Windows 7 Survival Kit

An Essential Toolkit to Surviving with Windows 7 post-EOL and ESU

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Preface

This toolkit was designed by me, toydotgame, an avid Windows 7 fan. Although I currently am an Arch Linux user, the OS I used before Arch was Windows 7. I think that the great OS that was 7 should be usable far into the future despite its sunsetting because there simply hasn't been a better Windows since. Might I give a word of warning: Windows 7 will only get less and less secure as time goes on, and there isn't really much you can do about that. However, putting massive security vulnerabilities that may arise in the future aside, Windows 7 can be secure if you use it with common sense and keep secure/good practices in mind.

I'm going to assume you know Windows well enough to know what an .msc executable is and how to use Run, etc.

Introduction/Preparation

This guide assumes you have an installed and activated copy of Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise, or Ultimate, at a minimum SP1 RTM. The updates in this guide will get you to the EOL level of updates. Windows 7 can be activated for free using online KMS activation, however this only grants you a 180-day license and I personally recommend you dig out an old OEM Windows license sticker on any old laptop or desktop you have. Labels for Vista and 7 can be used for valid product keys.

Please download a ZIP of this repository from the green Code button above and extract it, or clone using Git.

1. Update Windows

Before running newer updates, run the Simplix Update Pack first (can be found in the Updates\ directory). It'll update your system to "SP1++" and the latest non-ESU updates. It may take multiple restarts and runs for this to complete. The update pack will notably not install the updates that add the full-screen "You should update to Windows 10" advertisements and similar Microsoft EOL garbage.

After that, you'll want to run BypassESU to update your system to the extended security updates Microsoft put out after January of 2020 when Windows 7 was sunset.

1. Begin by installing the 5 update packages in the Updates\. It may take a few restarts to get them all installed.
2. Run LiveOS-Setup.cmd as administrator. Run the full installation (1). Reboot your system and check for updates from Windows Updates, your system may need to be restarted multiple times.

Disabling the Windows Update Service

As it doesn't serve much use anymore, and can sometimes use 100% of your available RAM on lower end machines, it's worthwhile to disable the Windows Update service.

1. Run, services.msc
2. Stop and disable the Windows Update service.

2. Programs

In the Extras\ folder, there are a few program installer executables that I've collected.

Supported

The following applications will support Windows 7 for the forseeable future and therefore can alternatively be downloaded as their respective latest versions from the internet:

• 7-Zip
• Discord
  • Vencord (Includes OpenAsar)
• Search Everything
• JDK8 (SE)
• Waterfox (Note: G6 will be the final major release of Waterfox to support Windows 7, as it is based on Firefox ESR 115)
• GIMP
• ShareX (Note: Set up a Win+Shift+S shortcut if you are used to the Windows 10+ muscle memory)
• VLC
• Git
• ThrottleStop

Unsupported

The following applications have specifically been picked for being the last available versions to support Windows 7:

• Audacity
• Firefox (v115 ESR)
• .NET Framework 4.8 Runtime
• OBS
• Obsidian
• VS Code
• iTunes

Minecraft Launcher

For legal/EULA reasons (Microsoft hates redistribution of even non-paid software grr), I cannot distribute a copy of the classic launcher. However I can say that if you go to https://launcher.mojang.com/v1/objects/eabbff5ff8e21250e33670924a0c5e38f47c840b/launcher.jar, you might find it.

To patch the launcher to work with Microsoft accounts rather than Mojang/Minecraft Premium accounts only, you can use a program called MSA4Legacy written by NepNep21.

Procedure: Requires the included JRE to be installed!

1. Move your downloaded launcher.jar to this directory.
2. In a terminal here, run java -jar .\installer-1.1.0.jar.
3. Follow the GUI's instructions and select the launcher JAR. Once finished, it will output launcher-patched.jar. 3a. You can now move that to your .minecraft or some other location such as a hidden folder on the desktop. 3b. Create a link on your desktop to run java -jar C:\path\to\launcher-patched.jar. Modify %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Minecraft.lnk (or whatever it's called) to run this Java command also, rather than the new launcher EXE.

PS: If you are installing Fabric also, make sure to unselect "Create profile" in the installer. It doesn't function right with the legacy launcher and you will be required to create a profile manually.

Steam

(Credit to Elvis Mikkelsen's video on YouTube) Steam ended support for Windows 7 on January 1^st, 2024. However, you can use an older build and force updates to stop to continue using Steam for a bit longer.

1. Start by installing Steam from the internet (or from Extras\).
2. Extract the Steam ZIP in Extras\ and copy the Steam\ folder to overwrite the Steam folder in Program Files.
3. Add/overwrite the following to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.cfg:

   BootStrapperInhibitAll=enable
   BootStrapperForceSelfUpdate=disable

If you did it correctly, Steam should throw an error when you try to update from within the client.

Discord

With the included Vencord installer, all you have to do is install Discord first then install Vencord. If you want better performance, you might want to try out Vesktop (doesn't require Discord to be installed). However, you'll have to overwrite the included Electron executables with win32's fork.

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3. Untested Extras

Extended Kernel

Windows 7's kernel modding is much less developed than Vista's was, however there are a few options still:

• VxKex claims Windows 8+ compatibility running on Windows 7, which is definitely worth the install.
• The WIP Windows 7 Kernel Extension Pack. For built binaries to install, check their Discord for updates.

Another thing that's a WIP is win32's fork of Electron, which one day will allow apps like Discord and Obsidian to run on Windows 7 after Electron 23 dropped support.

Modern Hardware Support/USB 3

If installing on a modern system, USB drivers are messed up with modern CPUs and chipsets. This Reddit thread might be a good launching pad to start reading from, but I myself haven't tested any part of it yet.