How to Safely Use Microsoft Windows 7 FOREVER!

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

Channel: Adventures in Nostalgia

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Id: CkDdYqUtpAw

Length: 17min 14sec (1034 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2023