GCHQ warning over Windows 7 end-of-life

[Eldorado]

"GCHQ has warned people not to do internet banking or use emails from computers with Windows 7 from Tuesday, when Microsoft will end support for the software.

"The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the public-facing arm of the cyber spy agency, said that devices still using the operating system after next week will become increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks as the tech giant stops patching weaknesses in its product.

"Microsoft announced last year that it would be ceasing technical support for Windows 7 and urged users to upgrade to its Windows 10 system, which costs £120."

Full monty at the UK Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/12/gchq-warns-not-use-windows-7-computers-banking-email-tuesday/

(GCHQ = UK Government Communications Headquarters)

Edited January 12, 2020 by Eldorado

[acute]

I will immediately bill GCHQ £120 for this Windows 10 crap.

[zep73]

4 minutes ago, acute said:

I will immediately bill GCHQ £120 for this Windows 10 crap.

I must admit I was very skeptical towards Windows 10, after the Windows 8 / 8.1 blunder, but it turned out to be the best version to date.
Yes, I know there were some privacy concerns when it was first released, but it's quite easy to shut down all reporting/feedback features.

[toast]

25 minutes ago, sci-nerd said:

Yes, I know there were some privacy concerns when it was first released, but it's quite easy to shut down all reporting/feedback features.

Many of the Win10 reporting/feedback features are hidden somehow which makes it impossible for the average user to switch off all of them. But there is a nice freeware, O&Oshutup10, which is comfortable and useful for the average users as well.

[+Hammerclaw]

I upgraded from 7 to 10, years ago when it was free. Those reporting/ feedback features alert me to and resolve serious malware issues that crop up, from time to time. That's on my other, venerable old laptop. It was still running Vista, so I bought a cheap new copy of 7, loaded it then upgraded to 10. I'm no computer genius, so I don't mind big brother, holding my hand.

[spud the mackem]

Is there an alternative to getting on to the internet ,instead of using Microsoft ,as they seem to do whatever they like .There are lots of windows 7 users still around but paying £120-00 is a no go ,to upgrade to windows 10 through Microsoft . I have both but still mess around on 7. Any advice would be appreciated thankyou.

[Buzz_Light_Year]

We still have 4 machines running XP and have no intentions of changing them out until hardware becomes an issue. Only 1 10 machine and it was purchased because our customers are migrating to NSA in a box 10 and I wanted to familiarize myself with all of 10's nuances. The rest of the company computers run 7 and will continue to run 7 until hardware becomes a problem. As of now 7 will not run on the newer processors.

Our business was Linux based at one time but our field laptops have to have some version of Win for the software. If it weren't for this we'd probably be running Linux.

[tmcom]

On 1/14/2020 at 10:41 PM, spud the mackem said:

Is there an alternative to getting on to the internet ,instead of using Microsoft ,as they seem to do whatever they like .There are lots of windows 7 users still around but paying £120-00 is a no go ,to upgrade to windows 10 through Microsoft . I have both but still mess around on 7. Any advice would be appreciated thankyou.

Yes, l have w7pro, after ordering my as high end as l could, Toshiba from China, and finding it had 10, then three days later and one crash, l got rid of it.

Have used w7p for the last two years with all updates switched off, (the downloads crippled expensive, old software, on another laptop) with minor issues to date.

Microsoft says don't do banking, lol, l have been doing banking on my laptop for a year or more with zero updates, and Norton running. It is BS properganda, or inducing fear, to keep updating, nothing more. I wouldn't touch w10.

On 1/14/2020 at 10:54 PM, Buzz_Light_Year said:

We still have 4 machines running XP and have no intentions of changing them out until hardware becomes an issue. Only 1 10 machine and it was purchased because our customers are migrating to NSA in a box 10 and I wanted to familiarize myself with all of 10's nuances. The rest of the company computers run 7 and will continue to run 7 until hardware becomes a problem. As of now 7 will not run on the newer processors.

Our business was Linux based at one time but our field laptops have to have some version of Win for the software. If it weren't for this we'd probably be running Linux.

As of now, w7, sffft, ar crap, yes l will hang onto my expensive Toshiba laptop with w7pro for as long as l can.

[spud the mackem]

27 minutes ago, tmcom said:

Yes, l have w7pro, after ordering my as high end as l could, Toshiba from China, and finding it had 10, then three days later and one crash, l got rid of it.

Have used w7p for the last two years with all updates switched off, (the downloads crippled expensive, old software, on another laptop) with minor issues to date.

Microsoft says don't do banking, lol, l have been doing banking on my laptop for a year or more with zero updates, and Norton running. It is BS properganda, or inducing fear, to keep updating, nothing more. I wouldn't touch w10.

As of now, w7, sffft, ar crap, yes l will hang onto my expensive Toshiba laptop with w7pro for as long as l can.

Thanks for the info ,I will keep 7 for now , as I think its a disgrace having to upgrade to 10 and paying £ 120-00  for the use of it when Microsoft are coining in millions through adverts which we have no control over ,(and most of them are real rubbish).

[tmcom]

9 hours ago, spud the mackem said:

Thanks for the info ,I will keep 7 for now , as I think its a disgrace having to upgrade to 10 and paying £ 120-00  for the use of it when Microsoft are coining in millions through adverts which we have no control over ,(and most of them are real rubbish).

Yes, exactly, l ordered Toshiba, i7, 16g ram, 1tb storage, 2 years ago, and after realizing it had 10 installed with a weekend looming l knew that l had to wait til next week to remove it, so tried it out.

Installed Photoshop CS2, and an update cripped it, as well as several Abobe ad's appearing at startup. Then used system restore, which made it worse, then reversed that, (since a disappearing window, is better than it not working at all) and W10, then crashed.

I pretty much realized then what a piece of **** it was, and got rid of it for free, since their ad said that it came with 7pro.

I know others here will probably say how wonderful it is, and how l am imaging the CS2 issue, since they are stuck with it, and couldn't be bothered.

I also had w7 on my old Tosh, laptop, and did leave updates on for that one, but after a few years of that, and the sound and other things being nobbled, as well as some script wrecking CS2, brought a new one.

 

The old one, they kept pushing the script and l kept removing it, at least til they made it permanent, and l was silly enough to download it, (ghosting didn't work, system restore points disappeared, the code was unrecoverable in the registry, and l couldn't even set the OS back to default).

 

Yeah, Microsoft rhymes with scum!