Are towers powered by older versions of Windows still usuable and compatible?

What are you planning to use these computers for? Older computers should be fine for browsing the internet and word processing.

If it were me, I would load up a Linux distro as the OS on these machines.

Check out these gadgets

https://www.amazon.com/Xtra-PC-Turbo-32-outdated-like-new/dp/B01MZAUQXR

I would like to use the internet on the older towers like I did with my last tower before it conked out.

Thank you. I just meant can I plug in my older computer towers and use then now?

If you are willing to spend a little bit of money, I recommend replacing the motherboard/CPU/RAM, which would upgrade the tower into a modern machine.

But Max's Linux suggestion would work too. Linux should work even on older hardware. And yes, you will be able to access the internet on an older system by using Linux.

However, you'd have to learn how to use Linux.

There are also lots of different versions of Linux. I don't know enough about Linux to point you in the right direction on that front. You'd want something that is both user friendly and lightweight enough to work on older hardware.

Maybe get one of those black and yellow "for Dummies" books. I'm sure there is a "Linux for Dummies" out there.

The last tower I used before it conked out was powered by Windows 8.1. I have a friend who is a computer expert. She told me it's not worth it to try to get that tower fixed; she said I need a new PC altogether.

I forgot - my monitor is broken. There are too many colored bands of light that pop up on the screen when you turn it on. 😞

LOL just got the microsoft warning pop up that my most up to date computer a Windows 7 netbook is now out of support an I should buy a newer computer or update to windows 10 at least.

Not too concern as most of my systems are still running Window XP without a problem.

Suggest however that you might wish to run the now free sandboxie program when on the internet to keep anything evil from reaching your systems from the internet.

footnote like with XP there is now a hack to allow windows 7 to continue to get security updates for a few years.

So long as the upgrade is free and it works on your hardware, I'd advise going for it.

Just maybe choose the spring 2019 version instead of the fall 2019 version if you upgrade immediately. Or wait until they get the bugs worked out of the fall 2019 version.

Just read that the NSA found one hell of a security hole in last version of windows 10 so the idea that windows 10 is all that must more secure then other versions of windows seems not to be water tight.

With special note of when the owners take normal precautions.

It's not much of a security hole. It's not easily weaponizable, which is why the NSA warned people about it instead of keeping it for themselves.

I'm keeping an eye on the situation, but at the moment I'm still waiting to patch, just to make sure there are no bugs in the patch.

If the "security hole" does become a problem (unlikely), a patch is readily available. So it's no big deal.

There don't seem to be any bugs in the patch. I guess I'll patch now.

All patched. While I was at it, I moved from 1809 to 1903 as well.

I don't like the new lighter blue default background with 1903.

I've been too lazy to bother switching my computer background until now, but this bothered me enough to switch it.

I picked this for my new background image:
https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21046

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3518439/the-perils-of-shouting-fire-in-a-crowd-of-pc-patchers.html