Seven Semper Fi: Windows 7 do’s and don’ts

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WOODY’S WINDOWS WATCH By Woody Leonhard With Windows 7 support sliding away in January, and Black Friday deals now in full view, many users of that ve
[See the full post at: Seven Semper Fi: Windows 7 do’s and don’ts]

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jburk07, Myst, wdburt1, SueW, abbodi86, LHiggins, AJNorth

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To Woody, Tracy, Susan, Lance, Fred — and every one of the stalwart (and indispensable) MVPs and “Usual Suspects” that make AskWoody.com the invaluable resource that it is:

        Every best wish for a happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

 

Cheers,

AJN

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jburk07, AlphaCharlie, David F, Fred, Myst, SueW, kdock, LHiggins

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[kdock]

I have one good reason for upgrading from Windows 7.  Online banking.  Fidelity Investments, for example, will no longer load if it detects Windows 7 as the O/S once it’s out of support.  Other financial institutions may not be as strict or as prompt.  I don’t know if they have any plans for the Win7 extended paid support.

I also recently got word from TurboTax that it will successfully install the 2019 version on Win 7, but BE VERY CAREFUL.  I think their warning is proactive and possibly a little CYA.

There are probably other companies gearing up to dump support for programs running on Windows 7.  That is, if whatever they do to their programs doesn’t sit well with Win 7, there won’t be official support.  I wouldn’t expect an instant clamp-down, but I would expect an official statement somewhere down the line.

<Sigh>

Kim

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by kdock.

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AlexEiffel

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[MrJimPhelps]

I was under the impression that Turbo Tax won’t be supported for doing your 2019 taxes if you have Windows 7. We did our 2018 taxes with Turbo Tax online, and I saw something to that effect.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by MrJimPhelps.

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Well, I received this email today which said

As of January 14, 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or support for PCs running Windows 7. While you will still be able to install TurboTax for Tax Year 2019 on Windows 7, computers running on Windows 7 will be more vulnerable to security risks and viruses. To avoid these risks, Microsoft recommends that Windows 7 users upgrade to Windows 10.

To help safeguard your personal information, like your Social Security number and bank account information, we strongly recommend that TurboTax customers using Windows 7 upgrade their operating system before installing TurboTax or switch to TurboTax Online.

So it looks like they backed off their previous statement? They are suggesting TurboTax Online as an alternative.

Kim

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Can you supply a link to that Fidelity notice? I’d be very surprised if it were true. XP was supported by Mozilla for 3+ years and Kaspersky for 4. Using the Kaspersky Safe Money browser for financial stuff which is invisible to the O/S. Using Kaspersky Internet Security which blocks changes to the O/S dead. Also updates hourly and Kaspersky identifies much of the malware out there anyway.

Downside, all my traffic goes through Kaspersky servers in Massachusetts or Switzerland and all https certificates are theirs. No state secrets on this box.

Seriously, do you expect M$ to protect your machine?! 😉

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To answer your last question first: Nope.

Regarding Fidelity, I can’t find the link.  Will update when/if I do.  Very good news if it isn’t true.  It’s also possible that they’ve backed off (as TurboTax seems to have done) since I read that.

Kim

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[kdock]

I was not able to find the info that led to my post, above. So I called Fidelity and they are not pulling the rug out from under Win 7 users. However, they do have a gentle warning. This is what I was told.

Fidelity will support Win 7 on a “best efforts basis as long as it has a pulse.” But “What you will encounter is trouble with the browser…. As browsers update, they will support [Windows 7] less and less.”

Will browsers continue supporting Win 7 if Microsoft’s paid support takes off and a large user base persists?

I humbly apologize for any FUD spread.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by kdock.

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Given that Microsoft will be producing patches for Windows 7 until (at least) January 2023, I think we can expect that some AV vendors will continue to support Windows 7 until then.  Whether they’ll do it for free is another matter.  Microsoft will be demanding a not-inconsequential amount of money for each Windows 7 machine, and AV companies will likely want to get in on the action as well.

Not that definition updates are a valid alternative to proper security. anyways.  Definition updates are like motion cameras — they set off an alarm but it’s too late ’cause the burglars are already ransacking the office.

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Looking forward to the series of articles about Chromebooks that you mentioned Woody!

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woody

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I know that there’s a big market out there of IT “professionals” that operate on the cheap keeping XP around and now keeping Windows 7 around. Fine if there’s a reason but being cheap doesn’t qualify as a good reason to put your network at risk. Technology moves along. It’s always best to move along with it.

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woody, Fred

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[CraigS26]

Happy to re-state that My issue free use of Win 10 is likely from a new desktop purchase Feb ’19 Vs Upgrading from Vista / W7, and the W10 upgrades to 1803, 1809, 1903, and 1909 couldn’t have been easier. Macrium images never used.

NOT an expert, I’d be exhausted & my brain would be mush playing Defense all the time with Win 7, and a sale at Best Buy got me ($689 + tax) HP desktop i5-8400 12G w/ 256G SSD + 1 TB HDD….  BIG SSD fan Now for Win + Apps.  BUY IF $$ allow and current W7 unit  is 6+ yrs as mine was; maybe buy anyway.

W10 Pro 22H2 / Hm-Stdnt Ofce '16 C2R / Macrium Pd vX / GP=2 + FtrU=Semi-Annual + Feature Defer = 1 + QU = 0

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by CraigS26.

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[kdock]

kdock wrote:

I have one good reason for upgrading from Windows 7.  Online banking.  Fidelity Investments, for example, will no longer load if it detects Windows 7 as the O/S once it’s out of support.  Other financial institutions may not be as strict or as prompt.  I don’t know if they have any plans for the Win7 extended paid support.

I also recently got word from TurboTax that it will successfully install the 2019 version on Win 7, but BE VERY CAREFUL.  I think their warning is proactive and possibly a little CYA.

There are probably other companies gearing up to dump support for programs running on Windows 7.  That is, if whatever they do to their programs doesn’t sit well with Win 7, there won’t be official support.  I wouldn’t expect an instant clamp-down, but I would expect an official statement somewhere down the line.

<Sigh>

Kim

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by kdock.

I’m smelling FUD.  I have a Fidelity account, and they have said nothing about such nonsense.

When I log in, everything is done in the browser.  I don’t load anything on my computer. Why would they even care, heck, all they care about is if I’m using a modern browser.

I too would like to see the source of this claim.

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wdburt1, Charlie, Kranium

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Anonymous wrote:

I’m smelling FUD.  I have a Fidelity account, and they have said nothing about such nonsense.

It’s their Active Trader Pro software that has the heavier, more exact requirements. It’s not a web-based package.

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You may be right.  See my response to anonymous, above.

Kim

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jabeattyauditor wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m smelling FUD.  I have a Fidelity account, and they have said nothing about such nonsense.

It’s their Active Trader Pro software that has the heavier, more exact requirements. It’s not a web-based package.

Fair enough.

It’s not something I normally use, but I was curious so I downloaded and installed it on my W7 machine. I logged in and it works as it’s supposed to.

I didn’t see anything on Fidelity’s website stating they were not going to let me open the program and log in after W7’s end of support.  We’ll see what happens come this January.

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Some sites will not be supporting IE11 after it is no longer getting security updates. Maybe it was about IE11, and not necessarily Win7.

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wdburt1

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When support for Win7 ends in January, it seems likely that support for Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) will end as well.

What’s a good, and preferably free, replacement candidate for an Anti-virus?

Mac Mini v. 6.2 (2012) with Win10 Pro 64 bit v. 1809
MacBook Pro v. 3.1 (2007) with Win7 32 bit - Group B Updater

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See this topic on the subject of Anti-virus replacement for MSE.

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fl wrote:

What’s a good, and preferably free, replacement candidate for an Anti-virus?

A free A/V is usually limited in functions and management.
Go for paid A/V like Kaspersky, BitDifender (both have free versions).

https://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html

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Fred

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