8 ms·
Unofficial Windows 7 Service Pack 2
- hard_times 2y ago> Windows 8 build 7861's PDF Reader Was not aware there ever was a Win32 desktop PDF reader shipped by Microsoft.
- MortyWaves 2y agoSame. I only ever saw, and still do, PDFs by default opening in Edge. I looked into it and I'm even more confused. https://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2/blob/1c57943c2e4f5e27e717cb36a95f0557d136f923/patches/software/Reader/README.md#L4 https://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2/blob/1c57943c2e4f5e27e7... This appears to suggest the appx file will somehow just run on Windows 7 which can't be right.
- gruez 2y ago>This appears to suggest the appx file will somehow just run on Windows 7 which can't be right. They extracted the .exe from the appx.
- MortyWaves 2y agoBut surely that relies on a bunch of “UWP” and Windows 8 APIs? The screenshots I managed to find make it look very much like it relies on the Metro UWP garbage.
- smileybarry 2y agoWindows 8 shipped with build 8400 (apparently), so I assume this PDF reader is pre-UWP rewrite from one of the early Windows “8” builds, that were mostly Windows 7.
- WorldMaker 2y agoAs far as I could tell/recall the Windows 8 Reader app was always a thin wrapper around Edge (Spartan) (which is also when it broke, when Edge switched to Chromium). I suppose it is possible it worked with Trident (IE11), too, or the "Service Pack" includes some version of Edge (Spartan), which would have been all the hard work on that, though that isn't listed.
- smileybarry 2y agoAh, if there’s one thing you should run very outdated versions of, it’s a PDF reader. Can I get a TIFF reader last updated in 2010 to go along with it?
- mouse_ 2y agosimply do not open files with malware in them
- tech234a 2y ago7861 was a fairly early build of Windows 8, compiled in 2010 [1]. In the sreenshots it looks more like Windows 7 than Windows 8, so maybe it predated the full Metro implementation? [1]: https://betawiki.net/wiki/Windows_8_build_7861 https://betawiki.net/wiki/Windows_8_build_7861
- apatheticonion 2y agoGod I wish I could replace Windows 11 with Windows 7
- sylens 2y agoIt really was the peak of Windows in terms of usability, aesthetics, and speed.
- Koshkin 2y agoAt first, sure. But then, with all the service packs it became all but unusable on the computers on which it came preinstalled and used to run fine.
- kilolima 2y agoThat was Windows 2000.
- mouse_ 2y agoLove 7 and Vista but I have to agree with you there. 2000 is peak function.
- machomaster 2y agoVista? You must be joking, right?
- CamperBob2 2y agoI don't see anything resembling an actual release, just a bunch of files in a repo...?
- wrayjustin 2y agoI nearly replied, "RTFM." Given the README says you can either use the ISO or the packaged release found within the repository's releases...except... There are no releases (no installation executable, nor ISO). The README does make it clear that it's a work in progress though.
- netsharc 2y agoI used Windows 7 for way beyond its expiry date, until there was an exploit for some image format that meant I had to upgrade my browsers. Corporate users of Windows 7 still get updates, and there's somebody in Ukraine who redistributes these updates, or at least the digital certificate signing the updates says they live there: https://blog.simplix.info/update7/ https://blog.simplix.info/update7/ Come to think of it, I guess and hope the info in certificate is outdated, and they're living somewhere outside of fear of Putin's bombs.
- p0w3n3d 2y agoHowever, what about a risk that someone in Ukraine is adding a little bit of malware in it?
- wltr 2y agoSame risk as any other country, huh?
- Acrobatic_Road 2y agoof course not
- wltr 2y agoBecause?..
- Acrobatic_Road 2y agobecause we live in the real world, not some egalitarian fantasy
- wltr 2y agoYou might elaborate, but you chose to spill nonsense. I see no difference in that department, a hacker might live anywhere.
- vintagedave 2y ago> Better DPI support in aero.msstyles -> Credits: Vaporvance (high DPI classes from Aero10 that will be ported to Windows 7) Are they planning to add support for perMonitorv2? High DPI is the only thing that makes Windows 10/11 better than 7.
- Rohansi 2y agoMaybe you're unaware of actual improvements made since Windows 7, such as swap/pagefile memory compression.
- FirmwareBurner 2y agoOr security improvements.
- thrtythreeforty 2y agoIt's telling that all these improvements are eclipsed in users' minds by the worsening of the actual experience of using it. That's how despised the UI changes are.
- Rohansi 2y agoI don't really see why the UI is despised. Windows 8 was bad, 10 brought sanity mostly back, and 11 is in a good state now IMO.
