Your system will not download any more fixes, security updates or issue support.
It also means that software you have loaded will no longer be supported.

All things will continue to work as they stand. But if something goes wrong, there is no longer support.

New programs will no longer be written that will support Win 7

and I'm going to buck up and update to 10.....soon.

Dive in and upgrade; Windows 7 will soon become a thing of the past, much like Windows XP.
You do not want to use an OS that does not have security updates and upgrades, it would be like committing cyber suicide.

and it became just a jumble on the screen and I got locked into Cortana and couldn't get out. I hope it's better now.

On my personal machine. I had been using it at work for some time but wasn't liking it. Eventually I had time at work to spend understanding it better. Now I'm starting to really like it, its a lot like windows 7 under the hood, but improved. If you want to have a great reference for it, (a little technical in places but I think he strikes the right balance) look at this: https://www.tweakhound.com/2015/12/09/tweaking-windows-10/

Also at tweakhound they do a good job of reporting in general on windows issues.

I appreciate the info.

...more and more using it to host Ubuntu in a virtual window. I think Microsoft and the other software biggies are going the way of Adobe's Photoshop -- you don't posess the software in any form and they let you use it how and when they decide, and you're in trouble if you can't connect to the cloud. And, oh yeah, collecting data and reporting it.

If you don't use your computer online, you will be perfectly fine using your existing programs for as long as you like.

But...if you're an internet user, this will happen;

-After a year or two your browser will no longer update

-When this happens, you will find certain things on the internet don't work; ie pages won't render, media won't play, images won't load

I speak from first hand experience, because I gave Win7, Vista and Win 8 a big miss and stuck with an installation of XP for many years after it had outlived its functional usefulness.

Granted, I have more than one computer and the operating systems reflect the years they were purchased. But I still loved my old XP for day to day use. Until....one day I just became totally tired of work-arounds and decided to go TEN and get it over with.

So, these are decisions you need to make for yourself; what are you prepared to miss out on to retain Win 7?

On the plus side, with a helluva lot of tweaking, Win10 is the best operating system Microsoft has made. There are many ways to make is look and act like XP or Win 7, and a large range of built in features that can easily be disabled. (fuck off cortana!)

If you are ready to not accept Win 10 'out of the box' and are prepared to do some fiddling to make it work as you like, I believe you will be happy with the change. Please feel free to msg. me if you would like more information.