Hi and welcome to the forum
The short answer to your question seems to be
"Yes" at this point. I'm only running W7 occasionally, not all the time due to the large numbers of folks who upgraded to W10 via the free upgrade you mentioned. I only turn on these machines when I'm attempting to solve a customer problem over the phone.
A couple of suggestions you might try: 1.) You can go ahead and just leave the W10 running in
NON-ACTIVATED mode, as I do on several of my test machines. I currently have eight(8) W10 machines, and only 3 are currently
ACTIVATED. So unless you have certain legacy programs from the W7 era that absolutely
WON'T RUN in any W10 machine unless it's Activated, you can keep running in
NON-ACTIVATED mode as I do for awhile yet. That period is indefinite; Microsoft could pull the plug on that any time during this year 2017 or maybe never.
2.) You could install the free VMware or if you happen to have W10 Pro version (
NON-ACTIVATED), you could run Hyper-box Virtualware included with the W10 Pro; I haven't run it personally but several guys here have done so and compared it favorably to VMware. This would allow you to run a virtual W7 machine and install whatever legacy program you are running that doesn't like W10 whenever you want on the old Windows platform. Hopefully, anyway.
3.) You could also reinstall your W10 at your friend's house
[should you need to run ACTIVATED W10 to run your legacy program], using the new W10 free upgrade from Microsoft available from this link here:
Windows 10 free upgrade still open for some.. Thanks to our friend,
kemical one of our Admins for this!
Installing in this fashion would save you having to purchase a legit W10 license to Activate your W10 to run your old program.
Regarding
#3, I actually started a Project to validate how well this free upgrade (who knows how much longer Microsoft will make it available?) works. I've made excellent progress so far, and the 2nd computer I tried to do a W7->W10 upgrade worked perfectly and showed Activated!
Currently, I'm working on the W8.1->W10 free upgrade after having to purchase a legit W8.1 license for one of my old Test PCs. I also am working with a close colleague on having her independently test the free upgrades on both W7 & W8.1 Stay tuned for that 2nd result. Once my colleague completes her independent validation of the upgrade process; we are going to roll out W7/W8.1->W10AT upgrades to our local Computer Club members for folks who can't afford a full W10 upgrade. Seniors and low-income folks mostly. We''ll charge labor to do the upgrade, but the W10 upgrade is still free for now. Most repair shops are charging $130-$200 for this upgrade; I'm trying to do it for $40-$60.
Hopefully, it can save some folks some money and that might be a good way to go for you. You will need to do the upgrade at your friend's house as the W7-W10 upgrade I did took about
23 hours on a solid broadband cable connection
*Spectrum-Charter; 65Mpbs D/L*. Hope that gives you some insight.
Let us know how it goes.
<<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>>