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The fact that Windows 7 is now considered an outdated OS even to Steam is almost certainly my "Damn I'm old" moment

back when there was actual depth in UI's

Things peaked with 7. Some of my office's PC's continue to run it, and its still slick and straightforward by todays standards.

I think one thing to note is that with Windows 8 and especially Windows 10, we entered an era of greater OS-level surveillance via telemetry and inking. To me, even though Windows 7 wasn't the first OS I ever used, it definitely feels in retrospect like the last "innocent" OS. (Note: MS tried backporting telemetry in 2019 but this apparently is easily circumvented.)

XP and 7 will always hands down be the best most successful and loved versions of windows. I still use both to this day.

I always loved the style of Windows 7, it had this futuristic utopia appearance in my opinion, with all the transparency, bright colors and water-like "flow" of animations.

Windows 7 is my childhood all those hours playing purble place and flash games. What I love most about windows 7 is it's sounds they are all so charming from the start up to the volume bar

Something I love about Windows XP/7 is that they were generally maximalist and stylish. To exemplify this, you'll find "how to turn Linux into Windows XP/7" tutorial videos and have Linux fans fawning over Microsoft's UI design choices of the time. The way XP/7 were designed was to impress you, really get you engaged with the system, etc. Nowadays, modern Windows design is a lot more utilitarian and minimalist, falling in line with today's trends. Everything is minimalist, simple, to the point, etc from Apple and Microsoft's UI designs to corporate logos. Nothing feels "fun" anymore. As a personal ancedote, I never got tired of Windows 7 either or thought it was "old" and resisted the free upgrade to Windows 10 which supposedly came with lots of hardware issues. I used my old Toshiba laptop I got in Christmas 2010 and used it until January 2017, I was so attached to it that my parents kinda had to coax me into buying a new laptop lol. I never was that fond of Windows 10 to be honest. Thanks for the video!

Honestly the Aero Glass theme and styling throughout the system (including the icons and desktop widgets) is really timeless and still looks better than just about anything since!

Windows 7 is the last Windows operating system that wasn't a massive pain from the perspective of doing tech support. It never automatically installed bad drivers that would brick the install. It doesn't kill hard-drives with constant reads. Even the worst case of malware on 7 that I had to deal with was less damaging than what 10 has done to itself. I even use it on the only device I still have running Windows.

The aero glass ui was the coolest part about the whole OS. Just being able to see through your title bars or taskbar was incredible back then. It ran fast, was super responsive, and felt modern. While most I knew immediately jumped ship to 8 or 10 at launch, I stayed with 7. There were issues I encountered with the RTM of 10 that weren't there in the technical previews (but I later resolved), so that was another reason for me to stick with what I had. Turns out it was a BIOS update that was required for aero glass to function on a cold boot, and for 10 to boot after installation, even though the board was advertised as Windows 10 compatible. I stuck with XP until 2014, and I stuck with 7 right up to the point where driver support was dropped, about a year after EOL. Now I'm on 10 and I do miss 7. Not to mention I'm stuck here since my CPU and motherboard weren't made in the last 3 years, so it's not compatible with 11. Thanks for nothing, Microsoft.

I LOVE Windows 7 and indeed, am watching your video on Windows 7 right now. Last week my wife got a new laptop, also running WIndows 7 - and absolutely loves it after her own experience of Windows 10. The end of support from Microsoft proved to be utterly irrelevant, as 7 still works perfectly without it, provide you install an anti-virus program which still supports Win7 - as many do. I have NEVER picked up a virus or malware of any kind whatsoever on Windows 7. All the software I need still works flawlessly on Win 7, as does the internet. I see absolutely NO reason to change. And at my age (72) I am not going to.

Aero Glass was hands down my favorite thing about it. When Microsoft moved to Metro UI, it just felt like we were going backwards. I know "modernization" means minimalism, but some of us would also still like the flashy clear panels and smooth curves. Like I can't stand light mode in 10, however I can more than tolerate white backgrounds in 7 because it just felt like it belongs.

I remember what it felt like to install Windows 7 on the family computer. My dad had been given free access to a license of 7 because he was a professor at a university. My family never bought a computer with Vista and I had always heard how bad people thought it was. So when I finally got to upgrade from the very outdated XP, it felt revolutionary. It was such a sleek experience, everything about it seemed to work, and that elegant bluish hue that is so characteristic of a fresh 7 install is burned into my mind. I wish that feeling of change and functionality could be experienced again with another modern OS, but so far they have missed the mark from what 7 did, whether it's a Windows, Mac or Linux OS.

