I used Windows XP and Windows 7 long after Microsoft stopped supporting them. I intend to do the same with Windows 10. I keep everything I do not want everyone to know, like passwords, on a flash drive.
All I want from a PC is internet access, word processing, and the ability to save files I find on the internet. Windows XP did those fine for me. I miss it.
You might be OK.
It is like getting a vaccine.
You don’t do it for yourself.
Just get a new computer. $500 will get you something shiny that will run rings around your “powerfull” W7 machine.
Wha? You do get a vaccine to protect yourself, and making sure your computer is up to date with security patches is to protect yourself, not someone else.
I have no idea in what way the task bar was ruined for you and given that you’ve no experience with it, you may not either. The default behavior is for the taskbar to be in the middle of the screen but it’s an easy change to park it on the left just like Windows 10.
It’s never happened yet, so you assume it never will? Is that it?
That sounds a lot like “I’ve never been in a collision in my car, so screw seatbelts!”
My current machine is a Surface Pro 7. It came with Win10. It tells me every few days that it will happily run Win11 but I have resisted the upgrade so far.
Performance-wise it’s still fine for my ever-shrinking use cases. But physically this machine is just about beat to death & due for a replacement. So I expect to buy a similar spec current generation Surface with Win11 between now and Oct and migrate into that one. Ideally before this one bricks itself.
No, that’s not “it”. Not at all. It’s based on a reasonable understanding of the risks, the risk-benefit tradeoffs in my specific situation, and the steps I’ve taken in my specific situation to mitigate those risks.
I’ve never been in a collision in my car in over 50 years of driving, but I always wear my seat belt. So there goes that analogy.
Me, too. On both these points. 
I’ve been resigned to the need to “upgrade” to Windows 11, but I’ve just been putting it off. I’m concerned about printer drivers, especially for my old Brother HL-2170W. Do I really need to be concerned about browsers? I use Opera.
That Brother HL-2170W printer has Windows 10 drivers available and that will most likely work fine with Windows 11.
Brother, like most printer companies, has excellent support for their drivers on Windows 11 at this point. That shouldn’t be a problem. If this was the first year Windows 11 was out, the concern would be realistic.
Opera is not a particularly safe browser on Windows 10 or 11. It is slower to patch than the big browsers, though generally less targeted at least. The built-in Ad-Blocker is nice.
If you like it, keep using it, but Opera is in general, not safer than Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.
Interesting. Presumably this tool has to run on Win 10?
Do you have a pointer to it? I can probably find it with a bit of searching but I’m lazy… 
Not sure how you feel about China, but Opera is also owned by a Chinese conglomerate now.
Great. Well good luck with that.
Yes, I would say this is the #1 thing to be concerned about (after all of the other #1 things). Your browser is the primary piece of software that is receiving untrustworthy data from all over the internet. If the browser has known vulnerabilities, you’re massively exposing yourself.
A “drive by” bug in the browser would mean that simply going to a website would be enough to compromise your computer. Because websites conglomerate data from multiple sources, such as ad networks, tracking networks, and such, there is no such thing as only going to safe websites, and is also the #2 reason to run an ad blocker.
If you are going to browse from a computer, then running an updated and patched browser is necessary. At some point, updated browsers will not be available for old operating systems.
As long as new versions of Opera are supported on Windows 10, then that is probably an acceptable option (caveat all of the reasons not to use any particular browser). I still recommend updating to supported and patched operating system.
Yeah, I think in order to upgrade to Win 11 you must already be on Win 10 anyway. Here are a couple of links I recall looking at, altho when I tried to click-thru to see where they led it recognizes my computer already on Win 11 and I can go no further:
If it was just that, then fine, but I actually have my task bar on the left side of the screen, that is vertically, rather than horizontally, this is something you can’t do (you can’t do top or right either) Also, you can’t make the size of the icons on the taskbar smaller, and you can’t resize the taskbar.
Those are all things that I make good use of, and have for years, but no longer would be able without a third party app.
//i\\
I have W10, my wife has W11. I hate having to do anything on her system. I plan on sticking with 10 and doing all internet activity through Sandboxie if I have to.
I have a 2016 W10 ultraportable that’s not upgradeable to 11, a 2018 W10 mainline notebook that MS claims is, and a 2023 W11. So the oldest may be wiped and turned into a Linux or just recycled since so much of it is by now unfixable if it fails. The upgradable one will be kept as it already is as the one for Less Important Things and the upgrade attempted by this summer.
My old W7 machine stuck around as my alternate “the one I don’t mind breaking” gear all the way to the end of extended support in 2020 but it could not go up to 10.
I like Win10 plenty too but my next laptop, likely in the next 12 months, will have 11 and I’m fine with that. I’ve given it a few tries and I don’t instantly hate it like Windows 8 or sand under my eyelid.