Windows 7 and Internet Use

Reply to dg1261 #39
First of all thanks for responding then apologies for not paying enough attention when making my own post.
The actual update on my HPZ240 is KB4539601 not 602. That might not matter as I think they are much the same. The mention I made later re KB4539502 was a typo, it should have ended 602. However you have allayed my concerns and I need not uninstall anything.

During my (amateurish) research into all this a long time back I remember looking at something called Marie's be aware of KB-list or some such thing where all the W7 Telemetry updates were listed with an explanation of each. I just saved the numbers in a simple text file then uninstalled any that were present on my on computers. Someone there created a script program that contained them all making it easier for those who wished to use it. Someone else did point out later that all this may prove futile as Microsoft would simply reinstate them all again with their next round of updates. That is why I blocked all updates from Microsoft back then and that is still the same today.

Yes I was aware of the Simplix pack thing as it was also mentioned where I was looking and I have since looked at in MajorGeeks but the idea of first allowing Microsoft complete freedom to install anything they wished on my Win.7 computers would be an unacceptable route for me to go down.

As new posts on this topic seem to have ended I would like to thank everyone who has responded and provided so much information.

I have concluded that it is as safe to continue using Win.7 on the internet as it would be using any other Windows OS. I'm also heartened that there has not been a single incident reported that would contradict that view. I hope others will continue using Win.7 for all internet purposes where possible.

I use Win7 as my daily driver. Including daily internet use. Never had an issue.

If you have Windows Firewall turned on, and your PC is behind any consumer grade router without any port forwarding turned on, you are safe from 95% of attacks on the internet, even running no anti virus.

If you run MSE, that will get you up to 96%

If you never click a link in an email, ever, that will get you 98%

If you make a standard non administrator account and only log into that when using the PC, you are at 99.9%

Also Win7 benefits from security through obscurity. Viruses and malware attacks are going to target the dominant OS in the wild, which is Windows 10/11. A lot of the exploits and 0-days being released won't even work on Windows 7 because they target Windows 10/11 specific OS files/configurations that Win7 doesn't have.

sluggerb said:

I use Win7 as my daily driver. Including daily internet use. Never had an issue.

If you have Windows Firewall turned on, and your PC is behind any consumer grade router without any port forwarding turned on, you are safe from 95% of attacks on the internet, even running no anti virus.

If you run MSE, that will get you up to 96%

If you never click a link in an email, ever, that will get you 98%

If you make a standard non administrator account and only log into that when using the PC, you are at 99.9%

Also Win7 benefits from security through obscurity. Viruses and malware attacks are going to target the dominant OS in the wild, which is Windows 10/11. A lot of the exploits and 0-days being released won't even work on Windows 7 because they target Windows 10/11 specific OS files/configurations that Win7 doesn't have.

Great post there. I have also wondered about the "obscurity factor." you could argue that it applies to Vista, XP also. They are even more obscure.

Your other suggestions are also very helpful.

michael diemer said:

Great post there. I have also wondered about the "obscurity factor." you could argue that it applies to Vista, XP also. They are even more obscure.

Yep.

People really get worked up about virus and malware attacks on PC's without knowing how most of them work. For a drive by attack to happen, the attacker needs to get to your machine from the internet. If you are behind a router and don't have port forwarding enabled, they can't get to anything behind that router. That what a router does, it directs incoming traffic to a particular PC and if you don't tell it where to go it doesn't send it anywhere.

You know what the #1 attack vector for viruses is? Email attachments. People getting a spoofed email from someone in their contact list and telling them to look at this cute puppy dog video and they click on "CutePuppyDogs.exe" and click "Ignore" and "Yes" 10 times while their email client, AV, and OS all desperately tell them not to run the program, and it installs a backdoor on the PC. Any PC on earth will be compromised by that user behavior, regardless of OS or AV being used.