It’s aimed mainly at government departments and businesses, and isn’t specific to Windows 7. The NCSC’s website suggests some “ short-term steps to take when you can’t move off out-of-date platforms and applications straight away”. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images Making sure your browser is up to date is one of the most important steps you can take. The British government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) told the BBC: “We would urge those using the software after the deadline to replace unsupported devices as soon as possible, to move sensitive data to a supported device and not to use them for tasks like accessing bank and other sensitive accounts.” That’s good advice. In this case, as with XP, there could be millions of relatively easy targets. Malware writers don’t normally target out-of-date operating systems, because they don’t usually have many users. As a result, some of the security holes in Windows 10 will also be present in Windows 7, but they won’t be patched. A lot of the code in Windows 10 goes back to Windows 7 and earlier versions. The malware industry analyses these patches to find the holes, and then looks for ways to exploit them. On the second Tuesday of every month, Microsoft releases security patches that should be installed automatically by Windows Update. There are reasons to be fearful, because of the way the malware industry works. It was so bad that Microsoft released a patch for XP, even though it was out of support. We saw how dangerous that can be when WannaCry took over unpatched PCs in the NHS and other places. Users will therefore be more vulnerable to malware attacks, particularly from “ ransomware”. Windows 7 had a long run don’t put yourself at risk because of it.įinally, I’d like to hear from you directly: What exactly did you love about Windows 7? What didn’t you like? I’ve prepared an open-ended survey you can respond to here.To begin with, Windows 7 will not stop working, it will just stop receiving security updates. And come February, it will need even more. Nearly 14 years after its release, Windows 7 is leaving support still in need of patches. You can’t merely patch and fix an operating system to make it more secure. But we forget too often about what we’ve had to deal with on our technology journey. Now, do the same kind of thing for other browsers on Windows 7.īottom line: change can be hard. Click OK twice, close IE, then open it back up. Check "Use a proxy for your LAN," then enter a bogus IP address so your system can’t browse the internet. Choose internet options and click on the Connections Tab. Open Internet Explorer (IE) and click on Tools. If you still plan on using Windows 7 after its end of life, I have to ask: What are you doing to protect and isolate your machine now? For Windows XP, I often set up a null proxy in Internet Explorer so it couldn’t go online after left support. An Android tablet, or even an iPhone, has a better protected browser environment than an older unpatched Windows operating system. Websites and cloud applications are often used by attackers to gain access to your data, so think long and hard about how you access the internet. I once again urge users (you know who you are) to move to a supported system with a modern web browser that can better protect you. But don’t gloss over the fact that Windows 7 will get increasingly hard to maintain and use, as will ensuring you have a backup software vendor that supports it. 0patch plans to keep providing targeted updates to Windows 7. That said, there are still options for Windows 7 users, including 0patch to monitor and review for security issues going forward. Since then, Microsoft has hardened and changed the Windows update servicing stack to no longer support SHA1, making it a painful process to cleanly install Windows 7. Remember Windows 7 and 8.1 are the last operating systems to offer up security-only non-cumulative updates (along with a security and non-security monthly bundle). Because I lived that process for so many years, I cringe at having to relive it. Often at, I’m asked to document how to get Windows 7 from SP1 to completely patched, which means dealing with hundreds of updates. I find it much easier to do a repair install on Windows 10 - or even a clean installation of Windows 10 or 11 - than I do for Windows 7. While I admit that both Windows 10 and 11 sometimes drive me slightly crazy, one thing I don’t miss about Windows 7 are its installation and patching issues.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |