What are the real risks of End of Life support for Win 7?

I have a really naïve question. Without security updates to patch "holes" what is my real risk in Windows 7? What kind of "attacks" are so imminent? In my experience, most historical attacks occur when a user does something that they should have been more cautious about. That is to say, the best defense is an educated user being prudent with downloads, web sites, scripts, and the like. Other than that, what are the risks of not getting security updates/patches?

Let's start with this. I have a Win7 SP1 HP Pavilion that I use for select purposes. I run my old version of Photoshop, and maybe a legacy program here and there. It is connected to my home LAN with VPN to monitor home security cameras (dedicated IP's on the LAN) and occasionally, but rarely, open a Firefox browser page.

I have Norton Internet Security installed.

So basically, it's a machine on the LAN with shared resources, but not used for downloading or general web browsing.

For those uses, how concerned should I be about end of life support?

Silky said:

For those uses, how concerned should I be about end of life support?

I wouldn't worry at all.

Here's my opinion on this updates fallacy. Disable Your Windows 7 PC is Out of Support Full Screen Notification

After reading the link, I'm inclined to agree with your opinion. I'm interested in what dissenters, if any, have to say as well.



Appreciate the input.

I've been a computing enthusiast since 1985. My first computer was an AST Premium 286 which was the sh*t back then (3.5 in Floppy Drive and all). I've been a part of the whole transition from DOS to every OS released right up to current day. So I get that some people will be terrified at the prospect of "end of life" if they've only used Win7. Myself, I am not. I'm just trying to suss out the real risks of maintaining an older OS.

I hear "new threats are out there" and "systems become vulnerable". But I guess the premise I'm exploring by posting this thread is: Don't go into dangerous neighborhoods if you don't want to risk getting mugged or robbed or worse.

So if someone says, hey, by even being on your own LAN with firewall and router protection, you are still at risk of a malicious security exploit because....(fill-in-the-blank), that's helpful information. But it seems to me that vulnerability is more about behavior. I guess I'm asking, is there anything else?

If you don't mind a little digression, as I was reading F22 Simpilot thread reference I started looking into Sandboxie. I started some research to find out it's capabilities and can it do "this or that". In my research, I saw a few YouTube videos where some of the features were demonstrated. They were showing how you could use Sandboxie to go to these sites, download software, and install it willy nilly, and use Sandboxie to test install. But as I'm watching how these folks work, I see careless approaches to what web sites they visit, what software they download and careless installation. All of this points to behavioral issues - I would never approach computing that way. I also contend that there isn't a security patch in the world that could overcome irresponsible behavior.

I'm not saying anything about Sandboxie or its utility, that's not the point.

So it seems to me that given the posture a person like me takes when it comes to interfacing with the outside world, in concert with the limited use of my Win7 machine, there aren't any real security risks by not migrating that machine to Windows 10.

If the more experienced folks here, or other pundits suggest otherwise, I'm all ears.

I said sandbox the browser, not a program. And I probably also said upload ALL downloads to VirusTotal. Along with periodic disk clones you should be good to go. I don't even use an anti-virus. Haven't now for at least 4 years.

You may also want to use Sandboxie for the email client as well. But Sandboxie needs to be congigured correctly so that the browser's profile stays intact and the email client's profile. Otherwise on application close all is deleted. Nothing sticks. That's why if malicious scrips or something gets in your browser or email, it's deleted on exit. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.

I use Thunderbird as an email client and I also have it set never to load images by default or parse HTML content. If I get an attachment, depending on what it is, I'll scan it at VirusTotal. If it's a Windows scrip, etc do not download it. It will automatically execute. Files like .zip, etc can be downloaded and uploaded to VirusTotal. Email will look like hell without parsed HTML content and images, but in the long run your safe from a canary token or if you use PGP that won't get comprised, etc.

@F22 Simpilot I totally understand what you're saying and how you use sandboxie. And I appreciate the conversation.


What I take from this exchange so far is that in my particular use of the Win7 machine, in concert with my "behavior" with that machine, the end of life issue shouldn't affect me for some time to come.

Not really. But if you download something without scanning it and then move that download to this computer you could open a can of worms.

There's no reason why you can't continue to get security updates (for free). They are still available for W7 Business and Enterprise users who are willing to pay for them, but it is fairly easy to obtain them for home users at no cost.