[HN Gopher] Unofficial Windows 7 Service Pack 2
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Unofficial Windows 7 Service Pack 2
Author : XzetaU8
Score : 192 points
Date : 2025-03-22 11:45 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| hard_times wrote:
| > Windows 8 build 7861's PDF Reader
|
| Was not aware there ever was a Win32 desktop PDF reader shipped
| by Microsoft.
| MortyWaves wrote:
| Same. I only ever saw, and still do, PDFs by default opening in
| Edge.
|
| I looked into it and I'm even more confused.
|
| https://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2/blob/1c57943c2e4f5e27e7...
|
| This appears to suggest the appx file will somehow just run on
| Windows 7 which can't be right.
| gruez wrote:
| >This appears to suggest the appx file will somehow just run
| on Windows 7 which can't be right.
|
| They extracted the .exe from the appx.
| MortyWaves wrote:
| But surely that relies on a bunch of "UWP" and Windows 8
| APIs? The screenshots I managed to find make it look very
| much like it relies on the Metro UWP garbage.
| smileybarry wrote:
| Windows 8 shipped with build 8400 (apparently), so I
| assume this PDF reader is pre-UWP rewrite from one of the
| early Windows "8" builds, that were mostly Windows 7.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| As far as I could tell/recall the Windows 8 Reader app
| was always a thin wrapper around Edge (Spartan) (which is
| also when it broke, when Edge switched to Chromium). I
| suppose it is possible it worked with Trident (IE11),
| too, or the "Service Pack" includes some version of Edge
| (Spartan), which would have been all the hard work on
| that, though that isn't listed.
| smileybarry wrote:
| Ah, if there's one thing you should run very outdated versions
| of, it's _a PDF reader_. Can I get a TIFF reader last updated
| in 2010 to go along with it?
| mouse_ wrote:
| simply do not open files with malware in them
| apatheticonion wrote:
| God I wish I could replace Windows 11 with Windows 7
| sylens wrote:
| It really was the peak of Windows in terms of usability,
| aesthetics, and speed.
| Koshkin wrote:
| At first, sure. But then, with all the service packs it
| became all but unusable on the computers on which it came
| preinstalled and used to run fine.
| imcritic wrote:
| There was just 1 service pack for w7 and I've never noticed
| it making the system work slower.
| kilolima wrote:
| That was Windows 2000.
| mouse_ wrote:
| Love 7 and Vista but I have to agree with you there. 2000
| is peak function.
| machomaster wrote:
| Vista? You must be joking, right?
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| I'll split hairs and go w/ Windows Server 2003. It has all
| the XP kernel improvements, very little bloat, but sticks
| with a mostly Windows 2000 visual style. I ran it as a
| daily driver on a Thinkpad back in the 2004 - 2010
| timeframe and really enjoyed it.
| bambax wrote:
| My primary machine is still running Win7; every time I say this
| here I get a lot of flak, the only result of which is that
| every time, I'm a little more afraid to confess it; but I will
| not move to a more recent version of Windows.
|
| Everything works fine and fast; Office 2003 was peak Office
| (last version before the abominable 'ribbon' that no other
| windows app ever emulated, which, for such a brilliant idea
| supposed to revolutionize productivity applications, is a bit
| strange?); browsers won't update to Manifest V3 so uBlock
| Origin runs along smoothly; most VST plugins released recently,
| are compatible with Win7 and those that aren't, usually are bad
| and bloated.
|
| Just today I upgraded the CPU fan to a new one that required to
| completely take apart the whole casing (because the fan has a
| plastic mount that needs to be on the other side of the
| motherboard); doing this, and putting it all together, took
| maybe 40 minutes? And everything restarted just perfectly
| afterwards. I love this machine.
|
| I have a much newer PC running Ubuntu, but it's just not as
| good -- lots of little annoying details; and a bit unstable.
| user432678 wrote:
| I am entertaining an idea to acquire the same setup for
| recreational game development using older tools and
| libraries. Have you followed any guides or do you have any
| recommendations where to start? Also how reliable those older
| mobos? I have heard that capacitors are usually close to a
| malfunction stage, have you had any issues with hardware so
| far? Thanks.
| mouse_ wrote:
| I use win64devkit on Windows Vista. Modern and up to date
| devkit and at the same time very lean, portable and
| practical. https://nullprogram.com/blog/2021/03/11/
| bambax wrote:
| Motherboard is from 2009, is on every day, sometimes stays
| on for a week. Not one problem so far; not sure what I
| would do if it failed though!
