I don't think I will be interested in a Win7 PC, but there's definitely future potential there. Win10 will have changed things a lot ten years from now. 'Always online', cloud based infrastructures and service based licensing will work against preservation.

My Windows 7 retro rig is already built. But I'm using it as my main rig at the moment. 🤣

Q9550 on Asus P5Q Premium
4GB DDR2 RAM
Asus GTX 560 1GB
etc.

Well, depends on how badly I want to play Skyrim when I'm 80 years old, I guess, if I'm not dead by then 🤣

But for your average 15 year old kids with their first PC being win7 machines, I can imagine them building retro win7 machines 30 years from now. Which is much longer for something to be "retro" compared to the DOS stuff, since I imagine compatibility with current software is going to be much better compared to DOS/Win3 stuff. A lot has changed in the last 20 years. I doubt as much will change in the next 20. Probably only a fraction will be different. Going from windows 10 to windows 20 is not as drastic as going from DOS 6 to Windows 7. But you never know, of course. Maybe the switch away from x86 (and x86-64) is much closer than people imagine perhaps. Who knows.

(Just FYI my practices) I don't upgrade because some corporate entity wants me to. I have to have an actual need. My main machines were running W2k through 2014 because I didn't need anything newer and over the years I have collected loads of software for it. The needs that inspired upgrading were that the current SeaTools wouldn't work on it anymore (dot-NET issues), viewing on-line videos became problematic, and some logins (banks, merchants, etc..) choked on the lastest W2k compatible Firefox versions. I still keep W2k on some off-line machines for specific softwares. - Currently I use XP on my main machines. Even though I've had W7 for them for years I haven't come to a need great enough to bother upgrading yet. There is one non-temporary machine running W7 for my wife's use because she needs compatibility with some proprietary software used by her employer.

So, I'm perpetually in retro mode already. At some point that will be Win7

IMHO many things cloud based are bad.
Questionable security (because of cost cutting measures or incompetence) exposes you to Identity Theft risks.
Collects 1000's of people's 'stuff' in one place making it a huge easy to find target that would make any hacker drool.
W10 and the softwares MS wants to attach to it are cloud based. - I pass.

Also if I can't activate and use an OS without a connection (including a phone and internet) I don't want it.
If I can install it now without those things then I can install it 30 years from now when those things might not exist anymore.

I don't foresee ever using anything from MS newer than W7 except for possibly one machine (on an isolated LAN segment) to support my wife's employer.
I might be able to get around that anyway by using Linux, I haven't checked.

I taught the wife how to use Linux a few years ago in anticipation of a need to abandon MS and Windows.
She had it down for the kinds of things she does on a PC in 2 evenings of after work sessions. Not a problem.

As to games that require connectivity to play.
I have never and probably will never buy one.
If it was free and not a bandwidth hog I might play one but I'm really not that into the idea so I have never looked.
.
.
I dunno how accurate it was but recently read something that said Win10 was going to be MS's last OS.
It said MS was planning to evolve it indefinitely rather than coming out with an upgrade version.
And that MS plans to make their big money through the cloud services they sell that support the OS rather than the OS itself.
.

Already did, both are Pentium M machines and they run Win7 rather well. Time will tell but I think Win7 will become popular for retro in five to ten years for the general public in small numbers at first.

Scary to think how much win 9x and XP era retro gear is going to cost by then.

My dual Socket-1366 Xeon SR-2 rigs will continue to run Windows 7 even after 2020, I do not think I will ever sell them so I guess they are my future retro rigs.

Year 2020 (if not sooner) when the Windows 7 extended support ends something will have to replace the SR-2 system I use as main rig. The new system will not run Windows! By 2020 I hope the alternatives are more competitive when it comes to gaming than they are today.

nforce4max wrote:

Already did, both are Pentium M machines and they run Win7 rather well.

I did a Win7 on Pentium-M test machine a while ago. Had an i915 chipset.
Everything except the on-board (i915) video worked great.
I don't remember any other driver issues at all and it was a very easy build.
An add-in video card fixed everything.
.

I'm in the process of redoing my high-end (components are circa 2008) XP machine and wondered, since I've already got a 2004-based XP machine, maybe I should instead make this a low-end Win7 PC. I'm weighing my options, but what I might end up doing is have each OS on its own HDD (I don't like dual-booting). It would be nice to have a pristine Win7 install available, but part of me considers that too recent an OS to do that with. But as PCBONEZ alluded to, activation issues are annoying. What if I decide to activate this in 5 years and can't. Maybe I need to lay the bits down on the drive now to ensure I have access to it down the road. Lot's of really interesting scenarios to think about.

Will you ever build a Win7 retro PC?

No. I still haven't built one, so why would I change my habits so late on? The only things running Win7 are the Pentium D for compatibility until the new Workstation is up - it will be moved back to XP - and my laptop which will be moved to Windows 10 when I get new hard drives for it.