I love Windows 7 so much that I’d still use it if it was supported and Sims 4 would run on it. It truly was the best.

Still using Windows 7 September 2023. Never caught a virus on any of my machines or experienced any security risk. Installed only the software I already knew I needed direct from the actual publishers website. Finally started using Windows 10 last month, only because there were no Windows 7 drivers for it. Used OpenShell, WinAeroTweaker, and ShutUp10 to make it look and run as much like WIndows 7 as possible to save my sanity.

_"Why We All Loved Windows 7"_ You did an excellent job of explaining how and why Win7 was better than its predecessors. _"Why People Still Love Windows 7 Today"_ This part is missing. Some people still prefer Win7 and still consider it better than later versions. Newer is always an opportunity. But newer is not always better.

The thing I love about Win7 the most is transparent windows

The idea of someone thinking Windows XP was dated in 2006 when I daily drove it until like 2014-15 completely fine with it, is hilarious to me

I always loved the customization of it. Most things now lack that ability, which is what makes me nostalgic for a lot of "old" tech imo

Windows 7 wasn't my first OS, but it WAS what I used from 2010 to last year. Windows 7 was what I used in 2012 specifically, back when everything in my life was amazing. It really just makes me feel like I am young again.

I have a 11 year old Windows 7 laptop and after watching this video, i'm gonna go and hug it. It has been with me through some really rough times and i'm thankful for such a timeless machine 😌

Windows 7 had a free preview version in July 2009. I installed it and immediately loved it. It was fast and clean, looked great compared to XP. I suspect this had something to do with its success.

If only Apps these days are compatible to install in Windows 7, I'd still be using Windows 7.

It cannot be understated how well Windows 7 has aged, even to this day, 3 years after it's end of life phase had begun. I remember 2 years ago when I began dual-booting Windows 10 and 7 and almost immediately (and even more so, given some time) I realized just how much smoother the experience of using Windows 7 was compared to 10, and it wasn't just nostalgia speaking either. I've had numerous problems with running Windows 10 that involved performance, stability, and just how user-hostile the experience was overall. It also had seemingly unnecessary additions to the system that the it could've been better off without, *ahem... Shell Infrastructure Host.* The same just can't be said about Windows 7, which is WAY more user friendly, runs smoother, is much more reliable, and it even looks nicer. (Yeah, I still think Aero looks timeless even to this day). I know it probably isn't the best thing to compare a system from almost 14 years ago with one from just about 8 years ago, but good god for me there is absolutely no contest, Windows 7 is still one of the best designed operating systems ever made by anyone.

Windows 7 was a masterpiece. Beautiful, easy, reliable, my childhood. I can’t say the same for Windows 10 because at least on our pc and in my opinion it is a little boring-looking, not as easy to understand (we always accidentally open that one news panel at the bottom), not as reliable (just crashed last week again while browsing the web), but still kind of a part of my childhood. But Windows XP and 7 are true masterpieces in my opinion.

Windows 7 also unironically created (or at least inspired) a generation of chess players. Oh, and mahjong players as well. Even if it was repetitive, I never felt tired playing Solitaire or Spider Solitaire on W7. But I hardly touch W11's version of it (which added leaderboards and all that unnecessary bloat - I tried it for like 5 times and then never tried it again). And W11 right now does not feel like Windows anymore to me with the Start menu at the center. Part of the Windows identity for me is that it has its Start button at that small corner of your screen.

Window 7 is able run anything unless the software developer blocks it in the software forcefully

I miss how professional old UIs felt. Windows 10, 11, and recent Mac Os just feel like a toy.

I'm an XP kid, but 7 feels so good to use even in 2023.

the fact that I used windows 7 for so long... it is indeed part of my memories and thus, I'm still stuck to the PC as my primary tool

I think it's slightly more complicated. Windows 7 ran better, and user interface was more polished, than Vista. Part of this was because of the MinWin project, which started during Vista's development. Microsoft had gotten themselves into a mess, with various bits and pieces of the Windows source code depending on _other_ bits and pieces of the Windows source code, until a dependency graph of all the bits and pieces started to look like a ball of yarn. This made changes to any one part complicated, as it would affect many other parts, and nobody would really know whether those changes would break something. So, they started classifying all the source files into layers, and worked to remove dependencies of lower layers on higher layers, so that everything started on a smaller, self-sufficient foundation. This made it possible to do things like Server Core, where you could install Windows Server without requiring things like Explorer, printing support, or DirectX -- which often are not needed on a dedicated server, and just increase the potential attack surface if someone is trying to compromise the machine. Ultimately, this stripped-down core of the essential components of the Windows kernel got down to 25MB of disk space, and 40MB of RAM. This became the foundation of Windows 7. Everything else was built on top of MinWin, and architected to rely on services provided by the base OS. Windows 7 felt agile and lithe, while Vista felt sluggish and bloated. Yes, part of this was the fact that hardware had advanced (*). But it was also just a very inefficient product built over time by piling code upon code. MinWin served to detangle that mess, and clean up the source in a way that probably hadn't been done since Windows 95 was released. The result was a better-performing OS. (*) Personal anecdote: When Vista shipped, I had a Pentium 4 laptop with 512MB of RAM that I borrowed from the spare laptop inventory at work. I installed Vista on it to test the new OS. My main work computer was a Sun workstation running Linux, and I think I had XP running on another laptop, or SFF PC, or something like that. Anyway, Vista ran like a dog. It chugged along in a way that I hadn't experienced since my first test-run with Windows 2000 on a Pentium II. I experimented with it for a while, but it wore my patience thin, I would avoid using it because I knew it would be tedious, and so I -- like everyone else -- just stuck to XP for my production computers. Later, I got the Windows 7 beta. I ran that on my home laptop, a DVD-player sized Sony VAIO with a Core Solo CPU, (IIRC) 1GB of RAM, and one of those tiny iPod-type hard drives. It barely met the spec for 7, but it actually ran alright most of the time. I used that beta until well after the full version dropped. I still have a Windows 7 box with something like an i7-2700, running on a 1TB SSD. It flies. I also have a Vista machine on a Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz. Granted, that's installed on a 7200 RPM SATA drive. It runs well, but it does not "fly." And, the UI changes have some rough edges that were rounded off in 7. To this day, I definitely prefer using 7 over Vista, even on hardware that is, relative to the OS, quite powerful.

One thing people always seem to overlook is the fact that Vista had no software compatible with it, but when Seven came out, it ran all of the brand new Vista-centric software without a hiccup. The biggest complaints I got regarding Vista at the time was that it couldn't run software designed for Win9x and XP, which, I mean... Of course it couldn't. Games really struggled, because those were all developed with WinXP in mind, and the higher system requirements meant games had poorer performance. Two years later, newer games were targeting Vista, older games had been patched to work with Vista and Windows Seven swooped in and took all the glory. Also, I know I'm mostly referring to games, as it's what I'm most experienced in, but this was true for other software as well. Cellphones and Palmtops had XP-centric software that would act up on Vista, for instance. It was printer hell as well.

Windows 7 was the peak of the OS's design. I have fond memories of using it in the IT classroom at school during Media classes when I was invariably using it to design things on Photoshop. I was so fond of it that I still use the Classic Shell Start Menu in the Win 7 design. I couldn't get along with the 8, 8.1 or 10 design Start menu and the 7 Start Menu just had everything where I could find it, hence I still use it to this day with Windows 10.

it’s basically considered a fact now that vista struggled because it was too early, and 7 just rode the wave to glory. but i’m here to tell you that i still use both on a daily basis and on a level playing field vista just feels a bit horrible to use. 7 really is just better in terms of responsiveness, and look & feel. that rework of basic interactions is the critical factor in the success of 7, imo.

I confess I'm a weird one. I stayed on Windows ME for far longer than I technically should have. I didn't see the need to upgrade to XP because it offered me nothing that ME didn't. It took the release of the game The Battle for Middle-Earth for me to finally make the jump. The same thing happened with both Vista and 7. I didn't hate either operating system but they didn't offer me anything at the time that XP wasn't also doing. Then I got an email from Microsoft offering their new Windows 8 for £24.99 and I took it. I really liked Windows 8, the full screen start menu was a bit of a pain but soon apps like Classic Shell were released to give me back an actual start menu. With the Spring and .1 updates Windows 8 became the OS I moved to. It just worked for me in a way that 7 never did and I really couldn't explain why. I could have still been on Windows 8.1 now if my hardware supported it. When I upgraded to a Ryzen based platform I discovered that the motherboard had drivers for 7 and 10 but nothing for 8. I had no choice but to move to Windows 10, though I confess that Marvel's Spider-Man finally releasing probably would have made me switch.

I think our nostalgia skyrocketed when Windows 11 got released. I miss the Aero Glass. Edit: When did these replies become an argue fest?

Fun fact, Windows 7 was first shown to the public, in person, in a village in Serbia by the name of Melenci. One developer that worked on 7 decided to showcase the public build there because it is his hometown. All techies and geeks from nearby filled the Incognito cafe, owned at the time by my uncle, to a live demonstration of something they had only seen online, and they were informed they were first in the world to see

The last like 5 mins made me sad, thinking of all the old memories I had with win7, and the times that I went into VirtualBox to go back, after it died, due to security

Regardless of how good other OS's are, Windows 7 was my first, and it'll always hold a special place in my heart.

The best part about Windows 7 was the stability. Sure, the aero glass theme was very slick and awesome (still the best to date, and I hope it can return someday) and beautifully crafted, but the OS was so stable that sometimes you’d just forget that you could encounter any bugs. Unlike Windows 10 where a problem is hidden around every corner and update. Aero glass just added to the experience. Nowadays practically every OS has some form of transparency, whether it’s just the Notification Center in the case of mobile OSes or the context menu in case of desktop OSes, but something about Windows 7’s transparency makes it stand out from others. I can’t quite tell what it is, but it’s there.

I'm 68 and retired. I've experienced the whole of personnel PC history. Windows 7 is still my daily machine of choice and the end of the line for me with Microsoft. I've transitioned my laptop over to Linux Mint and will fully adopt it when Win 7 becomes unusable as an internet machine. There's far too much intrusion (spying) for me to continue with Microsoft.

Still use win 7 today and with only one small amazing program that defeats any viruses old or new with ease, and without needing any windows updates as well. And yes before finding that I was constantly reinstalling win 7, until finally making a live backup that could reinstall everything. That works too as you don't have to go through the full setup again, then reinstall each program every time. Comes with Windows 7 called Backup and Restore (Windows 7) in settings. Takes a separate drive to save it on, but puts it back on the drive your using the way you already had it setup. Saving lots of time for sure. Tried 10 and 11, but didn't care for all the added bulk and garbage on those.

I would like Microsoft to create a common security layer for all its operating systems, from Windows XP onwards, to which they could connect according to an established protocol, in order to communicate securely with the outside world. In this way, only the security layer module would require continuous updating, and each of us users could choose the Windows operating system that we like best (I like Windows 7), without being periodically pushed to adopt the latest version.

Moving from xp to 7 felt like transitioning to the future in a way no other os has since. I love the aero theme, and the utility and the customisability of the taskbar was really convinient. Windows 7 was easy to use. When I go back to it now, I do feel some things lacking, like the windows 8 task manager, but it is a more cohesive os than any later windows version, and what has been added hasn't made up for what we've lost along the way. I'm transitioning away from windows now, it doesnt really offer what I look for in an os, but when I evaluate an os/de, I still compare it to windows 7, and I think I will for a long time.

I used Windows 7 for 10 years (2010-2020) and it was by far the most sorted out OS ever. I got my Second New PC after completing my 12th grade and I was literally amazed by how awesome and bright it looked and I was also impressed by how much it was smooth and faster than its predecessors Windows Vista and Windows XP. Now I am using Windows 10 and it works fine but I miss Windows 7

Windows 11: it's evolving, just backwards... I really miss my App List instead of this dumb start menu.

My first experience is when my family got an all-in-one gateway computer back in 2010. The computer was expensive as it had an touchscreen and big HDD for the time as it was 750GB. However they did skimp on GPU/CPU. Which means SimCity 4 is about all you could play with an ok frame rate and most of the games I played came from Pop Cap games. I used that gateway until the display broke back in 2015 and at that time it had Win 10. I don't miss that gateway PC especially after I got win 10 as it took about 10+ minutes plus to get to the desktop from a fast boot. I'm a patient person but that's above my tolerance level. My grandad has an HP all-in-one that was from 2013-14 one last to support win 7 and that is his newest computer he's got the other 3 all run windows XP. I

Though I'm most nostalgic for Windows 2000 and XP, I find Windows 7 to be nostalgic too, as it came out when I was about 13. It may have aged gracefully and still seem quite new, but I can definitely see how it's nostalgic. The visual aesthetic that Windows 7 and Vista had with the Aero theme was a huge part of a popular aesthetic at the time called Frutiger Aero (often contains clear crisp visuals, glass, water, trees or plants, a sunny sky) that was very prevalent from around 2004-2014. Because that era was some time ago, the nostalgia for it is increasing. But if you ever wondered what that certain aesthetic was, now you know!

When I was a little kid, Every school computer had windows 7 in the classic theme, even into the Windows 8 era. The general look it had is so Nostalgic

I switched to linux around 2006 and came back to windows when I bought new laptop 2011. I kept using for few years the stock Win 7 it came with just because it was so damn good. Many good memories ❤

Win 7 was a pretty good system but I love win 98. 95 is also good, but 98 . Yes! My favorite feature was the ability to customize the living daylight out of the look and feel by making my own themes from scratch. I'd change the fonts, the colors, the sounds, the wallpapers, almost monthly. I even experimented with a plug in for changing the mouse, till that plug in had security issues, and I deleted it. But everything else was built in and easily changed without digging into the registry.

