going to go well unless you're sure the system has UEFI to support GPT, and even then you're going to have to go through a few hoops if the drive is currently MBR.

alkaprim said:

I'm very reluctant touching the software installed as it's all expensive stuff with licensing that goes 10+ years back that cost thousands back then, pretty sure nowdays all this stuff requres monthly/yearly subscriptions.

Click to expand...

I realize your plan is being driven by your friends preferences, but you should at least confirm whether this is the case, and whether the existing licenses can be transferred to a new machine.

Also, Chrome stopped receiving updates on Windows 7 over a year ago. Do the responsible thing and inform your friend of the risks involved in continuing to use an OS and browser combination that is no longer receiving security patches.

alkaprim said:

She doesn't want to change to win10/11

Click to expand...

You'd probably have to pirate it, but despite her preferences, I would point you at Windows 10 LTSC 2021, IoT edition. It's Win10 minus adware, spyware, and bloat. It runs about the same speed as Win7 on the same hardware, and the IoT edition will get security patches through 2032.

You can buy gray market keys for LTSC, but they're usually not legit, and you're giving money to commercial pirates. They sell the same key to many people, and they'll probably work to activate the install once, if you do it right away, but likely never again. I think it's better to pirate the OS yourself then enrich commercial pirates. You can use the MAS scripts to activate the IoT edition using HWID, which is permanent; the computer will just reactivate itself on later installs without needing a script. (the non-IoT version of LTSC 2021 requires a keyserver, which is crap, and the support period is only through 2025 or 2026.)

Sourcing legit LTSC as an end user is extremely difficult, which is a damn shame, because it is by far the best OS Microsoft currently makes. And the long support period for the IoT edition would be outstanding for your friend, because she won't have to revisit the problem for seven or eight more years. It will just run and run, with no new features, only bugfixes.

You'd probably have to do a clean install, though, which will be a giant PITA for your friend. But that will bring her back under security support, which is important.

edit: of course, you'd have to research the ability to reinstall the old software. It should work fine in Win10, but Adobe sucks and could be evil about reinstalls.

alkaprim said:

She doesn't want to change to win10/11

Click to expand...

alkaprim said:

I'm very reluctant touching the software installed as it's all expensive stuff with licensing that goes 10+ years back that cost thousands back then, pretty sure nowdays all this stuff requres monthly/yearly subscriptions.

Click to expand...

I am questioning her business sence first of all, and second, this is not an operation i would personally do. I would explain and state the current situation several times and ask her to hire a business to do it for her, you know with warranties and such things. Even new hardware fails sometimes, and i would not even remotely want to stand in the crosshairs if something happened.

I fear you will have lots of headaches with this down the road my friend. The energy this gives me is just bad ju-ju. If you really have to do this though:

1. Research and build the newest machine within her budget. Buy quality components for stability, the best Power supply unit you can find even if it is way overkill. Add overkill RAM, we do not want the SSD's to get tired fast. It is the cost of doing business really, but the build must make sense.

2. Test it thoroughly. When you think you are done, do it again.
3. Move everything slowly to the new system, think government slowly without rendering her current setup useless.
4. Buy her a NAS with cloud-support at a minimum, or build a second box and setup a backup system that is easy to use but works.

I have had a boss worth well over $100 mill USD that used Windows XP on his main and only computer with everything on it back in 2019 who is a high level real estate owner in a good part of Oslo and i got a company to take care of him instead of putting myself in the crosshairs when he asked me. He is 60+ and computing was totally uninteresting.

He hated all kinds of expenses in a weird way, but he understood when i explained it to him in a manner he understood. All drawings and information about his buildings and basically everything since he started with real-estate in the 80's were on that computer. No backups, spinning rust and i have probably never seen a more worn keyboard.