Elder rig i tried w7 was 478 P4 and Athlon XP,yes they can run it... and probably can be used as some kind of file server not more imo.

clueless1 wrote:

I'm in the process of redoing my high-end (components are circa 2008) XP machine and wondered, since I've already got a 2004-based XP machine, maybe I should instead make this a low-end Win7 PC. I'm weighing my options, but what I might end up doing is have each OS on its own HDD (I don't like dual-booting). It would be nice to have a pristine Win7 install available, but part of me considers that too recent an OS to do that with. But as PCBONEZ alluded to, activation issues are annoying. What if I decide to activate this in 5 years and can't. Maybe I need to lay the bits down on the drive now to ensure I have access to it down the road. Lot's of really interesting scenarios to think about.

Or you could be like the rest of us and have multiple systems 😉

Build win7 retro rig? As long as my DX10 and DX11 games work on win10 and whatever will be next... no need for retro rig like that.
Period-correct machine is another matter. Unfortunately when win7 gains the "retro status", most of the appropriate HW will be already dead. Even now it is difficult (and expensive) to get for example working Nehalem board. How about 5 years from now? Next to impossible.

clueless1 wrote:

I'm in the process of redoing my high-end (components are circa 2008) XP machine and wondered, since I've already got a 2004-based XP machine, maybe I should instead make this a low-end Win7 PC. I'm weighing my options, but what I might end up doing is have each OS on its own HDD (I don't like dual-booting). It would be nice to have a pristine Win7 install available, but part of me considers that too recent an OS to do that with. But as PCBONEZ alluded to, activation issues are annoying. What if I decide to activate this in 5 years and can't. Maybe I need to lay the bits down on the drive now to ensure I have access to it down the road. Lot's of really interesting scenarios to think about.

Exploiting the SLP system by patching in a SLIC 2.1 table in the BIOS if it's not already there, and installing the corresponding OEM version of W7, will completely circumvent the online activation requirement. It might be in a legal grey zone, but at least I wouldn't have any bad conscience if MS disables online activation of retail W7 copies at some point.

nforce4max wrote:

clueless1 wrote:

I'm in the process of redoing my high-end (components are circa 2008) XP machine and wondered, since I've already got a 2004-based XP machine, maybe I should instead make this a low-end Win7 PC. I'm weighing my options, but what I might end up doing is have each OS on its own HDD (I don't like dual-booting). It would be nice to have a pristine Win7 install available, but part of me considers that too recent an OS to do that with. But as PCBONEZ alluded to, activation issues are annoying. What if I decide to activate this in 5 years and can't. Maybe I need to lay the bits down on the drive now to ensure I have access to it down the road. Lot's of really interesting scenarios to think about.

Or you could be like the rest of us and have multiple systems 😉

Haha! Let's see what I've got...
-Pentium 133 w/Voodoo3 PCI and DOS 6.22 (main retro DOS PC)
-Celeron 333 w/GeForce2 MX and DOS 6.22 (high-end DOS PC)
-Dell Dimension 4100 Pentium 933 w/GeForce FX5200 (main retro Win98SE PC)
-Pentium 4 2.53 w/Radeon 9800Pro (high-end Win98SE PC)
-Dell Optiplex GX270 Pentium 4 2.4 w/GeForce 6800GS AGP (circa 2004 WinXP PC)
-C2D E6700 w/GeForce 8800GTX and 4GB RAM (the PC in question)

So the last PC on my list can either be a a high-end period-correct 2008 XP PC or lowish-end period-correct Win7 PC (or both). I currently don't have another machine or parts that could be considered appropriate for Win7.

clueless1 wrote:

-C2D E6700 w/GeForce 8800GTX and 4GB RAM (the PC in question)

So the last PC on my list can either be a a high-end period-correct 2008 XP PC or lowish-end period-correct Win7 PC (or both). I currently don't have another machine or parts that could be considered appropriate for Win7.

I have some kind familiar project in process and its just my opinion but this is perfect for high-end XP machine anyway decide to you 🤣

rein_ein wrote:

clueless1 wrote:

-C2D E6700 w/GeForce 8800GTX and 4GB RAM (the PC in question)

So the last PC on my list can either be a a high-end period-correct 2008 XP PC or lowish-end period-correct Win7 PC (or both). I currently don't have another machine or parts that could be considered appropriate for Win7.

I have some kind familiar project in process and its just my opinion but this is perfect for high-end XP machine anyway decide to you 🤣

Yes, I am leaning that way too. 😀 Although, I may do a Win7 install on another HDD, activate it, then pull the drive and store it. Just in case down the road activation will be more difficult.

Perhaps I will be building Win7 retro pc's, when my children are like 25 or something.
Then I will be helping them, in building such machines.

clueless1 wrote:

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. XP (in my mind) seems to be "barely eligible" for retro status at this point.

I think this is true when it comes to Windows 7 🤣, but the definition of what actually is retro depends a lot on who you're asking 😜

The set definitions are a mess atm, wiki doesn't even mention 3DFX which of course is absurd. A clear definition by age would be easiest to implement and update, kinda like with cars.

It depends... will I ever be able to play something in Windows 7 and not on 8.1/10?