I grew up in an interesting period where Windows 98 was installed in the family PC in the living room, my laptop had Windows Vista, and later down the line, Windows 7. As someone who basically grew up using all three of those operating systems, all of them have a strong feeling of nostalgia for me. Windows 7 however has the most due to the amount of times I used it. However, the main reason why I loved it was because it reminded of Vista. I actually loved Vista as a kid. So having to say goodbye to Windows 7 really struck some confusing emotions in me. Very nice video!

Having worked at Microsoft (though not in the Windows group) during the period of time both Vista and 7 came out, I remember the history a bit differently from what you stated. Vista/Longhorn were major overhauls to the architecture including 64-bit, a new driver model, much richer graphics support (for animations and transparency), and the .NET framework. The most controversial feature was WinFS - a file system built on top of SQL server that was supposedly Bill's pet project. It died with Longhorn and never saw the light of day. There was indeed a restart and the devs were under strict orders to not copy bloated code from Longhorn and not to use .NET in the OS itself. We were also told that the Vista install was image-based because almost no-one upgrades their OS, they just buy a new PC. So, why optimize for the piecemeal upgrade experience? I definitely agree with your conclusions, though. Windows 7 was a refined version of Vista. After a major tech overhaul of a product, it's not uncommon for the first version to stink. This happens with non-Microsoft products as well. Very often, the 2.0 (or 3.0) gets it right and becomes well loved. But I think point #3 is more than just nostalgia. As you touched on, Windows 7 (and MacOS Snow Leopard) were the last OSes to be built for personal computers. From that point forward, mobile crap started creeping into both platforms, which I think has left them fragmented and confusing. Perhaps someday I will be able to speak about Windows 8, but I am still recovering from the trauma of having to use it :-)

Release date of Windows 7 was October 22, 2009, not July. I teased my wife about it a lot (as it overlapped her birthday).

w11 is bloatwre mixed with asware. 7 was peak windows.

I still find Windows 7 slick and modern. It's our last taste of the Frutiger Aero era before Windows 8, which started the flat design era that I honestly disliked (and still do). That said, I do appreciate bits of Aero glass in the form of the acrylic and Mica effects on Windows 11. Being less flat than 10 (yet still looking minimalist) is also nice.

I love the aesthetic, the freedom, and the control you have when using windows 7. It's perfect in my eyes.

my favorite feature of windows 7 was it not having spyware baked into the OS, not shutting down because Bill said so, having a search function that worked, having a search function that searched my own PC (and not the internet), and being a desktop OS designed for desktop...I know. I have VERY high standards.

What I loved most about Win7 was Windows Media Center that came with it for free. I have been running that on my media PC for many years, allowing me to manipulate and record over-the-air TV very effectively. When Win7 support ended in 2020, Microsoft's support for the free electronic program guide (EPG) also ended, so I subscribed to EPG123 to be able to keep running WMC. But when browsers like Chrome and Edge also did not update any more on Windows 7, it started to get painful. Lo and behold, I was saved when user groups brought out a version of WMC that actually installs and runs on win10 and Win11 without a problem. So I finally said goodbye to Windows7 about 2 years ago, but it was with pain in my heart.

I held on to my Windows 7 PC for as long as I could, 11 years, but inevitable hardware failure and obsolescence led me to 11. 7 was the last OS that felt like my own computer out of the box. When I started with my 11 PC, it felt like I'd paid a hefty price to be a guest on Microsoft's system, what with all of the intrusive advertising and other notifications. It's not a very intuitive system, either. I took me a while to adjust settings, with a lot of help from KZfaq videos, to get the thing to stop being so annoying. It does weird things, too. Example: It keeps changing the desktop icons from green circles with white arrows in them, to brown circles, to blue ones, etc. What the heck is going on?

Glad you decided to get in front of the camera, added a touch of personability & humour! Windows 7 was on my main PC until 2020, so yes, happy to see it was a favourite for many others haha

I miss the simplicity of Windows 7. It was a very easy to use and intuitive operating system. It wasn't filled to the nines with bloatware, I could modify it all I wanted without having to circumvent built-in restrictions and walled-gardens. It was the perfect mix of flashy features and utilitarian design. The last operating system that I felt was just software instead of some vast ecosystem of orwellian targeted marketing

I went (mostly) trough them all...Windows 3.1, 95, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, 7 and 10. Looking back at this history, I can confirm for myself, that indeed Windows XP and 7 were the "best" Microsoft operating systems. Also Windows 2000, as an successor of Windows NT, was a good one and paved the way for XP. However, I switched to Linux about two years ago as my daily driver for gaming, programming, multimedia, etc. and never looked back to Windows (besides two specific applications running under Windows 10 in a virtual machine). So far I haven't regretted the decision.