(But he was also the kind of guy that loved to install stupidly high tech stuff in his buildings and throw dinners for the 2K workers and the companies that were his tenants to show his appreciation, while himself driving a first gen VW E-Golf that had seen better days. His chair in the office was a half broken reject from one of his tenants, and the desk came from IKEA. Probably the coolest guy i have ever met, but thinking about the values involved and even if i could have done it myself, that is not a risk i was willing to make.

Good luck though

grommit! said:

Do the responsible thing

Click to expand...

Heck, @alkaprim, do the smart thing for YOURSELF and don't become responsible for this mess. When her browser won't display her favorite websites anymore, who is she going to call? When her system gets pwned, and her credit cards compromised, who is she going to call? Her passwords are probably all horribly insecure and tied together with the same email address and password to everything, and when her business accounts are emptied, who is she going to blame? Even if you say "I recommend against this", in the end, if you go forward and set it up, you'll be held responsible in her mind and in the minds of everyone she tells about it. If you at least make a good-faith effort to ensure that you're not putting together an INHERENTLY FAULTY infrastructure, and refuse to set up new subscriptions with bad passwords and things like that, you will have a defense for yourself. And since you're not doing this as a business, you can't even put together a contract with terms that absolve you of responsibility (though at the same time she'll have little legal recourse against you).

As @Made in Hurry sort of implied, make her understand that these are costs of doing business. Even things that don't make an immediate, physical, perceptible difference are still important. The majority of it may be a once-in-five-years cost, even 10, such as the hardware and OS. Some of her industry-specific type software may now be subscription-only, and that's just something to be accepted if she can't find an alternative, or maybe you can find a license for the last perpetually-licensed version if the one she has won't work on Windows 10 (and most likely it will work). Explain what's going to happen if she doesn't do this. That her business is at risk. When the building's foundation is cracked and the studs are riddled with termites and rot and mold, you don't just put pick up the building and put it on a new concrete pad. You have to redo the whole thing, even if you might have to get used to a new interior layout. If the legs on the chair break, you buy a new chair, not nail new legs onto the rotten seat.

Lord Evermore said:

Heck, @alkaprim, do the smart thing for YOURSELF and don't become responsible for this mess.

Click to expand...

Oh that's a view I didn't consider. Yeah won't touch with a 10ft pole. The system may be "pre-0wned" already full of malware, it's a matter of time for unpatched browsers to get a zero click exploit via ads.

Maybe the person in question is just not able to throw tons of money on new software licenses to solve the problem?

I liked the suggestion of wrapping the old installation into a VM on new hardware. Any internet connectivity would be from the new, presumably safer, environment. And the old VM would only be allowed to communicate locally per drag and drop or somesuch, and would not have a network interface.

A pain to use, depending on workflow, or only a minor inconvenience. Only that particular user can make that judgement.

hobold said:

Maybe the person in question is just not able to throw tons of money on new software licenses to solve the problem?

Click to expand...

The only "problem" seems to be low disk space. She seems to be happy with everything the way it is but OP wants to improve performance for her, but he needs to explain that that will come with costs, possibly significant costs depending on her business, and he is not willing to half-ass it. She has to make a choice between sticking with what works (but is highly insecure and risks her business) or investing money in her business in order to increase productivity, make it secure, and allow it to continue functioning, something that ALL businesses have to consider. At some point something WILL fail if she doesn't make any effort to keep up, and OP shouldn't get involved with only doing a partial upgrade that keeps the worst parts of the old system.

Virtualizing it may or may not be viable, depending on what she does, but it's a stopgap measure that increases complexity significantly and doesn't entirely eliminate the problems of continuing to use the old system. You would not believe how many problems some of my users had when they used the old Virtual PC version of Windows XP under Windows 7, where XP apps were able to "look and feel" as if they were a native app on the Windows 7 desktop (largely because the filesystems were clearly still separate and it wasn't easy to find your folders on the host), and having a completely separate OS that a user has to switch to sounds like it would be an unworkable nightmare for this person.

