I wasn’t in on the other discussion. Any operating system which has needed this amount of manipulation to get people to upgrade... is obviously going in a bad direction. I have appreciated the efforts of Microsoft since long before Windows came out, but the last few years have been a complete embarrassment. Satya Nadella has a vision for the products produced that goes against what many of us want. It is creating an opportunity for those who would like to get back to the basics when it comes to operating systems.
I have a Windows 10 computer. I have had a computer with every Microsoft Operating System installed. My preference is still Windows 7. These days the hardware is so good that getting the latest and greatest is no longer necessary for a pleasant experience. The most demanding applications that I currently use are high definition video editing applications and 3-D Modeling programs for producing objects on our 3-D Printer. And I am having a hard time justifying purchasing a new computer even for those programs.
I view any new updates from Microsoft for Windows 7 with suspicion because I know that their desire is to faze it out. So their incentive to screw your system up is strong.
I hope you have Windows 7 as a Virtual Machine with updates turned off somewhere. That's going to be the only way you'll be able to run Windows 7 in the not too distant future.
Those of you who are technically capable should download the free VMWare Player software and learn how to create a Windows 7 Virtual Machine from your current Windows 7 PC's. Make several copies, don't rely on one. Turn updates off and keep safe copies.
I personally have WindowsXP through Windows 8.1 as Virtual Machines and have updates turned off on all of them. I also disable Networking via the VMWare interface so that none of them communicate via Internet. Anything I need to do with any of those OS' is completely isolated from the Internet and any software I'd need to install/configure/re-install etc.. I have copies of also "just in case."
Welcome to the future of computing.