As a slight aside, what version of Windows 7, or if it comes to it, Windows 8, should i buy? Just an average home user.

Generally I'd recommend Home Premium.

Generally I'd recommend Home Premium.

Thx.

Plenty of places online sell Windows 7, so it is obviously still on sale.

Plenty of places online sell Windows 7, so it is obviously still on sale.

Smacks to me that shop in question makes more money out of Windows 8 and doesn't bother stocking Win 7.

One thing worth remembering is because of all the fuss people made that having Media centre installed already is anti competitive it is not. You must now buy it. See the trouble wingers cause

One thing worth remembering is because of all the fuss people made that having Media centre installed already is anti competitive it is not. You must now buy it. See the trouble wingers cause

They were giving it away until the end of January for early adopters.

One thing worth remembering is because of all the fuss people made that having Media centre installed already is anti competitive it is not. You must now buy it. See the trouble wingers cause

They were giving it away until the end of January for early adopters.

Not too sure how many of those are here. (looks at calendar)

I have seen legal 7 sold in Fortune Tower (Rachadapisek) and Fashion Island (Ramintra)

I tried this when I downloaded the consumer preview last year, $5 is probably a fair price.

http://www.stardock....roducts/start8/

Slight typo, I was referring to Classic Shell. It's free, so save yourself five bucks.

I never paid for Start8, just had the eval version for consumer preview. I just installed Classic Shell and it's great to have the Start Orb back. Thanks!

--damole

It's always been the case that Microsoft (and Apple) will remove retail copies of the previous release of its operating system. They have no wish to have the older OS cannibalize the current release. There may still be computers with the OEM-licensed OS in the pipeline, as well as non-inventory copies, available through Ebay and non-compliant vendors, for a good while longer.

It's always been the case that Microsoft (and Apple) will remove retail copies of the previous release of its operating system. They have no wish to have the older OS cannibalize the current release. There may still be computers with the OEM-licensed OS in the pipeline, as well as non-inventory copies, available through Ebay and non-compliant vendors, for a good while longer.

Microsoft still offers windows 7:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-7.aspx?q=windows+7

The end of sale date has not yet been published, but they will continue to support it until 2020:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle

I was at Zeer (Rangsit) a few weeks ago and there were quite a few Win7 laptops available, but there were all in the clearance section. So I suspect once those are sold, you won't be able to find a new Win7 per-loaded.

>Salesperson assured me i would not be able to buy Windows 7 anywhere, at least in Bangkok anyway. Is this correct information?

Rule#1 never believe anything a sales person tells you in a Thai IT shop. Same applies to HomePro!

Agreed although it does seem from the responses here that there was a large element of truth to what i was told. Perhaps there may still be some stores (perhaps smaller ones with less custom) selling old stock of Windows 7, but going into the future, by the sounds of it, Windows 8 is all you'll be able to buy.

Going into the future, maybe, but not right now.

I know you're looking for Windows 7 but I just installed Win Pro upgrade on my old gaming desktop that was running XP and I was surprised how easy it was to get used to switching between the tile interface and the desktop. Once you start to populate your taskbar with the programs you use regularly and then switching back to tile mode and typing the first few letters of any other program you want to use it's actually not too bad.

I also found a good post on how to create a start menu using the tool bar feature.

http://www.techrepub...-windows-8/5945

I had been thinking of putting Windows 7 on this PC but as the discounted Win 8 Pro was only 25GBP I thought it was worth giving it a go.

--damole

THNX for solving problem - shopping for new laptop - what I want has windows 8 only - setting up as per link would solve progam access and lessen frustration during learning curve.

One thing worth remembering is because of all the fuss people made that having Media centre installed already is anti competitive it is not. You must now buy it. See the trouble wingers cause

I dunno if you can blame the whingers. You've been buying it all along as part of that bundled package of PC + OS that your retailer sells you - it just appeared to be free.

Time to learn about Linux I guess.

+1. Suggest you give it try unless you have just GOT to have Windows.

It's always been the case that Microsoft (and Apple) will remove retail copies of the previous release of its operating system. They have no wish to have the older OS cannibalize the current release. There may still be computers with the OEM-licensed OS in the pipeline, as well as non-inventory copies, available through Ebay and non-compliant vendors, for a good while longer.

Microsoft still offers windows 7:

http://www.microsoft...spx?q=windows 7

The end of sale date has not yet been published, but they will continue to support it until 2020:

http://windows.micro...ducts/lifecycle

I was at Zeer (Rangsit) a few weeks ago and there were quite a few Win7 laptops available, but there were all in the clearance section. So I suspect once those are sold, you won't be able to find a new Win7 per-loaded.

No Direct X 11.1 is not anymore for Win7 available (without any technical reason). That means Microsoft does not support Win 7 anymore.

Yes there will security updates, but on purpose block some pieces of software that gamer will want in future isn't what I call support.

Time to learn about Linux I guess.

+1. Suggest you give it try unless you have just GOT to have Windows.

Office package and Adobe Photoshop are unbeatable.

Of course if need specialized software, technical or accounting software, than there is no way around Windows.

(What I don't understand, because specially as office OS Linux would be better, safer, less games etc etc)

Office package? I hate it, I use OpenOffice, http://www.openoffice.org/why/ Very few people really need Adobe Photoshop, there are many other simpler, light weight programs available. I am 65, not a genius and took about two days to learn Linux using an old computer.

If you work with others who all use Office and a producing corroborated documents and spreadsheets etc, other office projects don't work 100%, so why waste time?

Don't forget to buy MS Office online at the MS Online shop as Win8 supposedly needs a new copy only available online.

Though I take everything PC World says with a pinch of salt, I do rather concur, having run Office 2013, they disappointment with Word 2013. I have also decided not to upgraded to Office 2013 as it seems to suck as much as Win8 albeit less so and with a few added goodies I think it is missing so much from 2010 version it will be a waste of my time using it for anything productive. So its Win7 and Office 2010 for me, and I always used to enjoy upgrading in the past as soon as a new version of either o/s or Office came out, not this time.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027605/10-microsoft-word-2013-headaches-and-how-to-cure-them.html

Thanks for all the comments and advice given on this thread.

Just to say that i took a trip to Pantip a few days ago and found that Windows 7 was still available there to buy, and also, there were a lot of computers still being sold with pre-loaded Windows 7. For how much longer, who knows, but reading all i have about Windows 8, i decided to take no chances and buy a laptop now. Considering it is an outgoing model with outgoing software, probably not the greatest deal and in normal circumstances - ie new product is better than the old - i would never have bought at this time, but these don't seem to be normal circumstances.

Anyway, very happy with both the laptop and Windows 7.

Thanks again everyone.