That assumes that everything would even work, that software wouldn't deactivate and not re-activate (which is a potential issue even with a physical hardware change), that the chosen hypervisor can provide all the functionality required (like Hyper-V can't pass through USB devices or PCIe devices, so third-party software is required to work around that for a USB to serial adapter, or use some other hypervisor that isn't as clean and integrated), that the user would be able to function with the virtual OS not being able to connect to the Internet, that her software doesn't require Internet access to check licensing or get data. Throw in having to do everything on the host machine then remember how to transfer the files to the virtual machine and OP is looking at a phone call every day asking "Why can't I browse to this website?" and "Why can't I open this file I downloaded in my design application? I can't even find the folder. When I click on it in Chrome it says it can't find an application to open it." Drag and drop between host and guest is hit or miss with virtualized Windows in Hyper-V due to the way it creates the console and depends on the edition of the guest, and has never worked properly with the brief forays I've made with other free hypervisors.

It all comes back to "Do you really want to be responsible for this for the rest of her life?" because it's absolutely going to be a pain in the ass if not done right.

Lord Evermore said:

because it's absolutely going to be a pain in the ass if not done right.

Click to expand...

It'll probably be a PITA even if it's done perfectly.

As someone with many years in IT.. run away, and don't look back.. this isn't a friend.

That machine has no business being used or even to be connected to a network.

whoisit said:

From just a quick perusal of Microsoft's site, Windows 7 will support up to 9th Gen Intel Core CPU's, those were released back in 2019. The corresponding motherboard would be a 300 series (8th and 9th Gen) chipset. A little bit of Googling made things even weirder. I can find Asus's Intel Prime Z370 motherboard, but the support page only lists drivers for Windows 10 and 11. If I fall back a generation, I can find Window 7 drivers for the Prime Z270 (6th and 7th Gen).

Click to expand...

The last CPU generation that Microsoft supports on Windows 7 without ugly hacks and workarounds are 6th gen Intel (no 7th gen) and AMD Bulldozer based parts. Microsoft introduced a CPU check in one of the later updates that will throw an "unsupported hardware" error on Windows Update if you try to search for updates after the update is installed.

Them not supporting 7th gen Intel is just pure spite and forced obsolescence, they work on the same motherboards as 6th gen parts. So you could upgrade your CPU and suddenly be out of support. I was working at a hospital in 2019 and we had to deploy some Windows 7 boxes as a holdover until some backend stuff was upgraded. They came from the factory (Dell AIOs) with 7th gen Intel processors and Windows 7 installed, but the moment they were activated and started looking for updates, Microsoft immediately clobbered them. It took me awhile to find the WUFUC program to bypass that crap. There were still some drivers that didn't want to play nice.

Microsoft pushed hardware vendors pretty hard to not provide Windows 7 drivers for later hardware. While there are ways to get 7th gen and up and early Ryzen working, you require the patience of a saint by applying hacks, kludges and searching the dark corners of the internet for modified drivers.

I didn't know about that error if you tried to update. Would that even happen if you tried to run Windows 7 in a VM, since the processor ID gets passed to the guest? All the other hardware is genericized under Hyper-V and most others (when not passed directly through) but the CPU is identified.

For whatever reason, the check doesn't do anything in a VM. Microsoft probably made the check bypass if it detects its running inside a VM.

I have an i9-10850k and a Windows 7 VM in Virtualbox correctly identifies it, but never had any problems running Windows Update.

Here's what the error looks like on real hardware.

My mother had a similar issue- many gigabytes of photos, negative scanners, photo printer etc., and expensive out of date photo editing software etc.
She had a book she'd written, and the new version of the software wouldn't fully support the old files.

I ended up doing the following:

Clone HDD to a new (larger) disk.
Swap the new disk into her old system.
Upgrade to windows 10.
Build a new PC with the new HDD.
I then uninstalled everything she didn't need, and persuaded her to buy some newer software.

All the legacy software she needed still worked, and so did the scanners and photo printers.

