For those who continue with Win 7 - good article

Came across this well written article for those who plan on using Win 7 after support ends...

https://www.pcworld.co​m …ecurity-updates-stop.html

It is rather well-written, but the article only reiterates many of the points
which have been made for a very long time already.

The take-away from it would be to continue to be vigilant and use
best-practice measures which have been advised for several years now.
Most everyone is well familiarized with the points of the article.

I coasted along on XP for a few years after they ended support for it,
and had no trouble.

The only mention I'd argue against would be using Norton for AV and other protection.

My experience with it has shown it to be an infection unto its own,
with standard removal procedures rendering Windows systems unstable
at best, and dead at worst. A healthcare-systemwide failure rendered
PCs and servers unstable after an update, requiring a massive effort
of fixing then deploying an alternative. It wormed its way so far into
OS workings that removal effectively rendered Windows non-functional
on client and server systems. It ended up being destructive.
Nasty stuff, Norton is.

SkedAddled wrote in post #18992150
Nasty stuff, Norton is.

Yeah, on our household desktop PC (Win10 Home 64-bit), Norton is no longer even loaded as an installed program (it came as an HP factory load program), yet it persists in popping up a notification and telling my wife that our Norton subscription is out of date and needs to be renewed!

I don't know why my dad has always been a Norton loyalist....even though when I visited my folks over Christmas, he was telling me he found out he was having a problem and it wound up being Norton Utilities. My mom has had even worst problems with it. She's a literal Luddite (she has physically destroyed 2 computers out of frustration). She needs something simple....so she gets frustrated when Norton has its pop ups and immediate updates. I was using Norton way back in the 486 days....back then, it was helpful: actually was able to repair a hard drive once.

I use Malware Bytes for adware, CC Cleaner for optimizer, and Windows Defender for overall anti-virus. Defender itself isn't a bad anti-virus program that's included in Windows. I like doing scans at my own time. Something like Norton just seems like bloatware.

I am going to use my WIN7 desktop PC until it stops functioning. My last two cars had well over 200,000 miles on them (267k and 249k) when wrecked them. I will continue to drive this PC until the wheels fall off. It works for me.

Lol. I updated my laptop from XP to win 7 only in 2018. Still running as dual OS boot.
Don’t know if it is in article, but it is possible to get corporate win 7 support from ms in 2020.

And Norton of any sort went crap long time ago. It has been ditched at my ex-customers sites.

Thanks folks for the warning about Norton.

Sorry about being redundant with this topic, but I know a few people who plan on continuing on with Win 7. Of course, people on this sub forum are experienced with computer technology.

Myself, I have a several y.o. Win 7 notebook. I have decided to buy a Win 10 machine and only use my current one offline. According to internet articles, some feel third party AV software isn't enough to protect Win 7, without MS security patches.

Time to go shopping for a Win 10 system.

PentaxShooter wrote in post #18992246
I am going to use my WIN7 desktop PC until it stops functioning. My last two cars had well over 200,000 miles on them (267k and 249k) when wrecked them. I will continue to drive this PC until the wheels fall off. It works for me.

I think the problem may be, that without MS security patches, Win 7 will be very vulnerable to malware, even with 3th party AV software.

I think for a lot of people, their malware is limited to adware and such from internet browsers. From time to time, tech sites will also highlight hardware vulnerabilities...in an ideal world, it would be good to update and protect against anything....but it's always hard to ascertain actual odds of infection. For example, ILOVEYOU is considered one of the most virulent viruses: it was embedded in a text file and opened by many people (many Windows users didn't even know it was a txt when their known extensions were hidden).

But tech sites do seem to like to raise the most concerns with the hardware vulnerabilities that are found---one of the more recent ones are Meltdown and Spectre. This is a particular weakness found in Intel processors and during ensuing months, OSes were patched. So if there was an instance like this....which needed a patch from OS, then that would be an example of being OS specific. But most malware is cache centric and something AV software guards against.

Another good article for those that wish to continue with Win 7 is at https://www.howtogeek.​com …windows-7-system-in-2020/.

As an aside, I personally like Norton and have used it, or products named Symantec, for about 15 to 20 years, and on multiple computers. I was first acquainted with Symantec and its products through an employer whose IT department selected the product for several thousand PC’s. Yes, I do get the occasional reminder that there are some updates or pending scan but my product is set that I chose when these events actually occur. All I get is a small yellow exclamation point in my tray over the Norton icon.

When you think about what any antivirus/anti-malware product is to do, I would rather have it be automatic with respect to update availability notification, than no notification and thus relying on the user to initiate a check. If something has to be done to find and install an update, more often than not it won’t be done raising the issue of a problem. Like the flu shot, everyone out there that doesn’t get one puts me at risk. I get about a half-dozen emails a year from people I know and the content has been flagged by my AV/AW. Protecting yourself protects others!

As some may have read, my solution was to set up a dual boot option with Windows and and my legacy Windows 7 install.

Currently this is working well. The assumption is that eventually I will no longer need access to the old & install, but in the mean time as I put together the 10 set up, I have a never fall back. I will turn be turning off network adapters etc, in the Windows 7 install, to prevent any issues there.

So much Norton hating. I have used several products over the years and they all seem to work fine as long as you work withing their design parameters. The only failure I have has was on my aunt's PC. She was running Avast or AVG, can't remember which I had loaded on her PC. Right now I have Norton Security Premium basically because it allows for 10 licenses and i have quite a few PCs in the house. Doesn't seem very annoying, about the only thing I see is a reminder when it's renewal time and one week or so, it pops up a status window, otherwise it just does it's thing in the background.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #18992929
As some may have read, my solution was to set up a dual boot option with Windows and and my legacy Windows 7 install.

My solution was to buy this...

https://www.dell.com …90/spd/xps-15-7590-laptop

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #18992256
I think the problem may be, that without MS security patches, Win 7 will be very vulnerable to malware, even with 3th party AV software.

Unless you're running it as a server OS, exposed to the Internet, the danger isn't that great unless you have a room temperature IQ. The primary route of infection would be either email or web browsing. Chrome and Firefox are still being updated on Win7. uBlock Origin is a far more effective security device than people expect. You shouldn't be running IE anyway. Don't use Outlook 2007 and don't open attachments or click random links. Sure, you could get infected by a worm on your own LAN, but if you have a worm on your LAN, you're already owned.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #18993014
My solution was to buy this...

https://www.dell.com …90/spd/xps-15-7590-laptop

Excellent choice. I got the same unit with 16gb ram. Works great.