The case for not updating windows 7 ever

[BarracudaUAK]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

The most imporant threat to any machine is social engineering, which turns you into the virus that damages your machine. No operating system will ever be immune to that.

...

Again, just about every very harmful thing that has happened in the past year has been the result of social engineering and man in the middle internet scams which work no matter how "safe" your operating system is. If you give someone the password to your bank account he can get your money and it doesn't matter if you're running Windows, Linux, OS10, iOS, Android, VMS, DOS 3.3 or an abacus. Crooks have discovered that the easiest way to open a door is to ask you to do it in the most persuasive way. And it has been amazing how eager people have been to be their own virus.

The safety of your operating system is magnitudes less important than your own behavior.

Particularly the first part, and the part that I underlined, italicized and bolded...

I got a phone call one morning waking me up, I answered, and the person on the phone was not a native speaker... Told me that "I'm from technical support" Oh, REALLY? Which 'Technical Support' would that be? hmm?

"We have tried contacting you on your computer...." With a pop-up? Really? You don't say?

"If you will log in we can remove the virus/malware/spyware..." (I forgot which one he said...) By this point I'm getting to the point of: 'I didn't get enough sleep and I've got a headache now because you woke me up early, PLUS you woke me up early and I'm not happy about that... and wait that's not all, act now and by waking me up early... I CLEAN MY OWN VIRUSES AND SPYWARE OFF MY PC... I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP, IF -THE REAL- 'TECHNICAL SUPPORT' HAD DONE THEIR JOB RIGHT THERE WOULDN'T BE ANY VIRUSES ON MY PC!!!'
And THEN, here came the kicker, and I although I KNEW it was a scam before this point, I had absolutely NO DOUBT that it was a scam after this... "from your Windows."

From my Windows? REALLY? From MY Windows? Which 'Windows' is that? Would that be Win95? 98? XP? 7? Vista? Hmm? Which 'Windows' would that be, Mr. Scam artist? HUH? which one? JERK!

To which I replied "That's nice, I don't have Windows."

"What?" he says...

I repeat myself "I don't run Windows."

So in a rather panicked 'ohh dear, he's on to us, we screwed up' tone, "Ohh, Sorry sir, goodbye".
And he hangs up real fast....

I thought about calling the police, but I was tired so I went back to bed.

I'm waiting for the next call I get like that, I think I'll play the "total idiot" card and patronize the daylights out of them.

Barracuda

[Skybird]

The most important AntiVirus sits right in the middle between your ears. I agree, people behave incredibly stupid on the web. Starts with antisocial media already, but certainly does not end there.

I know such telephone calls. Thats why I have whitelisted my telephone.Everybody knows what a blacklist is. A white list is practically a negative. No callers can reach me as long as their individual number or number-area have not been listed in the permission-list. You cannot imagine how peaceful my life has become since then. Before, I got call-centre calls at least once a week, for some weeks 2-4 times per day. Also scam calls once a month or so. It was a pest. I did not like telephoning before, but since then I hate phones. Today, only cellphone networks, and the area of maybe 30km around my hometown can reach me by telephone. Plus people whose individual numbers I have permitted.

[Skybird]

Since I mentioned it above, Telekom now says they have indices that they fell victim to an external hacker attack.

Routers in almost one million households/offices are temporarily or for lasting effect offline since yesterday afternoon. All router-depending services in these households/offices are affected.

Possible that the routers were directly attacked, it seems not every router model but only certain product lines are affected. So much for hardware-sided firewalls.

Nightmare scenario for friends of black humour: stockmarkets go rock-bottom, you desperately want to place orders to sell - and cannot. Imagination can plot easily according criminal attack scenarios.

[aanker]

The "I'm from Vindows technical support" calls (from East Asia) stopped after I told them I didn't have a computer, and that I hated computers. I do whitelist everything possible, my email etc, wish I could do the house phone (landline).

Thanks to Rockin Robbins' tutorials & Skybird's constant 'encouragement', I'm pulling the plug from the internet on the Win7 computers, and switching to Linux on a cheap laptop for internet related things in the near future. One down, one to go (just awaiting the 'cheap laptop' - 'Tis the Season' ; )

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by aanker

I'm pulling the plug from the internet on the Win7 computers, and switching to Linux on a cheap laptop for internet related things

Yes, this is the proper thing to do (for everybody not desperately depending on Windows for running some Windows-only software).

Trying to keep up with the patchageddons of Windows, has become almost hopeless, me thinks. I passively scan Woody's blog still, and what they need to consider every day for their customer's systems that they maintain as, sounds like a nightmare to me. The situation has become hilarious. And I mean for all Windows versions.

[Rockin Robbins]

I can't even remember when exactly my Windows 7 installation froze during one of their now draconian updates and I was forced to push the reset button, scrambling some system files. Every time I think something like "I really need to fix my Windows to rip this CD, I discover something brilliant like Asunder, which I discovered today. Asunder absolutely outrips every piece of paid software out there with customization so precise and easy it boggles the mind.

It's typical of the open-source software on Linux. Gparted is the partition manager Partition Magic dreams of being when it grows up. Except Gparted is free and Partition Magic will never get there.

I mixed up a new version of Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate Edition today. 3.6 gigabytes of raw data, 1.2 GB compressed with 7zip. My 7zip files from Linux are significantly smaller than 7zip files from Windows. Silent Hunter 4/FOTRS Ultimate run like a scalded dog with WINE in Ubuntu. I think they run better than Windows did.

Really, Linux is absolutely ready for prime-time. Most people will switch and never even think about Windows again. It's that good.

A friend of mine had a laptop that was slow as molasses. He took it to me and I whipped out my Ubuntu Live CD. Put it in his optical disk slot and booted him up. In the text that streams before the GUI starts was text explaining that the CPU was overheating and was being throttled down. PROBLEM SOLVED and Linux wasn't even booted up yet! He was astounded and in a half hour his computer ran Linux.

It's getting so the answer to "What do I do when my Windows system...." is "Linux."

[Eichhörnchen]

I planned yesterday to download Kaspersky for my two pc's, so I got out my laptop after a while without having used it. I thought I'd better go to settings and request updates, since I'd be getting them anyway like it or not.

Now, nearly 24 hours later, the bloody thing's still downloading! How could I run my business if this were my only pc? It'd be no use scheduling updates for night-time, would it? So I can't put the laptop away anymore when I don't need it, because it's going to be paralysed for a whole night and a day the next time I start it up!