# Do I really need to upgrade from Windows 8? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2023, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-really-need-to-upgrade-from-windows-8/980504 "2023-02-28T19:09:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 9
**Author:** ![fordgt100](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fordgt100](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fordgt100)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-really-need-to-upgrade-from-windows-8/980504/9 "2023-02-28T21:30:54Z")
You would be better off to “downgrade” to win 7. I have had that on my laptop for ages (although XP was their best OS)). FWIW, I never allow my computer to update, and took the anti virus off it years ago on the advice of my son in law, who runs the IT dept in a Hawaii school. I go to some very sketchy websites (XXX stuff really), haven’t had a problem at all. So I have no idea what all the noise is about security patches and being at risk, and for years and years a lot of people say that its an issue. Not w/ me, works fine all the time. I had 8 on a laptop and took it back, not a good OS. 7 will let you set things up the way YOU want them, not how Microsoft wants it. I also got rid of Chrome (slow and bloated) and went to Brave a long time ago. It stops trackers, has shields, and is setup virtually identical to Chrome but works much faster. Combined that w/ proton email that is double encrypted and their VPN (all free), it’s a sweet, secure machine. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-really-need-to-upgrade-from-windows-8/980504)._