One thing people don't ever talk about, but what I really liked about Windows 7 was the Help and Support feature. It was basically a manual for Windows. I learnt about most of Windows features there, most importantly being the keyboard shortcuts that made my we experience much more quicker than using the mouse mostly. Mouse is good, but keyboard is just faster. While on windows 10, it just does the Let Me Bing That For You.

The best thing, for me, about Windows 7 was its stability. After using XP and Vista it was like a dream come true. XP was great but it definitely had issues that taught me the necessity of having to regularly image my system disk. I had to restore it many times. Vista also liked to freak out especially if it wasn't shut down correctly and we all know that's not always possible. But, in all the years I used 7, I think I had a total of two blue screens and I never had to restore from a disk image.

I love windows 7 because it just works. It gets out of the user's way. No forced updates, no installing candy crush in the background or begging you to use edge. It launches programs and stores files with no annoying BS and that's all I need/want from an OS.

What is the music at 20:14?

Windows 7 Media Center was amazing. I had a TV card connected to an antenna and my PC also would stream to our living room TV. It was easy to get up-to-date channel guides and Media Center became our DVR as we would set up the schedule to record. It played DVDs from the optical drive as well as video files on my hard drive. I upgraded to Windows 10 and almost went back because of the loss of the Media Center.

I love Windows 7, I still use it today and I have no problems using it, it is and always will be the best operating system

What Was the Music at 19:44?

I'll add this as a reason for Windows 7 to be more popular than Vista: driver compatibility. I had access to cheap Vista keys because of MDSN program my university was enrolled in. I installed it as an upgrade on an Inspiron E1505 over XP, and... it was a minefield of driver issues. The only one that I could not resolve over a weekend (with full course load, mind you) was the audio driver. It took about a week of bickering with Dell tech support to get a Windows XP reinstall disc just to go back. 3 years later, the upgrade to Windows 7 Pro on that laptop went much better. That's why I really appreciate that version of Windows. All the drivers just worked, and it felt fresh coming from XP. Also, there was this cute Windows 7 theme pack from Microsoft Japan's mascot for the OS, Nanami Madobe, which had music artist and voice actress Nana Mizuki voice her. 😅

During my childhood I grew up mostly using XP and Vista but I still have many fond memories of 7, I still can't believe it's been over a decade since its release. The interface is both nostalgic and timeless, I still prefer the Aero glass to the minimalism that Microsoft adopted later. I admit I still use Win7 on a 2008 laptop of mine and it feels just as fresh and beautifully designed as it did to me growing up.

My first ever computer as a child had Windows 7 as it's OS. I'll never forget the time that I'd always spend playing Purble Place and the Puzzle game, just enjoying my childhood with no worries. Just, pure, sweet bliss. Thank you NS for this beautiful video, and thank you Win 7, for making my childhood a wonderful one 🌹

I loved Windows 7. I jumped straight from XP to it. When I upgraded to a Threadripper some years ago I tried hard to find a way to run WIn7 on it, but had to jump through too many hoops (I think lack of some driver support nixed it in the end), and, reluctantly, moved to Win10. But I've pimped Win10 to look as much like 7 as I can (Stardock software - WIndowBlinds, Start 11), so the spirit of 7 lives on...

I remember using my sister's laptops. Once it was Windows Vista and then Windows 7. Those were very pleasing and interesting to my eyes. I even played that iconic game called Purble Place. In primary school thry had Conputers with Windows XP but they had their own backround so I didn't know the original and iconic backround with the sky and green grass until not long ago. Many years later I earned my own money and I bought myself a gaming PC. I had Windows 10 Pro on it and I used it until Windows 11 came out which was fast, seems like an upgrade for Windows 10. I like how it looks but sometimes it's a bit too similar to it's predecessor since if you put your nose much deeper you find a virtual keyboard with Windows 10's logo, Windows 10's Taskbar behind the Windows 11's Taskbar. Behind it you can find much older Windows versions, it's like they layerd it. I am not an expert but I can imagine that this can take up some space. I hope that Windows 12 will be much cleaner with less bloatware. I got Windows 11 Pro for free so that's cool!

i grew up on 2000 and XP, and we spent a good 7 years before buying a new pc, just upgrading the same but still on XP then i remember i went to my grandma's house to spend the summer break and when i got back, not only did my parents changed the house and repainted and stuff, it was the same house but totally different, but also bought a new PC, with an LCD monitor instead of CRT, and when i turned it on it booted windows 7, it looked SO FANCY! i will never forget how blown away i was that the windows actually looked like they were made of floating magical glass it felt like something out of minority report or power rangers and the sounds, the new stuff, purble place, everything, i loved it.

