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And Siri stops listening if you deactivate her.. yeah sure. try it: deactivate Siri, hey Google, Cortana, Alexa and co and talk about vacation in the Caribbean with your family. And then look at the ads you see in facebook.

I use Win10 too and don‘t overly care about that stuff, MS, Apple or Google don‘t care about my person anyway, they just want to make more successful sales. But there are people who do care and I find it important to point those things out.

MarcE wrote: ↑06 Dec 2019, 14:29 And Siri stops listening if you deactivate her.. yeah sure. try it: deactivate Siri, hey Google, Cortana, Alexa and co and talk about vacation in the Caribbean with your family. And then look at the ads you see in facebook.

The Facebook ads happen in Windows 7 as well. You can change the Facebook settings to avoid targeted ads as I recall, but I got rid of Facebook a couple of years ago, maybe that's changed. Everybody's following you everywhere you go, independent of Windows 10, just the nature of the internet. I don't search through Windows 10, and have AdBlock Plus and NoScript in Firefox, so I never see ads or suggestions anywhere. If I do a Google search for "music," my favorite bands never show up in the search results unless I actually search my favorite bands, which I do quite often.

Where can I buy a tinfoil hat?

bobsk8 wrote: ↑06 Dec 2019, 14:52 Where can I buy a tinfoil hat?

Pretty easy to find here in East Texas, unfortunately. I lost mine when I was a kid. I think Santa Claus took it.

If you need to buy that you are not prepared.

(BTW, still on Win7 for at least until next summer.)

-Esa

Privacy Badger is a good add on for Chrome and Firefox that I use to stop most of the tracking.

I’ve waited three years to upgrade as I was not convinced that 10 would be better than 7 for my own use.

I recently did it because it is unreasonable to stay with an OS which is not maintained security-wise if the computer is connected in any way to the Internet. Such computers will be the primary targets of bad people.

Dominique wrote: ↑07 Dec 2019, 02:20 I’ve waited three years to upgrade as I was not convinced that 10 would be better than 7 for my own use.

I recently did it because it is unreasonable to stay with an OS which is not maintained security-wise if the computer is connected in any way to the Internet. Such computers will be the primary targets of bad people.

Yup, you don't even have to be connected either. Any usb or memory stick being used could easily infect the same despite coming from a system that isn't infected simply because the exploit is fixed on the new system but not the old.

thanks,
Lewis

Lewis - A2A wrote: ↑09 Dec 2019, 08:08

Dominique wrote: ↑07 Dec 2019, 02:20 I’ve waited three years to upgrade as I was not convinced that 10 would be better than 7 for my own use.

I recently did it because it is unreasonable to stay with an OS which is not maintained security-wise if the computer is connected in any way to the Internet. Such computers will be the primary targets of bad people.

Yup, you don't even have to be connected either. Any usb or memory stick being used could easily infect the same despite coming from a system that isn't infected simply because the exploit is fixed on the new system but not the old.

thanks,
Lewis

What if you use a Windows 95 or Windows 3.X system without a USB Port and no Internet or Network?

For those that may be interested I don't use google anymore my default search engine is https://duckduckgo.com/. Certainly not perfect but they claim they do not track your searches. It seems to work as well as Google at least for my searches.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/duc ... 165/#close

Hi Raebo,

Many of the add-on developers have kept things backward-compatible with WIN 7 so I doubt you absolutely must upgrade right now. I guess the question is, how long will they support that platform? I'm also wondering, if you had to reinstall your OS at some point after January, will you run into issues if MS officially doesn't support it. AFAIK only enterprise users (business licenses) might have some leeway there.

As others already mentioned, security is unfortunately a very big deal these days, even if you don't use your Internet connection much. The so-called "bad guys" have leaped ahead in terms of what they can do. It's not like 10 years ago, where as long as you stayed away from shady sites you'd be OK - that's risky thinking today. For me that alone is reason enough to upgrade. I did it two years ago and sure, bit of a learning curve with 10 but before long you'll be as familiar with it as 7. And yes, you can definitely suspend or disable any questionable features you don't like.

