I Was Forced To Install Windows 10

Mindmaster said:

Kaspersky isn't trustworthy and hasn't been for awhile. Bitdefender is a good product which I've used many times, however still completely unnecessary as it does nothing that the default Windows protect wouldn't do. You still need an internet protection product and bitdefender doesn't do it, Malwarebytes is _really_ good at doing what it does. I can't speak to the internet protection offered by the more extensive (paid) version of Bitdefender, but there is a reason I keep recommending Malwarebytes. A) it's cheap b) I've pulled so many viruses off computers that other products missed or ignored that I can't even count them. Microsoft really did a great job with the included antivirus -- it's lightweight, fast, accurate, and free. (It's good enough to use full time... Especially if you're using Firefox or Chrome/Brave (personally what I use) in addition.) Bitdefender and Microsoft's solution do exactly the same thing "byte scanning" so they will product identical results. That's the reason I recommend another product and just not another AV -- Mal detects METHODS used to infect and file modifications, etc... It also knows infected websites, etc. Paid versions of products all tend to do that too, but Mal is what I use professionally to deal with virus problems and it ALWAYS works.

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So if I simply rely on the Win 10 anti-virus program and get something like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free I should be good?

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Skwim said:

So if I simply rely on the Win 10 anti-virus program and get something like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free I should be good?

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Free product is "scan on demand", paid product (though it is a cheap one and you get three licenses for the price... if I remember correctly..) is a real-time scanning engine. Both work -- the free is great for scanning off a computer you are uncertain of... There is no difference between the paid and free other than the paid code activates the additional features. It's $33 y/r one device, 44 a year 3 devices... I don't know anyone that has "one" so the 44 is a better deal... Anyway, it's on sale or something ATM.

You can use the free product forever to clean computers which it will do impeccably it's just the "extra stuff" like the internet protection and real-time that isn't active. However, the default windows AV does a great job... periodic scanning with free malwarebytes and staying on reputable websites should be enough to keep you safe.

I'm still a paid customer, btw... That product has saved my bacon so many times I don't mind making sure they can keep the lights on. Even the manual scanning version is so good at destroying the bugs that it's nearly ridiculous that they even give it away for free.

P.S. -- Usually when you purchase the Malawarebytes the second subscription term they give an extreme discount so pick the 1 year, re-up, and then when you do get the 2yr on super-discount.

Aupmanyav said:

In a nut-shell, you need to upgrade to Windows 10 because Windows 7 security upgrades will not be available or abandon your religion and move to Linux.
Well, computers are religion.

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I use a Windows 7 laptop, and have no virus protection at all on it.
But there is no data kept on it and I use the recovery system about once a month and start again.
I do use RF, eBay and PayPal on it. What could a nasty malware system do to me?

Mock Turtle said:

As a choice, I would usually update as required - so all relevant updates. Which is what I think most would recommend. I got fed up of the incessant and annoying drive for all Windows 7 users to update to Windows 10 (even though it was free to do so) since I was perfectly happy with 7 - and have been - whilst 10 has confirmed some of my fears. XP was the previous good incarnation in my view and just as stable.

So best to update whilst available.

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Okay, thanks. I will try to do that before the deadline. I hate deadlines.

I was sad to see XP go but it had to go because my computer got a virus and it crashed so I had to get Win7, which I like. I had Win7 at work till just 2 weeks ago, so it was easy to transition from XP to Win7. Now we have Win10 at work and so far it is okay, but we have IT staff to deal with problems if there are any. At home I have nobody to help me, except my forum friends.

I had purchased a laptop with Vista but I never used it until long after I purchased it and then I had the computer tech install Win7 on it when he installed Win7 on my desktop. At that time I could no longer buy Win7 because it was not sold in stores anymore.

We do love our computers don't we, as long as nothing goes wrong.

Mock Turtle said:

The lock-ups - had one coincidentally the day I wrote that - have amounted to about 4 - 6 in a year, such that a hard power down was the only option. It could be conflicts somewhere - like Radeon nagging me to update when it then fails to do so or something else but as I said, have never had any such on previous Windows 7 machines - some being updated as required and another having no Windows updates. I've been using Windows from 95 - 98SE was OK, XP was fine, and 7 was the best in my view, although I am using 10 now mainly - configured as 7 of course.

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Explains it... Radeon software drivers are extremely buggy and trash.

My experience with those cards is:

1) They just outright blow up. I had two that just stopped displaying and starting making funny color lines... That's all that they now do.

2) ATI/AMD stops updating the drivers for them allowing known bugs that crash the entire system to continue to exist. I've had this problem with many machines using their products.

My conclusion is therefore: AMD/ATI video cards are garbage.

oldbadger said:

I use a Windows 7 laptop, and have no virus protection at all on it.
But there is no data kept on it and I use the recovery system about once a month and start again.
I do use RF, eBay and PayPal on it. What could a nasty malware system do to me?

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I have two laptops with Win7 on them and one desktop with Win7.

A real nasty malware trashed two of my computers about four years ago. The computers had to be rebuilt. Luckily I found a computer tech to do it for cheap.

After that happened, the computer tech installed Win7 over XP and Vista and then he said not to use virus protection. I have not had any problems in years. Then again, I do not keep data on it and I rarely surf the web. I just get e-mail and go on forums and do occasional google searches, no downloading or anything like that.

I think that malware attack was just a fluke, because before that I had gone for years with no viruses at all. Others were having the same malware problems at that time, they said it was coming from Russia.

I keep all my data, which is mostly Word documents, on an small external device, because when my desktop computer crashed I lost all the data on my hard drive

I bought another laptop last summer used off Craigslist and he had Avast free antivirus on it but I do not know if it helps anything.

Trailblazer said:

I have two laptops with Win7 on them and one desktop with Win7.

A real nasty malware trashed two of my computers about four years ago. The computers had to be rebuilt. Luckily I found a computer tech to do it for cheap.

After that happened, the computer tech installed Win7 over XP and Vista and then he said not to use virus protection. I have not had any problems in years. Then again, I do not keep data on it and I rarely surf the web. I just get e-mail and go on forums and do occasional google searches, no downloading or anything like that.

I think that malware attack was just a fluke, because before that I had gone for years with no viruses at all. Others were having the same malware problems at that time, they said it was coming from Russia.

I keep all my data, which is mostly Word documents, on an small external device, because when my desktop computer crashed I lost all the data on my hard drive

I bought another laptop last summer used off Craigslist and he had Avast free antivirus on it but I do not know if it helps anything.

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I can catch viruses on my laptop. But if anything goes wonky I just put the recovery disc on and start again. But I don't want a baddie to ravage my PayPal account or anything. Apart from that I don't think I can be hurt

But........... I don't know.

Skwim said:

So if I simply rely on the Win 10 anti-virus program and get something like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free I should be good?

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That is what I was doing when I was with Windows. Malwarebyte (I used the free version) is no problem, effective solution.

oldbadger said:

What could a nasty malware system do to me?

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They can ask for a ransom or otherwise destroy your computer. They can, seriously.
https://www.google.co.in/search?sou...hUKEwjji6iW2unmAhUz6nMBHbmCC78Q4dUDCAU&uact=5

oldbadger said:

But if anything goes wonky I just put the recovery disc on and start again.

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A recovery disk does not help in case of a real attack. They penetrate the computer deeper than that. They cut off all avenues of escape. Normal ransom seems to be $300.

"There were 181.5 million ransomware attacks in the first six months of 2018. This marks a 229% increase over this same time frame in 2017. CryptoLocker was particularly successful, procuring an estimated US$3 million before it was taken down by authorities, and CryptoWall was estimated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to have accrued over US$18 million by June 2015."
Ransomware - Wikipedia



"For attacks against larger companies, ransoms have been reported to be as high to $50,000, though a ransomware attack last year against a Los Angeles hospital system, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (HPMC), allegedly demanded a ransom of $3.4 million. The attack forced the hospital back into the pre-computing era, blocking access to the company’s network, email, and crucial patient data for ten days.Ultimately, the company only paid $17,000 to regain access to its critical data after being blocked from essential computer systems and communications services."
A History of Ransomware Attacks: The Biggest and Worst Ransomware Attacks of All Time

"In March 2019, HackerOne announced that Santiago Lopez, known as @try_to_hack, a 19-year-old hacker from Argentina, was the world's first hacker to earn $1 million with bug bounty programs. Now, Mark Litchfield (@mlitchfield) from the U.K., Nathaniel Wakelam (@nnwakelam) from Australia, Frans Rosen (@fransrosen) from Sweden, Ron Chan (@ngalog) from Hong Kong, and Tommy DeVoss (@dawgyg) from the U.S. joined the $1M hacker ranks by hacking for improved internet security."
Six Hackers Break Bug Bounty Record, Earning Over $1 Million Each on HackerOne | HackerOne

Mindmaster said:

Explains it... Radeon software drivers are extremely buggy and trash.

My experience with those cards is:

1) They just outright blow up. I had two that just stopped displaying and starting making funny color lines... That's all that they now do.

2) ATI/AMD stops updating the drivers for them allowing known bugs that crash the entire system to continue to exist. I've had this problem with many machines using their products.

My conclusion is therefore: AMD/ATI video cards are garbage.

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Thanks for that - I've come to suspect this might be an issue but hoping it wasn't. I hate it when software appears to want to take over rather than doing their job in the background. Never have had such a problem before.

Trailblazer said:

Okay, thanks. I will try to do that before the deadline. I hate deadlines.

I was sad to see XP go but it had to go because my computer got a virus and it crashed so I had to get Win7, which I like. I had Win7 at work till just 2 weeks ago, so it was easy to transition from XP to Win7. Now we have Win10 at work and so far it is okay, but we have IT staff to deal with problems if there are any. At home I have nobody to help me, except my forum friends.

I had purchased a laptop with Vista but I never used it until long after I purchased it and then I had the computer tech install Win7 on it when he installed Win7 on my desktop. At that time I could no longer buy Win7 because it was not sold in stores anymore.

We do love our computers don't we, as long as nothing goes wrong.

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I've found that it was still possible to find Win 7 PCs for sale on the internet even when they vanished from the shops, but often only the more expensive ones - Windows Professional and such. Not now though, especially when support is being discontinued.

3.11, XP, 7, nice, but all things in their own time. Now 10 or Linux.

oldbadger said:

I can catch viruses on my laptop. But if anything goes wonky I just put the recovery disc on and start again. But I don't want a baddie to ravage my PayPal account or anything. Apart from that I don't think I can be hurt

But........... I don't know.

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Badger, I just use the 2 level verification provided by financial services. Nobody can access my financial or major email without having my cell and my password both. I think Paypal may offer this, too. That makes it pointless to remotely hack the pc.

If you don't want to pay for a cellphone, you can use one of the services (called 'Wallet' services) which hold your passwords and ID data in an encrypted state and fill them in for you on web page forms. They interact with your browser in an automated fashion. Instead of typing your data into pages, you just have the security wallet program fill it in. This hides daya from keyloggers sometimes, so if your computer gets compromised you are not typing your passwords and credit card numbers on a hacked computer, and they are stored scrambled. The automation and scrambling makes you the less desirable target, like being the fastest cow in the herd.

Brickjectivity said:

Badger, I just use the 2 level verification provided by financial services. Nobody can access my financial or major email without having my cell and my password both. I think Paypal may offer this, too. That makes it pointless to remotely hack the pc.

If you don't want to pay for a cellphone, you can use one of the services (called 'Wallet' services) which hold your passwords and ID data in an encrypted state and fill them in for you on web page forms. They interact with your browser in an automated fashion. Instead of typing your data into pages, you just have the security wallet program fill it in. This hides daya from keyloggers sometimes, so if your computer gets compromised you are not typing your passwords and credit card numbers on a hacked computer, and they are stored scrambled. The automation and scrambling makes you the less desirable target, like being the fastest cow in the herd.

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Hi Bricks!
You lot are all techno-wizzkids, that's for sure.
I'm more of a digital tortoise, I'm afraid.

I only have 6 passwords in the digital world. That's RF, my iphone, my '3' laptop dongal, Paypal, Ebay and one other forum. I have never let my laptop remember any of 'em. And I don't bank online (apart from Paypal). I have a deal with Ebay that sellers can only deliver to my home address so if I get a load of silver ingots arrive one day I might just look to see wwhere, when and how I'm supposed to have bought 'em.

But thankyou for the advice.

Samantha Rinne said:

This is nonsense though.....

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ok

Skwim said:

So if I simply rely on the Win 10 anti-virus program and get something like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free I should be good?

.

