Support for Windows 7

Here's one that flashed up whilst I was doing something yesterday, using W10. Started with a quick flash of a woman in a compromising position, which got me suspicious, followed by the screenshot below. Surprised me as I was looking at stuff on another question raised by someone on the forum and hadn't gone to any suspicious sites or clicked on any links. This froze the Edge browser and couldn't do anything else in it. But being aware I closed it down with Ctrl - Alt- Delete and using Task Manager. Have passed the site link on to those who can do something about it.

View attachment 1245093
Do you suspect it was probably a rogue malicious ad on an otherwise legitimate website?
 
Do you suspect it was probably a rogue malicious ad on an otherwise legitimate website?
Yes I think it was that and I might have just accidentally clicked on it whilst not paying 100% attention. I have the details of the malicious site itself but not how I got to it. Will take a deeper look at history to see if I can determine anything pre that site. It concerns me as I'm usually ultra cautious.
 
Yes I think it was that and I might have just accidentally clicked on it whilst not paying 100% attention. I have the details of the malicious site itself but not how I got to it. Will take a deeper look at history to see if I can determine anything pre that site. It concerns me as I'm usually ultra cautious.
I browse quite a lot on my phone, & every now again whilst on legit tech news/gaming sites, I get redirected to those annoying “Congratulations, you’ve won a prize on your iPhone...’ pop up windows.

Really annoying 😤
 
I browse quite a lot on my phone, & every now again whilst on legit tech news/gaming sites, I get redirected to those annoying “Congratulations, you’ve won a prize on your iPhone...’ pop up windows.

Really annoying 😤

I've been lucky on that front so far. Sadly I don't think it will ever improve no matter what we try to do to stop these diabolical people doing what they do, save lock them up on an island with no technology whatsoever.
 
No need to do anything because support has stopped doesn't mean the OS is useless.

It's all scare tactics to force remainers to Win10.
Suppose an exploitable flaw is found in Windows. Bad guys realise the flaw and are going to exploit it. The flaw is patched in later versions of Windows. It's still there in Windows 7. And won't be patched.

So carry on using Windows 7 and it will work, however whatever Windows patches from now on won't be patched in Windows 7 and will be a weak spot.

Stay off the Internet with it.
 
...so how safe is Windows 7 now that official support has ended?

From the articles I have read (BBC and other various news sites) they suggest to NOT do online banking or even use email on a Windows 7 machine (my office is 90% STILL using Windows 7) ?!!

Does this mean its now no longer safe to even access online email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, etc...?!

o_O

However, that doesn’t mean Windows 7 will stop working on January 14 2020 – you’ll still be able to use Windows 7 for as long as you want. So the good news is that you’re not going to wake up on January 15 to find your Windows 7 PC no longer boots up.

But just because you can continue to use Windows 7 in its End of Life status, it doesn’t mean you should.

The biggest issue with continuing to use Windows 7 is that it won't be patched for any new viruses or security problems once it enters End of Life, and this leaves you extremely vulnerable to any emerging threats.

What's more, if a large number of people continue to use Windows 7 after the End of Life date, that could actually be a big incentive for malicious users to target viruses and other nasties at WIndows 7.
 
...so can I also just clarify a couple of points.

Ok, so Windows 7 POTENTIALLY will not be safe going forward as support has now ended, which basically gives an open invitation to hackers, BUT, what about working inside Google Chrome in Windows 7? I know Google has stated that they will continue to support Chrome even after MS end Windows 7 support but isn't this a contradiction in terms?! Are they saying Chrome is still safe to use even though Windows 7 is now open to hackers....?!


An operating system provides code to do all sorts of common tasks. There's nothing to stop a program implementing it's own code for those tasks, but sharing the effort with the operating system developers mean more work on the program-specific code can get done.

So in the case of chrome it might ask windows to do the basic internet communication with the server, then do the webpage specific communication itself. And once it has the data for the website it'll likely use windows code when processing it, such as calling upon windows code to help draw some of the graphics.

While using a supported browser (Chrome) instead of an unsupported browser (Internet Explorer) will cut down on the possibility of an open security hole existing long enough to be exploited, because the ones in the browser code are being patched, it's still worse odds than on a supported OS.
 
Ok i'm nervous now, i have one machine still running Win 7 its a Lenovo X131e with an i3 processor 1.4 GHZ, i have upgraded memory to 8 GB and fitted it with a 256 GB SSD, AV is Malwarebytes Premium, i have a lot of programmes on it Logitech Media Server, Foobar and others that took ages to configure to work together, would i be able to upgrade it to 10 in such a way the programmes would remain, it has a readable W7 licence key sticker.

Thanks in advance for any advice Chris
 
Logitech Media Server
Nervous about what, you don't have to upgrade to W10 you just need to make sure you keep your eye on your machine as time progresses.