I am still using Win7 because I sadly still use hardware of that era. I may be able / forced to switch once I change my rig, but until then I hope I get to see the next "Win7" so I can change my OS of preference without worries.

Pros of Windows 7: - Satisfyingly overtextured - Lovely aeroglass theme - Nice boot screen - Has compatibility features up to Windows XP - A massive range of themes and chimes to chose from - Consistent design, no part of Windows 7 looks older, or newer.

My faves were the UI and the last video editor that had most of the "current day" codecs & formats . It was clearly an OS that wanted you to do things . Win 10/11 may want you to know things (?) , but they're a lot less friendly in the wanting you to do things . Even their folder system / task bar is a major step back -- which is the simplest thing in a Windows environment, all the way back to Win 98 .

My first windows experience was with 7 and i love it so simple and clean yet beautiful and no one can forget the sound it makes when you unlock it

Ah Windows 7 my beloved. I've been using it since 2010 all the way to early 2022 and I wouldn't have upgraded if it was still supported

My first computer encounter was with Windows 7, when I listened the booting sound I cried. I was pretty shocked by the update to dismember it. Windows 7 was pure nostalgia

I am writing this comment from a Windows 7 OS. I have been using it way beyond recommendation and always simply just ignored the end of support and disregarded the missing security updates as "not so important". It is only due to my current university that I cannot connect to the local wifi anymore, no matter what I do. So this is what eventually forces me to slowly change to Windows 11. If this would not have happened, I would have probably used this system for the next two decades to come. I am refusing to give up on it and have decided that I will do everything I can to make whatever Windows to come look like Windows 7. This bond between the system and me has grown too strong to give up on it. Just like you don't divorce from your wife when you love her. When you love her you stay with her. That's it.

Good job for the subtle face reveal. No announcement or anything.

One of the things that was dropped when Win7 moved to 10 was the Color Chooser tool. What that allowed was you to set the color of all of the attributes of the interface in my case particularly to adjust the background color of windows client areas (including directories) for example. Some of this capability persists but you have to do it through themes which isn't nearly as convenient.

I recently built a dual-boot Windows XP/Windows 7 retro gaming PC, using carefully curated components for maximum performance and compatibility. It's shaping-up to be my favorite computer that I've built in many years.

I noted your Leslie Nielsen Airplane reference, good job!

Aaaah Windows 7... So much memories. An OS that literally never failed to me, always stayed stable as a king, and the "love" I have for this OS never fainted since I discovered it in 2012 in the Computer center of my city that allowed me to freely access computers that had this OS when I had XP at home. I remember me in 2013 requesting my mother to get Windows 7, and she downloaded the "Transformation Pack" instead just to make me kinda happy with a thing that looks like 7 despite in fact it wasn't. So I continued to go to the Computer center during their "free access" hours to using the real Windows 7. It was a real pleasure to using it. I'm a big fan of the Aero UI and when I discovered Windows 10 in 2015, I was a bit disappointed to see that blurry and transparency effects gone. At home, 2014-2016 was my Linux period, despite I continued to use XP sometimes until late 2015 and I only being able to get Windows 7 at home around the end of 2016, which I finally replaced it by Windows 10 in June 2017. Despite the move, I was missing Windows 7 so I installed a VM and continued to do so until December 31, 2019. A PC change happened on November 2018. On this date, I was using Windows 10 on my "current" computer since 14 months, and the overall experience was a nightmare (disastrous stability, updates crashing during installation, feeling of slowness, etc.) and the install got "bricked" after an update. I got fed up, so I installed Windows 7 instead on January 1, 2020 and this remembered how stable this OS is, and how the feeling of freedom is huge when using it. This phase was initially planned to last only for two weeks, just to let me the time to restructure my PC by cleaning all the accumulated crap, my useless data and to reconfigure of my programs, but by January 12, I revised my plans and postponed the "comeback" to an undefined date and continued to use Windows 7, as I noticed I regained something I lost during so many years : a purely real and non-forced pleasure of using my computer. And to this day, the "undefined date" still remains to be defined, as I still don't want to move from it (I know one day I will end by doing it, but for the moment I plan to stay on it, until at least October 2024 (POSReady 7 ESUs end date) or even further, who knows...). -- The end of support in 2020 really did make me sad, as the OS was technically still able to live something like 2 or 3 more years (XP lasted for 12.5 years, 7 only 10. I'm still certain that it was technically capable to last for 12-13 years like XP did and even today, despite programs that are slowly dropping support for Windows 7, it is still a surprisingly capable and reliable OS, which is incredible for a 14-year old piece of software). Aero Glass still has the "modern", "professional" and "timeless" feelings for me that I had from day one and YES, I still prefer that to the flat, soulless designs we have now (I'm not saying that modern designs are awful and unwatchable, but Aero remains my favorite). In brief, Windows 7 will stay in my heart as one of the best OS I ever used in my life. (Comes close to asking to place the Windows 7 installation DVD in my coffin for the day I will die).