| AlexandrB wrote:
| > last version before the abominable 'ribbon' that no other
| windows app ever emulated
|
| Isn't the modern (Windows 10, don't know about 11) file
| explorer UI a "ribbon" UI?
| a2tech wrote:
| Of sorts. Not a full ribbon like in Office.
| pitaj wrote:
| > Just today I upgraded the CPU fan to a new one that
| required to completely take apart the whole casing (because
| the fan has a plastic mount that needs to be on the other
| side of the motherboard); doing this, and putting it all
| together, took maybe 40 minutes? And everything restarted
| just perfectly afterwards. I love this machine.
|
| This is a crazy irrelevant example. Why would you expect any
| other OS to act differently? CPU fans connect with a 4-pin
| header, it's not like switching out a major component of your
| system.
| bambax wrote:
| Ok, you're right, it's irrelevant to a discussion about the
| OS; the point I was trying to make is that this old machine
| is robust, it can be taken apart, completely, and screwed
| back together, and still work fine. Not all machines can do
| that.
| vel0city wrote:
| But that's not inherently some property of it being an
| old machine. One could have an ancient machine where
| that's nearly impossible to do with proprietary fan sizes
| and headers and have a machine built yesterday which is
| easy to do.
| vel0city wrote:
| > the abominable 'ribbon' that no other windows app ever
| emulated
|
| Other than, I dunno, Explorer, Paint, WordPad, Visual Studio,
| Dynamics, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Writer, SQL Server
| Report Builder, Mathematics, and then some.
|
| What other applications were you expecting them to add it to?
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| My primary machine isn't Windows 7 anymore, but I have a
| Windows 7 machine I keep around for a particular kind of
| work. I access it with Remote Desktop and keep it in an
| isolated network segment.
|
| I've kept the various versions of other software on the
| machine static, along with the OS. For what I use it for it's
| very pleasant to use. Muscle memory for keyboard shortcuts
| that I've built-up over the nearly 15 years I've been using
| the machine isn't disrespected by developers introducing
| change for change's sake. Nothing moves around on its own.
| Nothing changes without my approval. I really like it.
|
| (The physical machine itself is a Ship of Theseus. It's a
| Dell laptop that has had some combination of donor screens,
| keyboards, motherboards, batteries, and disks over the years.
| I really appreciate that, too. The Latitude machines of its
| era are really easily disassembled and serviced.)
| trinix912 wrote:
| > Office 2003 was peak Office (last version before the
| abominable 'ribbon' that no other windows app ever emulated,
| which, for such a brilliant idea supposed to revolutionize
| productivity applications, is a bit strange?)
|
| Apparently I'm not alone ;)
|
| I still find the classic menus (with full menus always on)
| easier to quickly parse than looking at all those icons
| stretching through the entire width of the window.
|
| Edit: also if you're looking for a lightweight note taking
| app, try OneNote 2003/2007. Uses 8-32 MB of RAM which was a
| lot back then but today isn't nothing.
| a2tech wrote:
| I support a lot of different manufacturing places and so see a
| wide, wide, variety of hardware.
|
| You don't know how terrible Windows 11 is until you start going
| backwards, peeling off layers of the onion. Once you're back to
| XP/2000, you're like..oh shit. People spent years thinking
| about how this would all work. And it's crazy fast. Windows
| snap into place almost instantly. Sure, search doesn't work,
| but search doesn't work on Windows 11 reliably either.
|
| Everything you actually need to work? Works better and faster
| in the old stuff. When I remote into those machines even the
| remote session feels faster. How does a Windows XP machine
| running on a 733mhz machine from the last century feel faster
| at navigating windows and settings and launching programs than
| my 3k dollar workstation from last year?
| dharmab wrote:
| I'm willing to bet if you put modern SSDs in old computers
| people would prefer Office 2003 to modern Office.
| a2tech wrote:
| Office 2003 on spinning rust launches and completes tasks
| faster than modern Office on brand new machines with NVME
| drives.
|
| On that 733mhz machine with Office 2003, Excel will be open
| within a few seconds if I double click on it--if you move
| up to a 1ghz+ machine it opens up so fast it might as well
| be instant.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| I don't see anything resembling an actual release, just a bunch
| of files in a repo...?
| wrayjustin wrote:
| I nearly replied, "RTFM." Given the README says you can either
| use the ISO or the packaged release found within the
| repository's releases...except...
|
| There are no releases (no installation executable, nor ISO).
|
| The README does make it clear that it's a work in progress
| though.
| netsharc wrote:
| I used Windows 7 for way beyond its expiry date, until there was
| an exploit for some image format that meant I had to upgrade my
| browsers.
