As Windows 7 has just over a year of security updates to go I thought I'd re-install it from an image.  The restore failed with various error messages saying image or disk was invalid. So, I thought I'd re-install from scratch which went very smoothly.  Then the activation worked on the third attempt.  The updates server worked on the third attempt as well & downloaded about 1 gb of updates which installed o.k.

Then I needed to get a printer driver from HP.  For at least 30 minutes I got the bad gateway 502 error.  Once their website came up again the download was fine.  Printer installed fine.

This had all taken most of the evening & I started to think why am I wanting to use Windows 7 again?  Is there any good reason for me to use Windows when Ubuntu, Mint, or Xubuntu do everything I want with fewer hassles.  For example instead of struggling to get into the HP support site & get a driver download of 202mb, to install the same printer in Ubuntu takes literally 5 seconds from when you turn the printer on.

Anyway, this morning I have just trashed every copy & image of Windows 7 and W10 & even the motherboard drivers DVD.  The  whole lot has been put in the trash can literally.  I am now back to using Xubuntu 16.04.3 

Who knows if I will be forced to use Windows again when I get the next motherboard - I hope not!