7 was so good in so many ways. It truly was the ultimate user-friendly experience. And honestly, the only reason I could move over to 10 without a weird breakdown, was that it was essentially the same exact system I had learned to love, just repackaged in a boring square theme now. All the new features that I didnt like or didnt want to learn, I could simply hide and never interact with ! However that is absolutely not the case for 11. It just looks.. somehow even more horrible? Its user-friendliness has just dropped to the point where I couldnt figure out how to do almost anything without looking up how to on my phone. In the few minutes I was forced to interact with it on my (now 1 year old) pc I legitimately got so distraught about knowing how to navigate anything that I immediately went to download windows 10 off of edge and reinstall it. Im literally refusing to change past 10 now (the same exact way I felt with my windows 7 when 8 came out) until I know that the unreleased windows 12 feels exactly like windows 7 and 10. You will have to pry this operating system out of my cold dead hands before I ever consider switching to something like windows 11. Lifeless design be damned, windows 10 is good and fine.

I remember making a fresh win vista install on my pc every end of the month, since the system couldn't work properly for longer than 4weeks. Sometimes it bluscreened or completely collapsed even before that. Ohhh the good ol' vista...and xp, and 98, they all had the same problems.

I have tried 10 and 11....Reformatted and put 7 back 10 is like Hospital and 11 is like Morgue..7 is like Home Sweet Home

Windows 7 was my childhood along with XP. I miss them so much

i am still a proud user of windows 7. its very detailed and easy to find things about my computer that let me customize it the way i want. windows 10 is a nightmare that is so intertwined with the internet it makes it nearly impossible to use while still feeling secure. now, i have to buy a new computer, because everything is turning away from it. i hate windows 10. my drawing program wont work in windows 10. obsolescence is the bane of my existence. this is a good video! i am going to miss using windows 7, but i will keep doing it for as long as i possibly can.

I loved XP, never had problems with it. always do a fresh install of your OS. I use 10 now. I got it when it first came out. never had a problem with it. once again, I did a fresh install from a DVD. I used a preinstalled Vista on a old E machine and hated it, so much so that I started using Fedora on a partition. loved it! I had a virus on the Vista partition, so I reinstalled Vista. I used a fresh install disk, not the recovery partition. guess what? the problems I had with the preinstalled factory OS went away. I never had problems with 98 or even ME!, but I used a fresh install and updated drivers with few if any junk programs running in the background. Hell even 95 worked for me. I would do a fresh install with no background programs tripping the OS up. I'll now be going back to Fedora in 6mo. or less. I'll miss 10 as my daily driver, but with no more security updates.... windows 11? I don't think so.

I'm definitely one of those odd balls who, did in fact love Windows 7, but didn't have any issue with Windows 8. and found 8.1 to be fantastic. Coming from XP. I did notice and like the cleaned up design of Windows 7 and found the aero theme to be very pleasing to look at and modern. When Windows 8 introduced the tablet style start menu, i enjoyed it. i liked only having the programs i needed off of the desktop but not in a list of programs in a menu. I also dont like pinning anything to the taskbar so having this large customizable menu was nice for me. this is why even to this day i still use the large full screen menu in Windows 10, and why i havent switched to 11, (among other things). Windows 7 was a nice OS, but i guess I have more nostalgia with XP. I guess im just a little older.

Ah yes the OG operating system, one of everyone's favorite successor to Vista, thanks NationSquid appreciate it!

I would pay good money for Microsoft to create an OS that's pure and doesn't have tons of junk baked in

I'm still using windows 7, all the programs i use are still fully up to date and i have no plans of upgrading. given the fact that there are now browsers being made specifically for windows XP and a very dedicated community of people who make old operating systems usable, i think windows 7 has a good second life ahead of it.