- cookiengineer 2y agoLast year I was also in a Windows 7 rabbit hole. There's lots of ongoing stuff in the community, and even huge driver packs for Ryzen hardware. The website that led me down that hole was the one from "spacedrone808" [1] who appeared regularly in /r/windows7 mod posts and issue trackers. There's also the snappy driver installer project [2] which shares a 44GB torrent with all kinds of drivers, from SATA controllers to NIC to GPU. There's also driverpacks which is sometimes down, sometimes not. In the web archive of either of those you can still find the torrent links though. Oh and there's driveroff [4] which led me down the rabbit hole of Russian hacking communities that backport software to win7, which is amazing to see that there's this isolated modding community on the internet that uses hardcore win7 modded variants, with self-built firewall software, backported hash file databases for antivirus tools etc. [1] https://win7sp2.neocities.org/ https://win7sp2.neocities.org/ [2] https://sdi-tool.org/ https://sdi-tool.org/ [3] https://driverpacks.net/ https://driverpacks.net/ [4] https://driveroff.net/ https://driveroff.net/
- AndrewDavis 2y agoSimilarly I went on an XP odyssey late last year. I acquired a retired workstation from $dayjob that I decided to turn into a retro XP game machine. It was very late for XP but within a generation or two before Intel, Nvidia and the motherboard provided drivers (Ivy bridge and GTX 660 GPU). But that didn't get you through the installer... I discovered a plethora of alternative install media with built in community drivers providing support for nvme drives, modern ACPI extensions etc. It's so complete you can install it on today's current hardware.
- FirmwareBurner 2y agoCare to share sources for those alternative media with modern drivers?
- CursedSilicon 2y agoLikely the "XP Integral Edition" that is updated every now and again https://zone94.com/software/operating-systems/123-windows-xp-professional-sp3-x86-integral-edition https://zone94.com/software/operating-systems/123-windows-xp...
- mdaniel 2y agohttps://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2/blob/main/LICENSE https://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2/blob/main/LICENSE is pretty rich, given that the whole repo is just a bazillion binary files from Microsoft
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- hxorr 2y agoAnything like this for Windows 8? I know most people's favourite is 7, but I prefer 8 as it is very lightweight, and performs well on older PCs
- Sunspark 2y agoYou could take a look at Windows Server 2012. It's 8 and has ESUs until Oct 2026.
- EvanAnderson 2y agoWindows Server 2012 R2 (Windows 8.1 Server) is nice. It's probably my favorite pre-Windows 10 version of Windows Server (though 2003 R2 comes close, as does Server 2008 R2). It also has ESU's thru October 2026, if memory serves.
- hxorr 2y agoThanks, will definitely check it out
- MisterTea 2y agoWhen I switched from Win 7 to Linux few years back I couldn't toss my faithful i7 that served me well for nearly a decade so it sits under my workbench. Normally I would convert my previous PC's Windows install into a VM that ran on the new PC but this time I decided to leave the machine be. It's till running Win 7 for my CAD and PLC software and I use it a few times a month. I did move some stuff to a 7 VM but when you have a fully working machine ready to boot... Now I can update it and reliably keep it running. Awesome.
- BearOso 2y agoThe best part of newer windows is the upgraded WDDM. It smoothes out so many glitches with the display system. But you'd need the updated kernel for that. For that reason and other advancements I think it's probably better to just use Windows 11 and strip out the things you don't like. I like the Windows 7 theme much better than later versions, though.
- kilpikaarna 2y agoHeh, I think the Aero glass stuff feels pretty dated and has problems with readability. But Win7 is just so much smoother than 11 (or even 10), even though my brand new Win11 workstation is orders of magnitude more powerful than the decade-old hardware I run 7/10 on. And especially graphics glitches. Like a half-opacity lock screen sometimes being drawn on top of everything for several seconds after unlocking.
- moon2 2y agoComes in handy. I was doing PS3 hacking a few months ago and most of the tools that were made for that work better on Windows 7. My main computer is an M3 Macbook Pro. I tried using Windows 11 but it was so annoying. Not only it is huge, but also Microsoft was able to screw up the Windows OOBE process and overall Windows experience so badly. I don't want to setup a Microsoft account just to run these old programs. I mostly wanted a disposable Windows 7 box but I didn't even know if I would be able to make it work with virtualization (emulation maybe). Wine actually worked great for me sometimes, but it was a bit of a hassle as well.
- zkmon 2y agoOh, this is such a wonderful thing. Hope it can support a minimal, secure version of a modern browser.