Windows 7 Updates

Joined
Apr 22, 2015
Messages
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I had to do a fresh install of windows 7 x64 with SPI for my daughter who is in college. Since I have it installed fresh, now comes the question: should I simply turn off updates? She has ESET Internet Security and Malwarebytes installed and active. I just question the updates that are simply called "quality updates", and prior to GWX, MS began to include telemetry in their separate updates.
 
If you want to be even more open to exploits than you are with the updates, go ahead. Win7 is end of life, it's not going to be safe to use online at all. Especially in some college network which probably is zooming with worms and attacks, even from other students.
 
Windows 7 "maybe" extended since there are still lots of people using the OS. I wish I kept copies of those threads that they turned off updates to avoid the telemetry crap and other patches that caused issues. I also use Linux Mint 18.3 on my laptop that I'm tying this reply, but I also have a desktop with 7 on it that I plan to keep. I'm not really interested in windows 10 at this time.
 
Windows 7 is not EOL till January 2020. You're not helping, B00nie, not at all.
Well, extended support or not, Windows 7 is not safe to use online. Neither is any version of Windows for that matter.
 
Well, extended support or not, Windows 7 is not safe to use online. Neither is any version of Windows for that matter.


Dude.. just stop. It was old a long time ago. If you want to posts claims and continue your crusade to smear Windows, at least post some reliable sources. Just shit posting makes everyone look bad, even when people try and suggest Linux since they see posts like this and associate all of us it.
 
Dude.. just stop. It was old a long time ago. If you want to posts claims and continue your crusade to smear Windows, at least post some reliable sources. Just shit posting makes everyone look bad, even when people try and suggest Linux since they see posts like this and associate all of us it.
This is just one example of the fly-by vulnerabilities: https://thehackernews.com/2018/04/windows-patch-updates.html

There is a constant threat online for Windows users. Deliberately corrupted FONT on a website can compromise your whole Windows. So dude, just stop and start learning.
 
maybe you need to use something like never 10 to stop it from updating to 10, I'm not sure since I haven't turned on updates since maybe 4 years hehe (nothing wrong in 10 btw, i'm just too lazy to install it)
 
https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerab...n-7/cvssscoremax-7.99/Linux-Linux-Kernel.html

Or how about my all time favorites. Being able to access the root account without a password.

http://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/29/apple-fixes-root-password-bug-security-update/amp/

Well that’s windows, Linux, and OSX. Better just not use a computer at all.



There. I fixed it for you. Now you can go to the Linux sub forum and the Apple sub forum and shit post there. I'm so glad I "stopped and started learning". I don't know where I would be without the wealth of knowledge that comes from your posts.
So you posted a list of DoS capable bugs that give no access nor compromise confidentiality... LOL!

Confidentiality Impact None (There is no impact to the confidentiality of the system.)
Integrity Impact None (There is no impact to the integrity of the system)
Availability Impact Complete (There is a total shutdown of the affected resource. The attacker can render the resource completely unavailable.)
Access Complexity Medium (The access conditions are somewhat specialized. Some preconditions must be satistified to exploit)
Authentication Not required (Authentication is not required to exploit the vulnerability.)
Gained Access None


There's a 'small' difference to a vulnerability that requires physical access to the computer vs. an infection that you can get just by visiting a website and without clicking anything. Any random website is enough given it's been compromised or the ads it displays have been compromised. So Windows is never safe to use online.
 
And still.. you say this based on one already fixed vulnerability?!
Noone is saying windows is 100%safe online nor linux is nor any OS, nor that windows has less or equal number of vulnerabilities than other oses.
So you are right, windows is never (fully) safe, nor is Any OS ;).
Billions use windows every day online and the world is still spinning.
I use windows on many machines since 1996 with just one glitch in 2003 with Blaster and... I don't use antivirus software since 2004 at all!
Enough said
 
There's no way I'd use Windows without some form of AV at minimum, that's just flat out stupid. As for everyone claiming that they're too clever to fall victim to infection, does anyone else use your PC, ever?