|
| Corporate users of Windows 7 still get updates, and there's
| somebody in Ukraine who redistributes these updates, or at least
| the digital certificate signing the updates says they live there:
| https://blog.simplix.info/update7/
|
| Come to think of it, I guess and hope the info in certificate is
| outdated, and they're living somewhere outside of fear of Putin's
| bombs.
| vintagedave wrote:
| > Better DPI support in aero.msstyles -> Credits: Vaporvance
| (high DPI classes from Aero10 that will be ported to Windows 7)
|
| Are they planning to add support for perMonitorv2? High DPI is
| the only thing that makes Windows 10/11 better than 7.
| Rohansi wrote:
| Maybe you're unaware of actual improvements made since Windows
| 7, such as swap/pagefile memory compression.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| Or security improvements.
| thrtythreeforty wrote:
| It's telling that all these improvements are eclipsed in
| users' minds by the worsening of the actual experience of
| using it. That's how despised the UI changes are.
| Rohansi wrote:
| I don't really see why the UI is despised. Windows 8 was
| bad, 10 brought sanity mostly back, and 11 is in a good
| state now IMO.
| pathartl wrote:
| 11 is almost way more consistent in its UI. I'd even go
| as far as to say it's better than 7's.
| hulitu wrote:
| > 11 is almost way more consistent in its UI. I'd even go
| as far as to say it's better than 7's.
|
| Why my rectangle window has round corners ? Where is the
| scrollbar ? /s
| user432678 wrote:
| I also chuckle every time I need to resize window by
| dragging an imaginary intersection of tangents to that
| rounded corner of some apps, that's just hilarious.
| Pxtl wrote:
| They can pry my vertical taskbar from my cold dead hands
| Lammy wrote:
| TIL you can't move it to the sides any more in Windows
| 11, wild. Just one more reason for me to stay on Windows
| 10 no matter the forced-obsolescence schedule.
| gond wrote:
| Regarding missing features: Is anyone around here who has
| found an alternative to the original "quick launch
| toolbar"?
|
| I mean the 'real' one which was introduced in Windows 95
| - up to Windows 8 (IIRC), which could be separated from
| the Taskbar and be docked at any side of the desktop,
| horizontally or vertically, and could also be stacked in
| both directions.
| anoldperson wrote:
| I'm pretty old now; if I knew who made that decision and
| that they were coming to my country, I'd flip a coin on
| the risk of prison time for punching them unconscious.
| neither_color wrote:
| If you're ever forced to use W11, ExplorerPatcher will
| let you rollback the taskbar to windows 10 and move it to
| the sides.
|
| https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
| trinix912 wrote:
| > 11 is almost way more consistent in its UI. I'd even go
| as far as to say it's better than 7's.
|
| Yeah no. Enable full-width taskbar icons (like the
| Windows XP style wide ones) and notice how each one of
| them is of a different width. It's just terrible, it's
| almost like someone told an intern who's never used
| anything prior to Windows 7 to design it.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| I feel the exact opposite.
|
| 7 was the peak. 8 was awful because it tried to be both a
| desktop OS and a tablet OS. 10 doubled-down on the
| flatness that I despise. 11 is simply trying to be MacOS,
| which is a _massive_ bug, not a feature. I use Windows
| _because_ it 's not MacOS.
|
| Personally, I use WindowBlinds on my Win10 PC to skin it
| to look like Win7. I love the grey taskbar with items
| that look like 3D buttons. Most of all, I _much prefer_
| that if I have 3 Firefox windows open, then I should have
| 3 Firefox items on my task bar. I should be able to
| switch windows in a single click.
|
| When I'm eventually forced to downgrade to Windows 11,
| I'll have to buy the new WindowBlinds11 and Start11 to
| bring back the UX that I love.
| isaacdl wrote:
| Took a few years after Windows 11 was released, but FWIW
| you can now have a taskbar item for each window. It's in
| the Taskbar Settings -> Taskbar behaviors -> "Combine
| taskbar buttons and hide labels".
|
| I also waited until that was an option, it was a total
| deal-breaker for me. But it's working quite nicely now.
| AlexandrB wrote:
| > 11 is simply trying to be MacOS
|
| Not even. You can position the "Dock" on the side of the
| screen in MacOS.
| nsonha wrote:
| the thing that I remember the most about Windows 8 is that
| someone decided that a live graph of file copying speed is a
| feature.
| imcritic wrote:
| Isn't it?
| codr7 wrote:
| Not if it isn't moving.
|
| That one felt more like entertainment to keep people
| distracted since they couldn't get copying up to a
| reasonable speed.