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I don't use anti-malware. Instead I am careful what I click on and download and am careful to keep windows 10 up to date, bleeding edge. I use firefox for some of its capabilities and run separate profiles for various things, often using private mode. If I'm on facebook and follow a link, I never, ever follow another link out from that. If I'm on a news site I never click their adverts, which sometimes are booby trapped.

If I go to an unusual site I turn scripts off with something like noscript. Don't run scripts on sites that you aren't familiar with. In general don't run scripts from adverts.

Many kinds of documents can contain hidden scripts which will execute upon opening: pictures, word documents, spreadsheets, pdf files, videos, other media. Be suspicious.

And of course if you run anti malware on top of the above then you will have better security than I do, but you will have less than me if you run things willy-nilly and expect nothing to happen.

oldbadger said:

I can catch viruses on my laptop. But if anything goes wonky I just put the recovery disc on and start again. But I don't want a baddie to ravage my PayPal account or anything. Apart from that I don't think I can be hurt

But........... I don't know.

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I know when I have caught a cold, but I do not know how you can KNOW when you have caught a virus... what happens?
I also have a PayPal account but I hardly ever use it to buy anything, maybe once a year... I do NO online banking.

What is a recovery disk? Where can I get one?

Mock Turtle said:

I've found that it was still possible to find Win 7 PCs for sale on the internet even when they vanished from the shops, but often only the more expensive ones - Windows Professional and such. Not now though, especially when support is being discontinued.

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I have Windows7 Professional running on my desktop and one laptop. I bought Win7 computer off a Craigslist ad last summer and it has personal Win7.

I have purchased all but one of my computers off Craigslist ads and the OS and all the programs I use were installed ion those used computers. I only use Microsoft Office, and the only program I use is Word. I have Word 2007 and I prefer it to the newer versions. We have Word 2016 at work and I can negotiate it but it is more than I need. I find that simple is better since all I do is type posts and e-mails.

Now that Win7 is not being supported anymore I expect it will be cheaper to purchase computers running it.

Trailblazer said:

I know when I have caught a cold, but I do not know how you can KNOW when you have caught a virus... what happens?
I also have a PayPal account but I hardly ever use it to buy anything, maybe once a year... I do NO online banking.

What is a recovery disk? Where can I get one?

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My laptop came with s s recovery disk. If anything goes wrong with it I can insert the disc, switch off and then switch back and press f12 in the first four seconds of the start up. The laptop screen asks: Do you wish to initiate a full destructive recovery?All data will be lost' If I click on Yes the laptop is completely recovered back to New, as if it had just been purchased and turned on. It takes about an hour to do.
I do this about once a month and then log back in to eBay, RF, etc.

I never store any data on this laptop. We have a separate laptop for our photos, scanned Doc's, etc, going back twenty years now. Too valuable to risk.

When I have caught bad viruses the machine goes bonkers!

Brickjectivity said:

I don't use anti-malware. Instead I am careful what I click on and download and am careful to keep windows 10 up to date, bleeding edge. I use firefox for some of its capabilities and run separate profiles for various things, often using private mode. If I'm on facebook and follow a link, I never, ever follow another link out from that. If I'm on a news site I never click their adverts, which sometimes are booby trapped.

If I go to an unusual site I turn scripts off with something like noscript. Don't run scripts on sites that you aren't familiar with. In general don't run scripts from adverts.

Many kinds of documents can contain hidden scripts which will execute upon opening: pictures, word documents, spreadsheets, pdf files, videos, other media. Be suspicious.

And of course if you run anti malware on top of the above then you will have better security than I do, but you will have less than me if you run things willy-nilly and expect nothing to happen.

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Thanks. I appreciate your help here.


.

Trailblazer said:

I have Windows7 Professional running on my desktop and one laptop. I bought Win7 computer off a Craigslist ad last summer and it has personal Win7.

I have purchased all but one of my computers off Craigslist ads and the OS and all the programs I use were installed ion those used computers. I only use Microsoft Office, and the only program I use is Word. I have Word 2007 and I prefer it to the newer versions. We have Word 2016 at work and I can negotiate it but it is more than I need. I find that simple is better since all I do is type posts and e-mails.

Now that Win7 is not being supported anymore I expect it will be cheaper to purchase computers running it.

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I assume anything off Craigslist is not new? I must admit I would be a bit cautious in doing this and I was referring to companies that were still selling new PCs. I have bought used PCs from shops though - where one can readily complain if anything is amiss (and sometimes has been).