Because I thought I was pretty clever until my wife wanted to install iTunes and clicked on the first result in a Google search, what she downloaded was far more interesting than iTunes and probably coded better.
 
If you ask me, no, never ever I let anyone using my PC, it'd be stupid :) . Of course I cannot trust anyone to keep my kind of hygiene and I know Windows is by nature an easy victim to "human error". For me AVs are more evil than good. We can talk about this for ages but not the place.
There's no way I just download a random software and install it on my work system, for tests or otherwise. And numerous other proactive measures, firewall and policies, virtual machines for all preliminary tests etc.
Buy a separate computer for your wife if you use your PC for anything important :) . If not important, then again, AVs just postpone what's inevitable :D .
My mother's computer uses Win7 installed in 2014. Funny enough, she have never fallen victim to anything even though she is still a "novice", first touched a keyboard some time in 2011. Just for people like you I sometimes take an image of my installation, mount in VMs with 2-3 antiviruses (in different VMs) and scan just to find how clean it is, not even a malicious cookie.
 
I had to turn off updates as my Win7 machine just stuck on the last batch. They fail and then it just repeats over and over. I tried lots of things including individual manual installation, clearing update service folder, etc.
 
You folks get how security holes get fixed right ?

Those exploits where in the wild for months. Ethical security firms report things and don't publish the info waiting for MS or which ever effected entity needs to fix things does. There are always 100s of unpatched nasty holes in windows... and the various browsers (but mostly the MS ones). To make matters worse the best of the best tend to hold that info so they can use it in pwn contests to take things like windows 10 or Edge down in a couple seconds.

I am not saying its unsafe to use windows 7.

But I will say it is very much unsafe to use any version of windows on an admin privileged account. If your using any version of windows on such an account, don't be silly. Stop. Depending on the study.... 90-95% of all windows vulnerabilites are rendered useless if you adhere to the simplest of security habits. Do Not Run as admin while your online.

Yes their are exploits in every system... every system but windows does a good job of ensuring users are not using full access accounts. As much as I would love to blast MS... the real issue is the stupidity of the majority of its users. MS in their defense have setup non admin accounts as defaults... and people that should know better tend to elevate their accounts. Silly.
 
There's no way I'd use Windows without some form of AV at minimum, that's just flat out stupid. As for everyone claiming that they're too clever to fall victim to infection, does anyone else use your PC, ever?

Because I thought I was pretty clever until my wife wanted to install iTunes and clicked on the first result in a Google search, what she downloaded was far more interesting than iTunes and probably coded better.

Was it GlazTunes... mother Russias #1 Muzyka player ? :)
 
Another good security tip. Use open source software whenever you can... and learn to compile it yourself. Its fun and informative. :)
 
Most (or great number) vulnerabilities depend on a point of failure located at the system already. Either a local "atacker" or software already present on the machine. If you are conscious enough with the use of the computer for your important stuff and activities/work, and you update regularly, you are pretty much safe with any current OS.
Me and all my relatives, acquaintances etc. have never (or that I know of) heard of infection or anything happening with their PC or stuff. For years. And we do not use AVs, just firewalls, policies and common sense. Yes there are some risks, but the practice shows for so many years that this was enough for so many machines. We use Administrator everywhere :) . Well, I wouldn't advocate this for the average "stupid" user of course.
Open source software can be slow to fix things as well, even more so. The fact it's open source is not any guarantee for a much safer software at all! Compared to shareware etc.
 
The only way to rid Windows of it's massive infection issue is to limit the download of software via a central, curated software repository. The ironic thing is, Windows users are dead against the idea. The reason they're dead against the idea is they know Microsoft will exploit it, and yet they will argue until they're blue in the face that Microsoft is the greatest organization to ever exist.

Arch users appear to be considered all knowledgeable and Linux users in general are hell bent on freedom, yet Arch users love their central repository, in most cases it's the sole reason they use Arch.
 
