today we're talking about how to safely use Windows 7 now and in the future
no operating system is perfect even with Windows 11 there's always the possibility of a security
or data breach our goal here with Windows 7 is to minimize the risk and mitigate potential damage
to get started we need to talk about Windows updates
we only want to use updates that were officially released by Microsoft while unofficial service
packs sound great there is a risk that they may contain malicious code intentionally included
or not the safest approach is to only use updates officially released by Microsoft
for a clean install of Windows 7 install the prerequisite patches to repair the Windows
update feature then fully update the system this process can take a few hours to complete
after the initial round of updates has been installed check for updates again and install
any additional updates that are found repeat the process until no more updates are found
next we need antivirus software the safest approach to using an Antiquated
operating system is running anti-virus software so we will be using Avast
I get this comment or something similar at every mention of antivirus software that you don't need
antivirus software if you use common sense just don't click on anything suspicious don't pirate
software don't click on ads Etc there is a school of thought that anti-virus software isn't needed
if you are sensible and careful enough about what you do online
only visiting legitimate websites using official software stores and policing the
links you click on with a degree of scrutiny you probably won't encounter any malware or viruses
as our goal is to use Windows 7 in the safest way possible we want to use anti-virus software
then we need a web browser bottom line don't 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 put
the system at far less risk possibly the best option is ur browser however it's not the only
viable alternative to Internet Explorer support for Internet Explorer 11 ended on June 15 2022
this means that any new vulnerabilities identified for the browser have not been
patched and never will be Microsoft to maintain security we need to replace Internet Explorer
while we are on the subject of web browsers it is important to
review the browser settings as the default configuration is likely not the most secure
keep your browser updated browsers do not automatically update like some software does
for most browsers you can check for and apply updates in the about section check your browser
settings in whatever browser you choose there are settings for privacy and security
we want to look through these settings and adjust them to be more cautious and restrictive
let's start with Edge and highlight a few points of interest
starting with the strict setting for tracking prevention
the tracking prevention feature in Microsoft Edge protects users from online tracking by
restricting the ability of trackers to access browser-based storage as well as the network
websites use trackers to collect info about your browsing some trackers collect and send your info
to sites you haven't visited the strict setting blocks a majority of trackers for all Sites
next we want to toggle on send do not track requests
and toggle off allow sites to check if you have payment methods saved
under use secure DNS to specify how to look up
the network address for websites select choose a service provider
and pick a security focused DNS provider like cloudflare or enter your own preferred provider
from here we want to toggle on enhance your security on the web and set it to strict
now let's take a look at the settings for Google Chrome
under privacy and security click on security under safe browsing select enhanced protection
then scroll down to the advanced section toggle on always used secured connection and use secure DNS
pick custom and select a security Focus DNS provider like cloudflare
or enter your own preferred provider
then we want to switch to cookies and other site data and toggle on
Sunday do not track request with your browsing traffic
moving on to Firefox in the settings menu click on privacy and security
under enhanced tracking protection select strict
under send websites a do not track signal that you don't want to be tracked select always
now to switch to the general tab scroll to the very bottom under network settings click on the
settings button scroll to the bottom of the next window and Mark enabled DNS over https
pick a security focused DNS provider like cloudflare or enter your own preferred provider
next we need to talk about ads more specifically blocking them Edge has many options available
for ad blockers for demonstration we can use Adblock Plus you may notice after adding the
extension that websites don't have as many ads on them but that's just on the surface
Adblock Plus has some additional settings that are worth taking a look through
under the general tab Mark block additional tracking block push notifications and block
social media icon tracking then scroll down to the acceptable ads section
this is personal preference showing acceptable ads allows ads to play on
YouTube so your favorite creators 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 adblockplus.org like anti-circumvention
malware protection notification blocking and more
in the same vein as ad blocking and security there is a tool called Spybot Search and Destroy
this has a feature named browser immunization the process has a cool
progress bar and really feels like something happened that makes you a little safer online
what it does is ADD entries to the windows hosts file which effectively
blocks communication to those domains you can manually add entries to the hosts file as well
browsers have a tendency to ask if you would like to save usernames and passwords when you sign into
a website the built-in password managers are lacking in a number of ways but the idea is
an excellent one there are third-party tools like keepass that can manage your passwords
it even has a feature that can generate new passwords for you at various strengths and lengths