There were a few hiccups with Windows along the way and the process took most of a weekend, but she's now on Win11, and the system will see her out.

As others noted virtualising the existing install on newer hardware may be the most convenient option as it can greatly ease migration. It's handy to have a running copy to root through when copying over files and settings. The user need not browse the internet or shop etc via the VM and having both OS running can make migrating at leisure more comfortable as everything on the old box remains at hand.

Last I mentioned Disk2vhd another Arsian posted there are better ways but I never needed them for Windows including 7. Arsians who does this professionally may chime in with their favorite P2V tools. Users with years of accumulated stuff on their old OS may forget to move something important over until they need it. When the old VM is no longer wanted it can be copied off and stored or deleted.

My steel supplier (I sort his PCs in return for new steel and do much better than I would for cash) had no install media for his software as his previous computer person never handed them over. P2V saved the day when his old machine died giving him time to sort the new one out.

I guess it will be a little difficult to install a Windows 7 when the CPU has changed, but it may work without the licensing part (on my machine i has worked even after the expiration of the trial period) . The drivers are not part of a motherboard. As suggested try virtualization with VirtualBox for example or even a Type-1 hypervisor (an OS, whose only use is to install guest systems on). I don't recommend using Windows 7 because you won't receive security updates.

alkaprim said:

Friend asked me to possibly uppgrade her PC used in her graphic design bussiness.
It's some sort of AMD athlon 64 system running windows 7 loadded with graphic design software. She doesn't want to change to win10/11 and I don't feel like reinstalling all the software either. So decided to clone her 1TB SSD to new 4TB SSD (believe it or not but her SSD is 99% full) and to improve performance possibly change the mobo/cpu to something more modern, preferably some sort of AMD Ryzen as I sense trouble going from AMD to Intel or viceversa.
So looking for any recomendations of a good system that still has Windows 7 drivers available.
Much appreciated.

Click to expand...

She sounds like a typical creative, good at artsy stuff, not so much with technical. I'm guessing she has old versions of Adobe software before they started with software subs, which she is trying to avoid paying monthly, as they may not work on a modern OS. Part of that is ok, as for her everything works. Not surprising the HD was full though.

I think you have done enough by updating her SSD to a larger version. Alternatively if you are set to help her you could find some used PC hardware newer then what she has but still supports Win7.

Anything further needs a serious conversation and getting her out of her comfort zone, and accepting the reality of the situation.

Good luck, this will be tricky. Creatives are very fickle with change

orionquest said:

I think you have done enough by updating her SSD to a larger version. Alternatively if you are set to help her you could find some used PC hardware newer then what she has but still supports Win7.

Click to expand...

The second part of that didn't need to be said, since that's exactly what OP was asking for.

As was pointed out repeatedly, her system is now outdated by 3 versions of Windows (7, 8, 8.1), almost 4 as even Windows 10 won't be getting security patches after October of next year. She absolutely needs to be informed that she is not "good enough" at this point and that while she may be able to continue functioning, every minute her Windows 7 machine is connected to the Internet increases the risks of her business being destroyed, her finances depleted, and possibly even her identity stolen and her life ruined, and that there will simply be no further effort made to help extend her current setup to last longer or work better or to fix the slightest problems.

Lord Evermore said:

The second part of that didn't need to be said, since that's exactly what OP was asking for.

As was pointed out repeatedly, her system is now outdated by 3 versions of Windows (7, 8, 8.1), almost 4 as even Windows 10 won't be getting security patches after October of next year. She absolutely needs to be informed that she is not "good enough" at this point and that while she may be able to continue functioning, every minute her Windows 7 machine is connected to the Internet increases the risks of her business being destroyed, her finances depleted, and possibly even her identity stolen and her life ruined, and that there will simply be no further effort made to help extend her current setup to last longer or work better or to fix the slightest problems.

Click to expand...

Neither did your entire comment, well done.