If you want to upgrade to W10 , "others that took ages to configure" is insufficient information to make an informed opinion on what you would need to do or if W10 would support the "others" Your machine is definitely capable.
 
I am nervous about it becoming vulnerable to attack, opinion seems to be divided as to whether or not it will, or whether it might be in weeks months or years, the only consensus seems to be that on a balance of probabilities Win 10 as the future unfolds will LIKELY be less vulnerable to attack, i have never been much of a gambler, due to being generally unlucky, so would rather play safe.

It took me ( i am not brilliant with software ) some effort and quite a bit of help to get Logitech media server and foobar with upnp add on to work as a media renderer to stream spotify bit perfect to an offboard dac, that might be simple to you, but it wasn't to me, the machine has a whole load of other programmes on i would prefer not to have to reinstall them all, they all work in Win 10, which was why i was asking if it is possible to upgrade to Win 10 whilst leaving the programmes intact.

If you feel it is safe to carry on long term with Win 7 then i would love to do that on this one machine, but if not, just as well do the upgrade now, sorry for long reply.

Chris
 
@rallychief I would always recommend taking a full backup before making any major system change - just in case.
I use Macrium Reflect (free). This app will create for you a full system image - you will need an external drive big enough for all your data - plus a bootable medium which includes a portable very basic version of Windows (WindowsPE).
So - download the app, including WinPE. Create your backup and the recovery media.
Install Win10 as an upgrade.
Test it. If it doesn't retain your functionality (it should, but it just may not) and you can't get it all to work as you want by further tweaking - you can boot the machine from an external drive and use the WinPE environment to restore your full HDD from the image.
 
As always and if you have critical files we recommend taking a backup of the system.
In general the upgrade process goes pretty smoothly and normally all the programmes that are compatible are upgraded in the process. Those that are incompatible are usually flagged before you commit to the upgrade - the media upgrade tool analyses your system for potential incompatibilities. If you run into problems your are rarely left with an unbootable machine, usually the system will roll back to windows 7, and this is always an option even after a successful upgrade for the next 10days to give you a chance to roll back if needed. I have checked on the logitech media server website (squeezebox.com) and the software is compatible with windows 10
 
Ok thanks everybody for the great advice, i always take a backup image of my machines onto a 3.5 hard drive once a month ish, so worst case 4 weeks of updates to do, so i will have a go at upgrade to Win 10 next few days, and report back

Cheers Chris
 
I'll say again: do an image last thing right before you start to tinker with it. Even if it's out of "schedule".
 
Understand what your saying about it not being easy for you to do what you have done on W7, ot all user find such stuff easy.

IMHO you are concerning yourself over something you really don't have to. Your W7 will probably run for years without issue and you just have to realize that there will be no further updates to it by Microsoft. You will also need to make sure that all you do on the net is done with security in mind and to do that you need to ensure your AV and Firewall are always updated.

Somewhere in the future you might well have to upgrade to W10, but note that is a might, no one is saying you have too. So the easiest way to figure out if it will work for you is to do the research on what you have on your system, as far as programs go, and what hardware might or might not be affected by
 
Thanks techquest and for your pm, it is very much appreciated, as i don,t run an anti virus per se, although i think Malwarebytes Premium does that function, i am not sure if it has it's own firewall, if not would i be relying upon the Windows one, which i am assuming updates would cease for.

An interesting side note, the Win 7 machine got security updates on the 16th Jan, 2 days after the due date of cessation .

Cheers Chris

Cheers Chris,
 
The update you got was possibly the last one, who knows with MS :)

Sadly Malwarebytes doesn't have a firewall but you can use it with other AV's and Firewall programs. I would look into a substitute for your windows and AV firewall anyway, it's not worth the risk of using them on an ongoing basis if your staying with W7.
 
i was asking if it is possible to upgrade to Win 10 whilst leaving the programmes intact.

Possibly not.

It's down to the individual programs as to how they interpret settings for features that may have changed in functionality between operating systems.

As it's a one time transition a lot of developers will not put in extensive effort to make sure every possible configuration is covered. It's just not a good use of development time, especially for small or volunteer run projects

Thanks techquest and for your pm, it is very much appreciated, as i don,t run an anti virus per se, although i think Malwarebytes Premium does that function, i am not sure if it has it's own firewall, if not would i be relying upon the Windows one, which i am assuming updates would cease for.

An interesting side note, the Win 7 machine got security updates on the 16th Jan, 2 days after the due date of cessation .

End of support was the late date at which security updates are published rather than the date on which the update servers shut down. They'll continue to run for a while so people can get the last updates.
 
Hi,

You will still get any updates that were released before the cutoff date..

At times Microsoft will release a security update to discontinued OS's because of the severity of the risk.. So you will still receive all updates that were ever released... Even years from now..
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom