Just wondering what everyone is doing that runs Windows 7 after they will no longer roll out security fixes in January?
I think you can get a free upgrade to Windows 10. I recently upgraded a Windows 8 laptop to Windows 10 last summer and was surprised that I did not need to purchase a licence (I downloaded the update from Microsoft's website).
W7 still be good for functions like office suite and gaming. It will even be mostly OK for internet access for quite a while... maybe a few years.... but will become increasing vulnerable to compromise over time. That said... more and more companies you might do business with will be coming out with, "W7 no longer supported". Kind of a shame, really. All of our computers are functioning just fine on W7, but we have to junk all of that and convert to a more cumbersome, less reliable, pain-in-the-neck W10... just because Microsoft says so. (Unfortunately, "resistance is futile".)
I've been running Windows 7 for 3 or 4 years same install 32bit with updates switched off, attacks are getting less and less as nobody is targetting Win 7 from the look of it, so it's all good Prefer it to my Windows 10 computer ( mainly SSD on my Win 7 ), just use the Win 10 for games.
Dump it as soon as it hits EoL unless you have some business reason to keep it. In that case, contact Microsoft and pay for a patch plan. Windows is the most targeted and most vulnerable OS on the planet. You need to keep updating it unfortunately. Hate to break it to you Turvey, but no - Windows 7 is regularly targeted. See the CVE archive.
I've had nothing for atleast 2 years. Loads of issues, Clients and Windows 10, Updates knocked out every Dell at a dentist a while back, updates keep switching themselves back on and killing the odd pc occasionally aswell, annoying. Knocked out Dentists all over the UK. took 4 hrs to fix 1 PC then it went again, bad day, so fresh installs only.
If, one, does not use, any browsers, on the computers that he trades with, does that makes his computer, - safer , against all malware stuff ? E.g, the only thing that i would run on my laptop would be TDA and that's it, - how much safer it becomes ? Or that crap would find way in, with browsers or without them ?
Exposure to the net is likely the biggest risk to having your system attacked and compromised. I've got a couple of computers which run dedicated functions connected only to the other end's server which I'll continue to run on W7, at least for now. I suspect those will be safe from attack. (I have backups, just in case.)