How to use Windows 7 safely after uninstalling its support from Microsoft
Today we talk about how to use Windows 7 safely now and in the future. There is no perfect operating system. Even with Windows 11, there is always the possibility of a security or data breach. Our goal here with Windows 7 is to minimize the risk and minimize the potential harm. To start, we need to talk about Windows updates. We just want to use updates that are officially released by Microsoft While unofficial service packs look great, there is a risk that they may have malicious code that is intentionally embedded or not be the safest way to use only updates that have been officially released by Microsoft
For a clean installation of Windows 7, install the patches that are pre-required to fix the Windows update feature, then update the entire system. This process may take a few hours to complete. After installing the initial round of updates, check for updates again and install any additional updates found. Repeat the process until no more updates are found. After that, we need an antivirus, the most important way The safety to use the antiquated operating system is to run the antivirus, so we will use Avast.
I get this comment or something similar in every mention of antivirus software that you don't need an antivirus if you use common sense; just don't click on anything suspicious, don't pair software, don't click on ads, etc. There's a school of thought that antivirus isn't Needless if you're sane and careful enough about what you're doing online, just visit legitimate websites with official software stores and monitor the links you click on with a degree of scrutiny; it is likely that you will not encounter any malware or viruses.
Because our goal is to use Windows 7 in the most secure way, we want to use antivirus, then we need a minimum web browser. Do not use Internet Explorer, the latest version of Internet Explorer available for Windows 7 is version 11. Which has not been updated in many years, there are a number of other browsers that work better than Internet Explorer and expose the system to much less risk; perhaps the best option is your browser, but it is not the only viable alternative to Internet Explorer support for Internet Explorer 11 ending on June 15, 2022.
This means that any new vulnerabilities identified for the browser have not been patched, and Microsoft will never be able to maintain security. We need to replace Internet Explorer. While we are on the topic of web browsers, it is important to review the browser settings because the default configuration is likely not the most secure. keep not updated automatically updated browsers like some software for most browsers; you can check and apply updates in the "About" section. Check your browser settings. In any browser you choose, there are settings for privacy and security.
We want it to look at these settings and modify them to be more careful and restrictive. Let's start with Edge and highlight some points of interest, starting with the strict setting of tracking. Prevent tracking in Microsoft Edge protects users from online tracking by restricting the ability of Tracking tools are used to access browser-based storage as well as networked websites. Trackers to collect information about your browsing Some trackers collect your information and send it to sites you haven't visited.
Switch on sending Don't track requests and turn off Allow sites to check if you have payment methods saved under Use secure DNS. To determine how to search for the network address for websites, select Choose a service provider and choose a security-focused DNS provider like cloudflare or enter your preferred provider. From here, we want to switch to improve web security and set it to strict. Now let's take a look at Google Chrome settings. Under Privacy and Security, click Security under Safe Browsing, select Enhanced protection, then scroll down to the Advanced section, switch to Always use a secure connection, and use secure DNS.
Choose a custom and select a DNS provider to focus on security, like Cloudflare, or enter your preferred provider, then we want to switch to cookies and other site data and switch Sunday. No order tracking as your browsing traffic moves to Firefox In the settings menu, click Privacy and security under Enhanced tracking protection, select strict under Send websites, select the Do Not Track signal you don't want to be tracked, select Always now to switch to the General tab, scroll to the bottom below Network Settings, click the Settings button, scroll to the bottom of the next window, and select DNS enabled over HTTPS, select
Security-focused DNS provider like Cloudflare or enter your preferred provider. Next we need to talk about which ads you block. More specifically, Edge has several ad blocker options available. To clarify, we can use Adblock Plus which you might notice after adding the extension that websites don't have many ads on it, but that's just on the surface. Adblock Plus has some settings extensions that are worth taking a look at under the General tab. Select Block additional tracking block push notifications and Block social media icon tracking, then scroll down to the Accepted ads section.
