I run a SOHO. My business partner runs his computer totally offline; he uses it like a typewriter. He runs Windows 7 because he has to access a lot of word documents from the 90s. He knows next to nothing about computers; I send all the emails on another computer that runs Ubuntu Linux.
Now sooner or later his typewriter computer, a 15 years old prehistoric box, will go kaput. What do we do then? We would have to reinstall windows seven by going online? He does not want to do ever connect a computer online. Yes, we both hate Windows beyond seven.
He could not run any Linux. Don’t even think about it. He runs Windows Office 2007. His 1990s word docs are court cases that he appears in as an expert.
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Its been a long time since I installed 7. U think you could enter a Product Key, or enter one at a later time. Just never actually complete the online registration. He’ll get a watermark, and some options (like themeing) though.
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Nothing stops you from keep using Windows 7 with a sealed computer. What seems to be the issue here are either the old machine giving up or format compatibility.
On the first one you can buy a second hand Thinkpad T440 for cheap, install Windows 7, no internet required, and manually move the files. Only thing I would add on top of that is disk encryption and that can be done using Veracrypt (TrueCrypt for old Windows 7).
Now if you wanted to use a modern operating system I would test the compatibility of LibreOffice (under a well documented Linux, like Mint, Fedora or Ubuntu), I use it and has full support, especially for older MS Office formats. Still, I would only test at first, because format rot is a thing. Like the case of the US Navy were they tried to move older CAD files to a newer version of AutoCad but slight variations put lines where they shouldn’t and you can tell the issue, likewise you may see some weird artifacts if you try to move vast amounts of old doc files and open them up with LibreOffice, or any other FOSS software like Only office.
A third option is to run windows 7 in a VM, since it’s only a typing box anyway, you might as well spin up QEMU or an equivalent from the OS and hardware of your choice, just allow one USB for file transfer and cut off the internet.
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I don’t think Windows 7 requires the internet, hell, no version of Windows actually requires the internet for installation!
(You also might want to make a disk image with something like Clonezilla to preserve software licences)
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I have just installed win11 on a VM with no internet…
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windows 11 practically speaking doesn’t need a network connection. it’s just a Microsoft annoyance. you could burn a windows 11 iso with rufus and avoid the need for a microsoft account and do a complete offline installation.
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