You obviously have not worked with creatives, they don't think logically. All of what you stated will fall on deaf ears. Typical of IT not understanding the real issue and trying to ram something down people's throat.

Any more logical fallacies, you are 2 for 2 here.

orionquest said:

Neither did your entire comment, well done.

You obviously have not worked with creatives, they don't think logically. All of what you stated will fall on deaf ears. Typical of IT not understanding the real issue and trying to ram something down people's throat.

Any more logical fallacies, you are 2 for 2 here.

Click to expand...

What? This is what I was referring to:

OP said: Are there any newer motherboards supported by Windows 7?
Your reply was: You should find a newer motherboard supported by Windows 7.

Click to expand...

Everything after that was pointing out the advice for OP, to help THEM out, not the creative. They need to make the effort to explain the issue to the friend, then wash their hands of it. Who gives a fuck what the "creative" thinks if they won't listen and accept what has to be done? OP shouldn't be bothering with them at that point.

Before this thread devolves into a bun fight, it's worth noting the OP has not returned to ars since they last posted three months ago.

In other words, continuing to bump the thread is a waste of time.

grommit! said:

Before this thread devolves into a bun fight, it's worth noting the OP has not returned to ars since they last posted three months ago.

In other words, continuing to bump the thread is a waste of time.

Click to expand...

Have you met us?

grommit! said:

Before this thread devolves into a bun fight, it's worth noting the OP has not returned to ars since they last posted three months ago.

In other words, continuing to bump the thread is a waste of time.

Click to expand...

With 444 posts over 23 years, I expect they will get back around to this thread some time around 2029 or so.

I think it's the backups taking up OP's time.

Here's how you can make the old PC safer without having to buy new software licences. Buy a new PC or laptop with Windows 11 for accessing the internet, email, etc. Keep the old PC for running the graphic design software but air gap it so it's completely inaccessible to the internet. Use an external SSD to transfer files between the new PC and the old design software PC. You can even use a KVM switch to make things a little easier when switching between the two. Get a good virus scanner to make sure any files being transferred to the old PC are clean.

Agreed ^. Bigger SSD, air-gap the old system, and use a flash drive to transfer files as needed. I would plant the seed of "this build is at risk of overnight obsolescence / issues" and leave it at that.

BernieW said:

Here's how you can make the old PC safer without having to buy new software licences. Buy a new PC or laptop with Windows 11 for accessing the internet, email, etc. Keep the old PC for running the graphic design software but air gap it so it's completely inaccessible to the internet. Use an external SSD to transfer files between the new PC and the old design software PC. You can even use a KVM switch to make things a little easier when switching between the two. Get a good virus scanner to make sure any files being transferred to the old PC are clean.

Click to expand...

The system is a motherboard failure away from destroying an entire business with no backup routines in place, no mirroring, nothing.
If you are running a successful business working with IT using software licenses to do your business, you are also expected to invest in it so that you are not a failure away from losing the entire business.
An SSD when it fails, usually fails with no chance of recovery.

I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole myself even if i could, i would hire a company just because it's a business expense that you probably can write off while also keeping an off-site backup, although i say that without knowing the US tax system.

I am curious how this saga went though, so i hope OP returns with an update.

Made in Hurry said:

I am curious how this saga went though, so i hope OP returns with an update.

Click to expand...

They tried, it failed, all the data and applications were lost, the "friend" turned out to be much less friendly in a stressful situation and OP and their family are now living under an assumed name and have severed all ties to their former life.

Lord Evermore said:

They tried, it failed, all the data and applications were lost, the "friend" turned out to be much less friendly in a stressful situation and OP and their family are now living under an assumed name and have severed all ties to their former life.

Click to expand...

I really hope that is not true, i can imagine that feeling

Lord Evermore said:

They tried, it failed, all the data and applications were lost, the "friend" turned out to be much less friendly in a stressful situation and OP and their family are now living under an assumed name and have severed all ties to their former life.

Click to expand...

Upgrade to Win 10 was the best choice in his case