Probably you should ask yourself if you really think you'll be happy with how you fly now in the long term. If the answer is yes then you're all set. But if you think you might even want to try other sims, you might be out of luck if your OS isn't supported. And though your system probably works well for you right now, you'd likely want to upgrade your PC for other sims and a lot of the current hardware is optimized to run on WIN 10.

I have to agree. Security is paramount, these days.

I manage around 20 websites and, believe me, there are around 50-100 hack attempts *per site*, *per day*. Mine used to be a "fun" job: a mixture of design and coding - now it's 90% just keeping the sites protected from the bad guys. My job has turned to custard.

I they're prepared to target so many innocent websites (that don't even store any personal data) then you can bet your life they'll be having a go at your PC at home. So so SAD.

Adam.

Adam_NZ wrote: ↑09 Dec 2019, 23:56

I they're prepared to target so many innocent websites (that don't even store any personal data) then you can bet your life they'll be having a go at your PC at home. So so SAD.

Adam.

An important point, they don’t only look for personal data but also to integrate personal computers into malicious networks as a zombie machine without your knowledge. Since W7 flaws will not be corrected anymore after January, the risk will increase rapidly for any PC still on it.

I've got a near-antique rig from 2011 I just upgraded to 10 yesterday. So good so far. Thanks for the tips on this, everyone. I was going to junk it come January, but I may get another year out of it yet.

JJB17463rdBombGroup, do you really have a Windows 3.X machine? These days people will pay money for equipment from back then. Just a month ago someone offered to pay me $20 for the keyboard from a computer like that (a beige, IBM thing, the kind with keys that made sharp clicking sounds).

Dominique wrote: ↑10 Dec 2019, 02:20 An important point, they don’t only look for personal data but also to integrate personal computers into malicious networks as a zombie machine without your knowledge. Since W7 flaws will not be corrected anymore after January, the risk will increase rapidly for any PC still on it.

That thought irritates me more than getting a virus. At least a virus is up-front about doing damage. Using my rig for their gain makes me feel, well, used. I'm told (more honest) people will pay to "rent" your spare processing capacity for this, though I think I'd be uneasy about that.

ClipperLuna wrote: ↑10 Dec 2019, 12:07 I've got a near-antique rig from 2011 I just upgraded to 10 yesterday. So good so far. Thanks for the tips on this, everyone. I was going to junk it come January, but I may get another year out of it yet.

JJB17463rdBombGroup, do you really have a Windows 3.X machine? These days people will pay money for equipment from back then. Just a month ago someone offered to pay me $20 for the keyboard from a computer like that (a beige, IBM thing, the kind with keys that made sharp clicking sounds).

Dominique wrote: ↑10 Dec 2019, 02:20 An important point, they don’t only look for personal data but also to integrate personal computers into malicious networks as a zombie machine without your knowledge. Since W7 flaws will not be corrected anymore after January, the risk will increase rapidly for any PC still on it.

That thought irritates me more than getting a virus. At least a virus is up-front about doing damage. Using my rig for their gain makes me feel, well, used. I'm told (more honest) people will pay to "rent" your spare processing capacity for this, though I think I'd be uneasy about that.

Yes I still have several PC's with Windows 3.X variants on them.
One has a Pentium Overdrive 83 MHz processor,Another has a AMD Am5X86 @ 133 MHz and I have a 486 DX 25 MHz PC but I also have a good box of dozens of spare 486 processors as well as lots of boxes of Dimm and Simm memory sticks
I have about a dozen and a half various Pentium Class PC's and a dozen or so Pentium 2 or AMD K6-2 or 3 PC's.
I only have 3 Pentium 3 PC's and one 1 Ghz Athlon Thunderbird PC.
Long ago I got rid of my IBM PC and XT machines,286 and 386 machines too.But I do have a few microcomputers as well.
My first computer that I personally owned was in 1976 but I had used them 2 years earlier (Mark 8 and the Altair) as one of my friends owned both of them.He also had a HP-65 Programmable calculator (I later got a HP-67).