nobody likes to key in passwords and the average user has over 100 passwords in use
ing a password manager is a must if you want to stay safe online
use two-factor Authentication for any service that offers it turn on two-factor Authentication
yes it is an additional step when you sign in but it's well worth the inconvenience especially
if you still use Windows 7. that extra step can be the difference between safe and sorry
I would be remiss if I didn't mention virtual private networks I'm sure you've seen many and
various sponsored ads for vpns like this one browsing the internet can be risky business
so why don't you protect yourself and browse anonymously with a hidden IP
the bottom line is that it would be safer to use a VPN than not
another consideration is that Internet Explorer is still installed and can be opened
so in the internet options we want to increase the security settings to
high and the privacy settings to block all cookies
that way if Internet Explorer were exploited there is less chance of a successful attack
avoid using Legacy web Technologies like Java flash ActiveX and Silverlight
many high traffic websites used elements made with Java or Flash making it a huge
Target in terms of cyber security many Facebook games for example ran on flash
these technologies have been moved away from and there is little to no need for Java or
Flash so you won't be missing out on much not using these Technologies on your Windows 7 PC
the safest path is to disable flash if the browser you are using still supports it
there are a couple of settings we want to change to protect other PCS on the same network as our
Windows 7 system first we want to turn off network discovery this will prevent unwanted
communication with other computers on the network then we want to disconnect from the network
if you are using your Windows 7 system to perform tasks that do not require a connection to the
internet it is best to disconnect from the network if there was some potential security
issue on the same network as your system or your system is compromised it may pose
a threat to other computers on the network if you disconnect from the network it minimizes that risk
another setting we can change for the network adapter is using a security focused DNS service
in the properties for ipv4 select use the following DNS server address
then enter the IP address for cloudflare which is 1.1.1.1
or the IP address if your preferred DNS provider
to further improve security the next area we want to explore is with user accounts
most critical vulnerabilities can be exploited successfully only if the user is logged into
an account with administrative privileges so what we want to do is create a new user account
a power user so we can still install software but not an administrator that has access to
the system internals that can be exploited we are all set with our new user account
along with user accounts there is the user account control this setting can get
a little annoying but it does have adjustments I highly recommend leaving the setting enabled
for the ultimate and Enterprise editions of Windows 7 there is an included feature
called BitLocker that allows you to encrypt the hard drive there are several benefits to this
as we are aiming for security I recommend encrypting the hard drive with BitLocker
Now to turn on data execution prevention protection
data execution prevention protection or dep is designed to prevent the execution of malicious
code on parts of the computer's memory that are intended to hold data rather than program code
malicious code may be placed in these parts of memory during a buffer overflow attack and an
attempt May subsequently be made to execute it from this location to get the maximum
protection from dep ensure that it is turned on for all applications if a particular application
becomes unstable with dep turned on you can selectively disable it for that application
then we can turn off auto run when auto run is enabled and removable media such
as a USB flash drive is attached to the system it may attempt to do some functions specified
by the setting this can cause malicious code to execute on the system without user intervention
turning this feature off reduces the risk when using any kind of removable media
there is a tool to consider using it's called the enhanced mitigation experience
toolkit from Microsoft it's a utility that helps prevent vulnerabilities and software
from being successfully exploited the simple explanation given by Microsoft is that it works
using mitigation Technologies as we are trying to be as secure as possible putting another
layer between an attack and the software that's being exploited seems like a good idea to me
then we want to consider the productivity software we're using
like operating systems productivity Suites are not supported indefinitely by their Developers
well Office 2010 will still run on Windows 7. it may not be the
best choice as it has not received any kind of security patches in many years
there are better alternatives to this and open source options that pose less of a security risk
keep a restore point in the event the computer does get some kind of virus malware
Etc system restore May save you from having to do a full format in recovery
it's a three-step process after the virus infects the system or the malicious code
executes on your computer step one is to disconnect from the network
step two is to disable the antivirus software and step three is to attempt a system restore note
that the anti-virus software needs to be disabled first as it may cause system restore to fail
the next thing to consider is saving some tasks for systems that are currently supported by their
Developers online banking for example may not be the best application for a Windows 7 system
if possible save those tasks for an Android smartphone or a Windows 11 system or anything
that's currently supported by its developer to continuously improve security these are
the strategies for how we can safely use Windows 7 forever thanks for stopping by see you next video