Windows 7 or Windows 10 better and more secure.

[Adithyadusty47]

Windows 7 or Windows 10 is more secure and performance oriented,it is better to upgrade to windows 10?

[NelizMastr]

Both are equally secure as they're both maintained and supported for security fixes. On Ryzen, Kaby Lake and newer always install Windows 10 as that's the only officially supported OS on those platforms (no, AMD doesn't recommend installing W7 despite having drivers for it for Ryzen/TR).

[Delicieuxz]

Both Windows 7 and 10 get mostly identical security fixes, so they should be mostly identically secure. Windows 10 has some extra stuff in it that apparently opens it up to additional security issues, though.

 

Number of security vulnerabilities discovered per Windows OS per year:

https://www.cvedetails.com/top-50-products.php?year=2016

 

            1999----2000----2001----2002----2003----2004----2005----2006----2007----2008----2009----2010----2011----2012----2013----2014----2015----2016----2017

---95      13-------31------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---98      11-------15--------7---------12------------------12------17--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

98se      -----------6--------6----------12---------------------------18--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---NT      64-------28-------24--------23--------18-------24--------------------------------------16-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2000      18-------31-------43--------42--------31-------41------68-------42--------30-------24-------75-------45---------------------------------------------------------------------------

--ME     ----------------------7---------10----------------------------15--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---XP     ---------------------10--------34--------22-------44------66-------56--------34-------34-------89-------98------101-------43-------87--------------------------------------------

Vista      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------31-------29-------76-------86-------95-------42-------95----------34------136------125----------

-----7     --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------64------102-------44-------99----------36------147------134------197

-----8     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------58----------38------146------134------229

---8.1     -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------38------151------154------225

----10    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------53-------172------268

 

 

             2018 (as of May)

-----7     --47--------

---8.1    --44--------

----10    --61--------

 

 

That doesn't include the vulnerabilities that are there by Microsoft's design, and which are used by Microsoft to retrieve system data without authorization. There are over 3,150 of those in Windows 10, at the lowest data-harvesting setting in Home and Pro.

 

 

Also, if you count Windows 10's automatic update, automatic system restarts, automatic data-harvesting resets with updates to be stability and security issues, then Windows 10 has those, while Windows 7 doesn't.

 

There are no real performance gains with either OS, only performance trade-offs.

 

11 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

Both are equally secure as they're both maintained and supported for security fixes. On Ryzen, Kaby Lake and newer always install Windows 10 as that's the only officially supported OS on those platforms (no, AMD doesn't recommend installing W7 despite having drivers for it for Ryzen/TR).

Can you provide a citation for that? I only saw mention of that in regards to Threadripper, but nothing implying that for Ryzen.

 

Also, some Intel CPU motherboard manufacturers (like Gigabyte) supply chipset drivers for Windows 7. So, newer Intel CPUs can still be supported in Windows 7. And even without chipset-specific drivers, the latest Intel and AMD CPUs still work in Windows 7 - they'll just be missing some minor power-saving feature or something like that.

 

I haven't seen a single report of a newer CPU having issues in Windows 7 - only reports that people are able to run Windows 7 with newer CPUs: Threadripper, Coffee Lake, and everything else. Basically, an x86 processor can work with an x86 OS.

[NelizMastr]

12 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

Can you provide a citation for that? I only saw mention of that in regards to Threadripper, but nothing implying that for Ryzen.

 

Also, some Intel CPU motherboard manufacturers (like Gigabyte) supply chipset drivers for Windows 7. So, newer Intel CPUs can still be supported in Windows 7. And even without chipset-specific drivers, the latest Intel and AMD CPUs still work in Windows 7 - they'll just be missing some minor power-saving feature or something like that.

Le sigh, this keeps coming up. The fact that motherboard manufacturers make drives doesn't make it a supported configuration. In fact, Microsoft won't allow you to update on Kaby Lake and Ryzen. You'll get a popup stating your hardware is designed for the latest version of Windows and that updating isn't possible until you upgrade.

 

As for the citation:

 

Quote

“To achieve the highest confidence in the performance of our AMD Ryzen desktop processors (formerly code-named ‘Summit Ridge’), AMD validated them across two different OS generations, Windows 7 and 10,” AMD said in a statement in response to a question from PCWorld. “However, only support and drivers for Windows 10 will be provided in AMD Ryzen desktop processor production parts.”

AMD is maintaining a position that it, along with Intel and Microsoft, has held for the last year. In January 2016, Microsoft said that Intel’s Kaby Lake and AMD’s Ryzen would only be supported under Windows 10, and reiterated that position last August. 

- Source: PC World. 

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3167279/computers/amd-sorry-there-will-be-no-official-ryzen-drivers-for-windows-7.html

 

 

Edit:

 

Also, you can't even install W7 on a Raven Ridge APU by the way. It'll throw an ACPI error. Zen2 will likely do the same thing. (Zen+ is still ok).

[Delicieuxz]

25 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

Le sigh, this keeps coming up. The fact that motherboard manufacturers make drives doesn't make it a supported configuration. In fact, Microsoft won't allow you to update on Kaby Lake and Ryzen. You'll get a popup stating your hardware is designed for the latest version of Windows and that updating isn't possible until you upgrade.

That has come up many times, and been corrected many times - including directly to you.

