Actually this is good news - this is actually being proactive because you don't want something that requires features of a dead or dying OS. If you or any new BI customers go out and buy a retail PC today what does it come with? Do you want to say "by the way, go in and install dot net 3.5 and this-and-that from the Win 7 days and this or that hack? No - and since 10 is the standard as has been pointed out was released four years ago its time to move on. I started with with an acoustic couple and teletype machine then 300 baud then 1200 baud and so on but the world has changed. It will continue to change. If you are playing this game it is expensive and you know that so let's be happy that we can milk features that are in 10 that you couldn't dream of in 7. What about having a containerized BI delivered to you? WIndows 10 - check. The fact that I am running 18 cameras on a middle of the road i5 8th gen at 12-14% CPU is simply amazing.
Why do updates get forced? They aren't updates. The model is different. 1803 which was released in March of 2018 was superseded by 1809 which was - you guessed it - September. At any moment we'll see a 1903. Same with Office. This is a whole new operating system that you're getting. That's why if you run cleanmgr.exe and drill into system files you are given the option to "delete previous Windows installations" - now instead of service packs or patches here and there twice a year (unless you choose LTSB) we have a new release. The days of grand projects and "gold" releases are over - we're in a constant update/release world.
Another issue is drivers - newer hardware simply does not ship with Windows 7 drivers. Technically Intel 7th gen and above isn't supported for 7. Are you aware of these things? Go pick a random new Dell or HP with 8th gen hardware (which is what they're selling) and go and see if can download Windows 7 drivers - in lots of cases you can't. I know this - I do this for a living. Google HP driver packs and Dell driver packs. In an enterprise and the reason you buy enterprise equipment (Optiplex for example) is that drivers are for a "family" of machines not per model. I'm getting off topic here but this is a good thing and a proactive thing and waiting four years to say "look we just can't support 7 anymore" isn't unreasonable at all.
Blue Iris would be a heck of a deal for 500.00 versus what they charge.
End of rant - you don't know how bad it sucks when you have 26000 machines to take care of and some subset of machines uses obscure software that MUST run on old stuff - its a pain.
I'm not being argumentative or insulting and I don't want it to sound like that and like some other folks have said - if what you have works then who cares? Its like if you don't like whatever is on a TV channel then change the channel.
What are the system requirements of competing systems? Do they require proprietary hardware? Look - the BI folks - like MS - have to work with the least common denominator because they have no idea what all is out there and they're doing a great job. If they sold the hardware and it only ran on the hardware and they controlled that there would be so much more that could be done but it wouldn't be 49.95 like it is now..
I'm happy with BI and try to get everyone on board that I can. Another thing - read the forums here - there is a 99% chance is has already been answered.
Fenderman isn't FOS - he knows his stuff - everything he says is true and he's right. I built a BI for someone with 10 cameras on an 8th gen i3 and it runs < 20% - 6 fps, 5 fps previews - all the things they have talked about or that is in the
Wiki.
At an enterprise level if you walked up to me today and tried to sell me something that required 7 I'd not be interested. Again - I will close to re-iterate - there will less and less driver support for 7 moving forward. This requiring 10 is a good and proactive thing. The 10 of today isn't the same as the 14xx or 15xx versions - who 'nother animal with same name. Its getting better - I can run a container of Linux and share the IP - I have sftp and ssh at my command line in 10 - this is coming from Microsoft of all people.
Here's what I do - first off I always customize the default user profile. For your old-school programs simply make a shortcut to your old start menu:
Right-click anywhere on the desktop and select "New shortcut" and populate the field with C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs (cut-and-paste that) and hit next and you'll have your old start menu right there. Programdata is hidden but that shortcut works as long as your Windows install is on C:
