[fChk]

I remember having posted something about preparing the transition to a Linux Desktop distribution 4/5 years ago in the FFS forums. Indeed!.. Ever since I became aware of the path M$ has chosen for its OSes (post-Win7), I decided that Win7 will be my last production-wise Windows OS... Thus, we've parted ways since that period.

My current boot has become a graveyard of M$ OSes :-) The default path is grub2 bootloader -> Fedora
bootmanager -> Win7
           -> WinXP
           -> Win8.1
           -> Win10

As a result, I'll still be using Win7 when needed (as I'm still using WinXP when I need to.) Nothing really changes for me. My occasional use of M$ OSes is mainly for testing legacy stuff on EOL systems or developmental purposes on Win8.1 and Win10. Production-wise: impact 0.

Also for the geeks around, would like to know what the worst case scenario will be with sticking with Windows 7 when it's no longer supported by Microsoft.

The potential danger is when online; otherwise, it's all good. If I have to give an advice, I would suggest you to install a desktop Linux distribution that you're comfortable with and, by using KVM virtualization, you setup your Windows 7 VM where you have to keep all your legacy applications till you find native Linux alternatives.

If you really want to stick with your current system, I would suggest to convert it to a VHD VM then convert it to a QEMU disk image (qcow2) which you would then use in KVM. It's a bit advanced stuff but doabale with the right assistance/guidelines.