Is it too late to do a fresh install of win7?

[m654321]

@wirezfree
Thanks Dave for the details - that sounds really interesting. Your friend sounds really enterprising and the coding skills he has sounds really useful - coding is a skill I don't have (maybe when I'm retired).  Have to admit my option was much simpler than your friend's - a 4-channel input temperature datalogger (OM-CP-QUADRTD), purchased 8 years ago with XP drivers from Omega.co.uk.
Would be good if Linux drivers exist for this... 

I was using the datalogger for a 'marine gardening' project (a hobby which involved successfully growing different kinds of local seaweed), where I needed to monitor and maintain tight control of cool water temperatures, and other parameters.

Mike

[Wirezfree]

@m654321

O.K, sounds interesting
He's self taught in coding, he was a broadcast engineer for ITV on telecine/sound
I will have to ask if he will be putting any Linux stuff up on his website

[trinidad]

Won't say much about the video except it is typically sensationalist, and a bit lazy, and most of these same privacy concerns are as bad, or worse for many American cell phone users. Most of these things actually are functionality compromises for social media and enterprise. It is sensible to disable Cortana and I personally find voice activated services of any kind annoying, and yes MS collects to the voice record database at Cornell and other locations, but this is an expression database functioning similar to Debian's own. It is always good praxis to remember that when you use ANY computing device the information you enter is YOUR LIFE and it's simply not hidden anymore. ANY computer is a bad place to hide things. A gimmick is a gimmick. Congrats to the video maker. Most of this is avoidable by disabling updates and using the command prompt terminal to update and selecting what info to upload to MS, and a large chunk of public info recording can be disabled just by running default Firefox, Startpage, setting Libreoffice file type defaults, never using a mail client, and disabling Cortana and never syncing with other devices like cell phones, and NEVER using Facebook. XP may be the most hackable Windows ever. I believe it was voted so once.

TC       

[m654321]

Won't say much about the video except it is typically sensationalist
TC       

@Trinidad
Agreed, but my point was if you can fast forward to the tutorial by the English guy in the second half of the video, it provides some very useful tips for reducing vulnerability in win10 (that's if you have the Pro version).  PC users like me, who are not IT specialists in any shape or form, will find this useful...

TC, I think we're going badly of topic now - if you look at the original question in this thread's header, I think you answered this already, around 8 posts ago - many thanks for that.

Cheers
Mike

[m654321]

I have the win7 installation disk but are the updates still available? I ask this because the other day I tried a fresh install of win7 and was connected to the internet (300Mb/s) for several hours for initial updating & patching with little success - I thought updates were available until April 2019, as with LL2.8 ...
Mike

Finally, I was able to solve this issue and have now successfully done a fresh clean install of  Win7 (fully-patched) in dual-boot with LL3.0 [setup (1) in signature below]. I have also been able to recommence updating an already established Win7 dual-boot [setup (3) in sig] - the latter seems to have got 'stuck' with updating back in June 2016.  A few internet searches revealed that the problem of Win7 failing to find updates was a common one, either for a fresh clean install or for an already well established one.  The problem (in both cases) appears to be due to a missing file, which can be readily downloaded - the fix is as follows:

(1) for a fresh clean install of Win7: download & install  this package  Windows6.1-KB3135445-x64.msu
(2) for an already established install of Win7: download & install WindowsUpdateAgent-7.6-x64.exe

I'm no expert on this, by any measure, but there may well be other ways of kickstarting the microsoft updating process.

Also, good news beginning October 2016 - "monthly rollups" to download will be available for Win8.1 and Win7. This is essentially a  package of security patches, though there is no mention of it being called SP2.  It is a cumulative package, which means if you forgot the October download, you will get October's patches in the November one, or if you missed the downloads for October, November & December, you will get them in the January 2017 download, etc. See the following link from Microsoft for more details:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windo...fcb?auth=1

So, "Is it too late to do a fresh install of win7?" (title of this thread) - it would seem that the answer is certainly "no".  On reflection, I don't think it would make good business sense for Microsoft to leave Win7 and Win8 users in the lurch, especially as take-up of Win10 hasn't been as great as they would have liked...

Hope this is useful
Mike

[Ottawagrant]

Above post is correct. I just reinstalled Windows 7 two days ago. There is a process you have to follow or there will be problems. Translation: Prepare ahead of time! Have an 8gb flash drive handy to store all these files.
(0) A copy of Windows 7 OS that you need (home, pro, ultimate- x86, or x64) & your license key (DO NOT forget that)
    You can have this on a flash drive, but I still find a CD works better.
(1) Download WSUS offline installer & run it. It'll download about 2gb. of updates.
(2) If your copy of Windows 7 doesn't have service pack 1, download it. After reinstalling your OS, install that FIRST!
(3) Download these KB updates and install them in the order I've posted:
Windows6.1-KB3020369-x64 (This sets up your OS for offline installs. Why? Ask Microsoft, not me)
windows6.1-kb3125574-v4-x64 (The unofficial 'service pack 2')
Windows6.1-KB3153199-x64 (Fixes Windows updates to prevent the 'checking, but never download')
Windows6.1-KB3156417-x64 (May 2016 monthly rollup)
Windows6.1-KB3172605-x64 (July 2016 monthly rollup. June was cancelled because of a problem)
After installing these, run the WSUS offline installer. It'll install C++, IE11, Net framework 4.6.2, and a few missing KB updates. After all that Windows 7 will STILL need further updates, but it's only around 20, not 220. As I said, I did this 2 days ago and the entire process from start to finish took about 3 hours. It used to take 8, because of all the updates. And the final thing, of course, check if your version of Windows 7 is 32bit, or 64.

[m654321]

Above post is correct. I just reinstalled Windows 7 two days ago. There is a process you have to follow or there will be problems. Translation: Prepare ahead of time! Have an 8gb flash drive handy to store all these files.
(0) A copy of Windows 7 OS that you need (home, pro, ultimate- x86, or x64) & your license key (DO NOT forget that)
    You can have this on a flash drive, but I still find a CD works better.
(1) Download WSUS offline installer & run it. It'll download about 2gb. of updates.
(2) If your copy of Windows 7 doesn't have service pack 1, download it. After reinstalling your OS, install that FIRST!
(3) Download these KB updates and install them in the order I've posted:
Windows6.1-KB3020369-x64 (This sets up your OS for offline installs. Why? Ask Microsoft, not me)
windows6.1-kb3125574-v4-x64 (The unofficial 'service pack 2')
Windows6.1-KB3153199-x64 (Fixes Windows updates to prevent the 'checking, but never download')
Windows6.1-KB3156417-x64 (May 2016 monthly rollup)
Windows6.1-KB3172605-x64 (July 2016 monthly rollup. June was cancelled because of a problem)
After installing these, run the WSUS offline installer. It'll install C++, IE11, Net framework 4.6.2, and a few missing KB updates. After all that Windows 7 will STILL need further updates, but it's only around 20, not 220. As I said, I did this 2 days ago and the entire process from start to finish took about 3 hours. It used to take 8, because of all the updates. And the final thing, of course, check if your version of Windows 7 is 32bit, or 64.

Yes of course you will need the product key.
I did what I described in post  #15 a week ago and had no problem - working very smoothly now - yes "it's correct", as you say - at least seems to be... ;D 
You seem to have taken a somewhat longer route: I only needed to download & install either one of the 'KB patches' I mentioned in post #15 and the computer did the rest itself for all the other bits & pieces you listed...

Don't forget the October & subsequent monthly roll-ups through till 2020 ...

Regards
Mike