Normal users are not dead against anything. I use android on my phone and like the idea of a central store. I use it exclusively to find and install apps. Well, I don't use my phone for anything work-related or improtant besides phone calls.
On the other hand, Windows' strength has always been its wealth of available software from different authors. I don't like the idea to be constrained to a central store in Windows, and this is just practical. This is more freedom than be constrained to a centrally managed store. On Android I also can install from apk if I just flip an option.
If someone cannot resist the temptation to download malware from the internet and try it out, it's hi/her fault.
 
Normal users are not dead against anything. I use android on my phone and like the idea of a central store. I use it exclusively to find and install apps. Well, I don't use my phone for anything work-related or improtant besides phone calls.
On the other hand, Windows' strength has always been its wealth of available software from different authors. I don't like the idea to be constrained to a central store in Windows, and this is just practical. This is more freedom than be constrained to a centrally managed store. On Android I also can install from apk if I just flip an option.
If someone cannot resist the temptation to download malware from the internet and try it out, it's hi/her fault.

It's perfectly practical. What does it matter if the software comes from some dodgy freeware site or a central curated repository? Especially if you can be 95% certain that software is clean, unlike the present situation where you're 100% certain of nothing.

I know what I'm doing and I've fallen victim to virus and malware infections under Windows before, anyone that states otherwise is essentially lying. Especially if you run no AV as essentially you have no idea what's running in the background of that PC.
 
As I wrote before, I scan from time to time an image of the installation with 2-3 AVs in VMs (essentially offline). 0 (Zero) threats. This for 15+ years. So I dare to be confident I'm better than 99% of those running even non-admin accounts with 'tons' of antivirus, antimalware etc. sh*t.
Whether I lie or not, it's up to readers of the thread, I can't prove anything here.
Yes, it's practical, I use the store on android. If MS implement it the same way, it may be also practical. But I doubt. Having it on the store is just a small guarantee it *might* be safer to use. For me... not at all until I test it thouroughly in a VM or dedicated machine. Again - I use my phone for unimportant things and play store is good enough. On the desktop I'd like to be able to manually review/test/install software outside of a central repo. The desktop is too critical to skip these steps and "trust" some MS repository. It's like I don't trust Windows in its effort to protect me and I take proactive measures and don't push it too hard because I know it'll fail if I do, this is by design and I don't blame MS too much - every OS would become "Windows" in its shoes.
I like choice. I'm Ok if they implement a good store. But I suspect it won't be beneficial to many small authors economically, and they'd choose to stay away. And I'd want their programs.
 
Simply fully patch the thing then toss Spybot Anti-Beacon on.
 
And once again these threads about Windows - READ: ITS ABOUT WINDOWS, STUPID - get literally trolled right off the fucking tracks again and again and again and again and again by people who are more than happy to make everybody on the planet aware that they hate Windows, they can't stand Windows, and yet they use Windows but they can't stand using Windows and they prefer Linux over Windows because Windows isn't something they want to use but they end up using it anyway for some reason - read: games - or another.

See how stupid that is, and how stupid it sounds? And yet it just never seems to end when somebody brings up a Windows discussion thread that has absolutely nothing to do with anything other than Windows.

This is just a thread about Window 7 updates and discussion of basically anything else related to any other competing computer operating system is 100% irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

Is that really so tough to understand? :bored:

And yes I'm done because I already know how this thread will end. o_O:D
 
And once again these threads about Windows - READ: ITS ABOUT WINDOWS, STUPID - get literally trolled right off the fucking tracks again and again and again and again and again by people who are more than happy to make everybody on the planet aware that they hate Windows, they can't stand Windows, and yet they use Windows but they can't stand using Windows and they prefer Linux over Windows because Windows isn't something they want to use but they end up using it anyway for some reason - read: games - or another.

See how stupid that is, and how stupid it sounds? And yet it just never seems to end when somebody brings up a Windows discussion thread that has absolutely nothing to do with anything other than Windows.

This is just a thread about Window 7 updates and discussion of basically anything else related to any other competing computer operating system is 100% irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

Is that really so tough to understand? :bored:

And yes I'm done because I already know how this thread will end. o_O:D

Good point. I removed all my posts here. I need to stop taking the troll bait.
 
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