| cookiengineer wrote:
| Last year I was also in a Windows 7 rabbit hole. There's lots of
| ongoing stuff in the community, and even huge driver packs for
| Ryzen hardware.
|
| The website that led me down that hole was the one from
| "spacedrone808" [1] who appeared regularly in /r/windows7 mod
| posts and issue trackers.
|
| There's also the snappy driver installer project [2] which shares
| a 44GB torrent with all kinds of drivers, from SATA controllers
| to NIC to GPU. There's also driverpacks which is sometimes down,
| sometimes not. In the web archive of either of those you can
| still find the torrent links though.
|
| Oh and there's driveroff [4] which led me down the rabbit hole of
| Russian hacking communities that backport software to win7, which
| is amazing to see that there's this isolated modding community on
| the internet that uses hardcore win7 modded variants, with self-
| built firewall software, backported hash file databases for
| antivirus tools etc.
|
| [1] https://win7sp2.neocities.org/
|
| [2] https://sdi-tool.org/
|
| [3] https://driverpacks.net/
|
| [4] https://driveroff.net/
| AndrewDavis wrote:
| Similarly I went on an XP odyssey late last year. I acquired a
| retired workstation from $dayjob that I decided to turn into a
| retro XP game machine. It was very late for XP but within a
| generation or two before Intel, Nvidia and the motherboard
| provided drivers (Ivy bridge and GTX 660 GPU).
|
| But that didn't get you through the installer... I discovered a
| plethora of alternative install media with built in community
| drivers providing support for nvme drives, modern ACPI
| extensions etc.
|
| It's so complete you can install it on today's current
| hardware.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| Care to share sources for those alternative media with modern
| drivers?
| CursedSilicon wrote:
| Likely the "XP Integral Edition" that is updated every now
| and again
|
| https://zone94.com/software/operating-systems/123-windows-
| xp...
| kotaKat wrote:
| I've been using https://www.ntlite.com/ for a while now for
| various custom/integration needs at home. Well worth it.
|
| It's also nifty when I need to slap hardware drivers into a
| Windows 11 ISO on the fly to bring up a new machine.
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| I've long suspected that a Linux desktop environment designed
| to closely mimic Windows 7 (with light modernization where it
| makes sense) would prove popular, and the existence of all this
| reinforces that idea. A rough facsimile can be built using KDE,
| Cinnamon, or XFCE, but many details will still be wrong (and
| aren't practically fixable without forking) and I think that's
| enough to prevent many users from considering Linux as a viable
| alternative.
| userbinator wrote:
| _a 44GB torrent with all kinds of drivers, from SATA
| controllers to NIC to GPU_
|
| My first reaction was "that's an absolutely insane amount of
| drivers", but then I realised that some GPU and printer drivers
| are already around 1GB.
| parineum wrote:
| I didn't know what's in that package/torrent but those 1gb
| drivers are drivers AND applications which are frequently not
| required at all.
|
| How much of the Nvidia driver is just GFE?
| WorldMaker wrote:
| GFE and its replacement "nVidia App" are bloated and large,
| but the drivers themselves are still 600-900MBs each.
|
| That "optimized for Game X" thing where GFE/nVidia App
| brags that the driver has all sorts of custom relationships
| with all the recent exciting games is strangely literal in
| most cases because the drivers include a frankly wild
| amount of application/game-specific
| microcode/optimizations.
| mdaniel wrote:
| https://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2/blob/main/LICENSE is pretty
| rich, given that the whole repo is just a bazillion _binary_
| files from Microsoft
| hxorr wrote:
| Anything like this for Windows 8? I know most people's favourite
| is 7, but I prefer 8 as it is very lightweight, and performs well
| on older PCs
| Sunspark wrote:
| You could take a look at Windows Server 2012. It's 8 and has
| ESUs until Oct 2026.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Windows Server 2012 R2 (Windows 8.1 Server) is nice. It's
| probably my favorite pre-Windows 10 version of Windows Server
| (though 2003 R2 comes close, as does Server 2008 R2). It also
| has ESU's thru October 2026, if memory serves.
| MisterTea wrote:
| When I switched from Win 7 to Linux few years back I couldn't
| toss my faithful i7 that served me well for nearly a decade so it
| sits under my workbench. Normally I would convert my previous
| PC's Windows install into a VM that ran on the new PC but this
| time I decided to leave the machine be. It's till running Win 7
| for my CAD and PLC software and I use it a few times a month. I
| did move some stuff to a 7 VM but when you have a fully working
| machine ready to boot... Now I can update it and reliably keep it
| running. Awesome.
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(page generated 2025-03-26 23:01 UTC)