 

The block on Windows Update in Windows 7 is not related to CPU compatibility with the OS, and is entirely artificial (and illegal for Microsoft to do). Also, it can be easily permanently disabled with this patch:

 

https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc

 

The blocking of Windows Update for newer CPUs in Windows 7 isn't because they aren't compatible, but because Microsoft wants to force people to use Windows 10, so that Microsoft can harvest and sell more of their data. Since Windows 7 is only receiving security updates now, and since those updates are identical to the ones being released for Windows 10, if they were incompatible with newer CPUs, then people with newer CPUs wouldn't be able to use Windows 10, either.

 

Quote

As for the citation:

 

- Source: PC World. 

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3167279/computers/amd-sorry-there-will-be-no-official-ryzen-drivers-for-windows-7.html

There's nothing in that advising against using the latest AMD CPUs with Windows 7. That just says that AMD is packaging only the Windows 10 drivers inside of their CPU retail boxes.

 

That news is also outdated, being from before AMD decided to support Windows 7 officially. AMD's Windows 7 drivers can be downloaded from their website:

 

https://support.amd.com/en-us/download/chipset?os=Windows 10 - 64

[NelizMastr]

6 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

The block on Windows Update in Windows 7 is not related to CPU compatibility with the OS, and is entirely artificial (and illegal for Microsoft to do). Also, it can be easily permanently disabled with this patch

Well yes. Never said it couldn't be bypassed.

 

7 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

The blocking of Windows Update for newer CPUs in Windows 7 isn't because they aren't compatible, but because Microsoft wants to force people to use Windows 10, so that Microsoft can harvest and sell more of their data. Since Windows 7 is only receiving security updates now, and since those updates are identical to the ones being released for Windows 10, if they were incompatible with newer CPUs, then people with newer CPUs wouldn't be able to use Windows 10, either.

This doesn't apply to AMD Raven Ridge APUs. They are unsupported on Windows 7 due to something throwing an ACPI error, which doesn't occur on Windows 10. 

 

8 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

There's nothing in that advising against using the latest AMD CPUs with Windows 7. That just says that AMD is packaging only the Windows 10 drivers inside of their CPU retail boxes.

 

That news is also outdated, and is from before AMD decided to support Windows 7 officially. AMD's Windows 7 drivers can be downloaded from their website:

 

https://support.amd.com/en-us/download/chipset?os=Windows 10 - 64

That's all great stuff, but the fact is that W7 will go EOL in roughly 18 months. Why anyone should still choose it today for their latest and greatest hardware, which isn't optimized for 7 mind you, is beyond me. Just throwing the data collection scheme into the mix doesn't change that. Might as well just run Linux after the 14th of january 2020.

[Delicieuxz]

14 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

Well yes. Never said it couldn't be bypassed.

The artificial and removable block on Windows Update also doesn't mean that a CPU isn't compatible with Windows 7.

 

Quote

This doesn't apply to AMD Raven Ridge APUs. They are unsupported on Windows 7 due to something throwing an ACPI error, which doesn't occur on Windows 10.

That is apparently related to Raven Ridge's built-in Vega graphics, and apparently could be fixed with a BIOS update. Raven Ridge is a newer CPU, and we've yet to see whether mobo manufacturers will address the issue.

 

Raven Ridge has been problematic in Windows 8 and 10, as well.

 

Quote

That's all great stuff, but the fact is that W7 will go EOL in roughly 18 months. Why anyone should still choose it today for their latest and greatest hardware, which isn't optimized for 7 mind you, is beyond me. Just throwing the data collection scheme into the mix doesn't change that. Might as well just run Linux after the 14th of january 2020.

In addition to being great, it also shows that "AMD doesn't recommend installing W7 despite having drivers for it for Ryzen" is a false claim, and so should not be made. Why something is beyond you isn't acceptable rationale for making and pushing false claims.

 

The only lack of optimization you'll get in Windows 7 relating to newer CPUs (other than Raven Ridge's issue with its Vega graphics) will be missing minor stuff like a power-saving feature. It won't be anything that decreases CPU performance. And if a person uses a motherboard that comes with Windows 7 chipset drivers, then there's no lack of anything relating to their CPU.

[NelizMastr]

31 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

In addition to being great, it also shows that "AMD doesn't recommend installing W7 despite having drivers for it for Ryzen" is a false claim, and so should not be made. Why something is beyond you isn't acceptable rationale for making and pushing false claims.

Based on the link I provided it's not a false claim. At the time that article was posted, it was clear that AMD's standpoint on Windows 7 was to not use it as they weren't going to support it initially. That's simply a matter of interpretation. That this information is no longer relevant has passed me, I will admit that. I never saw any article where AMD retracted the previous statement regarding Windows 7 support. 

 

And you bashing my rationale has nothing to do with the matter. Give me a number of good reasons why it's a good idea to install a near-legacy operating system on bleeding edge hardware? Personal preference maybe? That'd be about the only real benefit. Users buying a key to W7 will have to upgrade to 10 anyway once support is dropped. Or would you rather push them to 8.1 so they can evade 10 for three more years? That OS doesn't even have driver support, despite being 3-4 years newer (going on W7 RTM/8.0 RTM/8.1 dates here).

[chiller15]

I honestly don't know why you wouldn't use Windows 10. It is just as, if not more secure and performs on a par, if not better. It also has more compatibility with newer hardware and more features within the OS. It's a no-brainer for me.