True. But the time period should attribute something to the conclusion. It hasn't been a simple test of a few weeks, or even a few years. And as I said above, I have not allowed ANY of the Microsoft Security Updates to be installed over that entire time period, which covers the major part of the Windows 7 popularity and massive use in business - the time period during which it was the primary target for hackers.ken_sylvania wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 12:14 pmI hope it's not disrespectful for me to point out that a sample size of 1, or even 10, doesn't prove anything about whether your approach is secure.Neto wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 11:30 amThank you for your advice, and I readily admit that a move to OS 10 (or probably 11, since the end of support date for 10 is only about a year away as well) will be necessary in the future. However, I still respectfully maintain that taken together with other configurations I have in place here, my experience of the past 15 years indicates that my approach is secure.Josh wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 10:27 am With respect, the way you run security won’t actually prevent security problems. For example, opening something in “Print Preview” has been a source of security holes in the past relating to image rendering.
Browsers that can function on the modern Internet won’t be supported or tested on Windows 7 because there isn’t really any reason to do so and because doing so is difficult. Your only option will be to run an out of date browser.
I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just move to Windows 10 or 11
for Internet usage.
However, as far as Windows 7 in particular, looking at my records, I see that I was still using XP during the early part of the 15 year period I mentioned previously. But I was using the same approach with XP, having attended the Microsoft workshop in 2008. Also, my first Win 7 configuration was 32-bit, and I later upgraded (on the same computer) to 64-bit.
I sold the first Windows 7 system in August of 2010 (prior systems were all XP). The motherboard in this computer (Intel DG41TX) is from the 2nd Win 7 model, of which the last one was sold in Feb of 2012. This motherboard was the shop system during that model run, but I initially used one that I had replaced on warranty after the networking was burned out in a lightening strike. So I probably started using Win 7 here in my office sometime in 2011. So call it 12 years doing this approach in Win 7, the prior few years in XP.
Of all of the hundreds of word processors and computers I have built for sale, there have been two cases of a ransom attack. In both cases someone in the business concerned used an unprotected device being operated on the device's Administrator log in account, a device that I didn't even know they had (as my wife says, I'm not the "Amish Police") to log in remotely to the locked-down word processor. Also in both cases, the only files that were compromised were those in the Public Documents folder, and only in the system onto which they had logged in remotely. That's plenty bad in itself, but my point is that even though the hackers were ON the locked-down system, they could not any farther than that one file folder.
IF/When I get hacked, I'll be sure to let you all know, and eat the proper quantity of crow.