XP, Vista, and Win 7/8.1 Users May Find Windows 10 Computers a Good Deal
Many people with older computers are still using Windows 7 and previous versions, and amazingly many of them are quite satisfied as their computers continue to support the basic activities they do on their computers.
If a person is not using his or her computer much for financial or transactional purposes, then security concerns are not such a priority. Even if Microsoft withdraws its anti-virus support as well as security patch support, there are third party anti-virus programs still available for pre-Windows 10 systems.
Personally I know a lot of local computer users even still using Windows XP and Vista with no problem. An older system may out-perform expectations for a long time if it has adequate computing power (processor speed and available random access memory).
If using a computer mainly for personal email, a few games, checking golf or club schedules, letter-writing or the like, you probably can extended your existing computer's useful lifetime by adding memory if it's a tower type machine. This option can be very economical.
Using a computer maintenance program such as Ccleaner by Piriform also helps keep a old system running well. You can run it manually without having it use up resources as a start-up item.
Web browser performance is a growing concern for those using Windows 7.
Internet Explorer still works well for a lot of old-computer users "most of the time" but is unable to display an increasing number of websites properly. Also, an increasing number of websites are using code that IE simply cannot handle well, if at all - especially log-in sites with special user-customized features (bank information, membership services, and media streaming for example).
Google Chrome has been a good alternative in these situations, but Google, Inc. - like Microsoft - does periodically discontinue support for older operating systems. Mozilla Firefox similarly has been a handy alternate browser for computer users to visit websites that IE cannot handle well. But Mozilla's support for older systems is limited too.
It's still a bit early to know how soon Chrome or Firefox might become less usable with Windows 7. However there are yet other alternative browsers available, such as Opera and Lunascape.
Regarding issues of software compatibility: This typically has been more of a reason to keep your old system than to replace it.
A lot of "old favorite" programs written for 32-bit computers would not run on the newer 64-bit systems; and the latter do dominate the market today. This situation is improving somewhat. Windows 10 systems now do have a 32-bit emulation capability built-in or available.
Sometimes disk and drive compatibility issues also come when trying to reinstall old software on a brand new machine. There are work-around solutions to this, but time and expense are part of the trade-off. Sometimes migrating everything to a new system can go like charm. Sometimes it's better just to clean-up and add memory to the old machine.
All that said, Windows 10 has gotten most of its bugs out a long time ago. The updates are irksome, but prices on Windows 10 machines are way down as Windows 1l is now available, so if you are looking for a computer with several years' support going ahead, Win 10 can be a good deal now.
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