And this is a personal preference that displays acceptable ads that allow ads to run on YouTube so that your favorite creators You can make a few extra dollars when you watch their videos. Now, to switch to the Advanced tab in the filter lists section, you can add additional lists; there are some great filter lists available from Adblock Plus.
org-like blocking anti-phishing malware notifications and more in the same vein as ad blocking and security, there's a tool called Spybot Search and Destroy. It has a feature called browser fortification. The process has a great progress bar, and you really feel like something has happened that makes you safer online. What you do is add entries to the Windows hosts file that effectively prevents connection to these domains. You can add entries manually to the hosts file, as browsers tend to ask if you want to save usernames and passwords when logging into
website, the built-in password managers lack a number of methods, but the idea is excellent; there are third-party tools like keepass that can manage your passwords. It even has a feature that can generate new passwords for you in different strengths and lengths that no one likes entering passwords and the average user has more than 100 passwords in the use of a password manager, which is a must if you want to remain safe online. Use two-factor authentication for any service you provide for two-factor authentication operation. Yes, it's an extra step when signing, but it's worth the hassle, especially
If you are still using Windows 7. This extra step can be the difference between security and sorry, I would be remiss if I didn't mention VPNs. I'm sure you've seen a lot of VPN advertising like this one. Surfing the internet can be risky business, so why not protect yourself and browse anonymously with a hidden IP? the bottom line is that it would be safer to use a VPN than any other consideration is that Internet Explorer is still installed and can be opened, so in Internet options we want to increase the security settings to
High-level and privacy settings to block all cookies in this way If Internet Explorer is exploited, there is less chance of a successful attack, and avoid using legacy web technologies such as Java, Flash, ActiveX, and Silverlight. Many high-traffic websites use elements made of Java or Flash making them a big target in terms of cybersecurity, for example, many Facebook games have been played on Flash, and these technologies have been moved away from Having little need for Java.
or Flash, so you will not miss a lot of not using these technologies on your Windows 7 computer. The safest path is to disable Flash if the browser you are using still supports it. There are some settings that we want to change to protect other PCs that are on the same network as our Windows 7. We first want to turn off network detection; this will prevent unwanted communication with other computers on the network, and then we want to disconnect from the network if you use your Windows 7 to perform tasks that do not require an Internet connection.
It is best to disconnect from the network if there is some potential security problem on the same network as your system or your system is compromised; it can pose a threat to other computers on the network. If you disconnect from the network, this reduces the risk of another setting that we can change for the network adapter that uses a security-focused DNS service in the IPv4 properties. Select Use the following DNS server address, then enter the IP address of Cloudflare, which is 1.
1.1.1 or IP address If your preferred DNS provider is to further improve security, the next area we want to explore is the most important user accounts. Vulnerabilities can only be successfully exploited if the user is logged into an account with administrative privileges, so what we want to do is create a new user account, Strong User, so that we can install the software but not an administrator who has access to the internal parts of the system that can be exploited. It has been Set us all up with our new user account. Along with user accounts, there is a user account control in this setting that can become
A bit bothersome, but there are modifications. I strongly advise leaving the setup enabled for the final and corporate editions of Windows 7. BitLocker is a built-in function that allows you to encrypt your hard disk. There are several advantages to this since we want to ensure security. I propose encrypting your hard drive using BitLocker. Now, turn on data execution prevention protection, or data protection implementation protection, which is designed to prevent malicious code from executing on parts of computer memory that are meant to keep data rather than malicious code being placed in these parts of memory during a buffer overflow attack and may
Later, an effort is made to execute it from this location in order to provide maximal DEP protection and that it executes for all apps. If a certain program becomes unstable with dep enabled, you may choose to deactivate it for that application, and we can then turn off autoplay when it is enabled and delete it. Media linked to the system, such as a USB flash drive, may attempt to perform some of the operations defined by the option, potentially resulting in the execution of malicious code. Without user involvement, disabling this function lowers the danger of utilizing any form of removable media.
Consider using Microsoft's improved mitigation experience toolbox, which helps avoid effective exploitation of vulnerabilities and applications. Adding another layer between the assault and the exploited application appears to me to be the best solution; we want to consider the productivity of the software we use as well as the productivity of operating systems.
Works with Windows 7. It may not be the greatest option because it has not had any security updates in several years. There are better choices, including open-source ones that provide less security risk. preserves a restoration point in case the machine receives any form of virus or malware. ETC system restoration may prevent you from having to perform a complete format in recovery. The procedure consists of three steps. After the virus has infected the system or harmful code has been run on your computer, the first step is to disconnect from the network's second step.
is to disable the antivirus software, and the third step is to attempt to recover the system. It is important to note that the antivirus must be turned off first, or the system restoration will fail. The next step is to save some tasks for systems that developers currently support for online banking; for example, it may not be the best app for Windows 7 if these tasks can be saved for your Android smartphone, Windows 11, or anything else the developer currently supports in order to constantly improve security. These are techniques for using Windows 7 securely indefinitely.