Then again, frequent image backups would mitigate that possibility: you could nuke the infected partition and replace it with a backup. Because your Windows OS would be offline, it would not be getting up-to-date malware protection, so it wouldn’t be protected against hidden malware scrambling your files. The only concern I have about an always-offline Windows system is if you were to receive or download an infected file on your Linux system that you then copied over to the Windows side and tried to open. (Anybody reading this who knows otherwise, please do correct me.) In all of these cases, it looks like deactivation of your Windows 7 key may not be much of an inconvenience even if it occurs. And even the security fixes are coming to a stop after January 2020. via your Linux machine and then copy them over to the Windows partition for installation.Īgainst the possibility of your Windows installation breaking down, you can make frequent image backups of the Windows partition so that you can slide the latest one in as a full replacement for the broken-down Windows installation.Īnd in terms of improvements to Windows itself, when it comes to Windows 7 you won’t be dealing with those because Win7 is in “extended support,” meaning no new features, only security fixes. You might even be able to download drivers etc. So in both of these cases you won’t be dealing with Windows licensing/activation issues, since MS is out of the loop. The same goes for important improvements for third-party applications: you’ll be getting those from them and not from MS. Here’s a possible approach in light of the scenarios that you listed:įor driver updates, you’re generally better off getting them from the manufacturer than from Microsoft.

Windows 7 activation product key