Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
Neither windows 7 nor windows 8 have ANY security updates anymore. Win8.1 stopped updating in 2023. That means EVERYTHING you do on windows 8.1 is subject to hackers, crackers, trojans, phishing scams, ransomware - and there is absolutely NOTHING you can do to prevent it. If you're online, you're vulnerable, and the criminals who target vulnerable people will eventually find you (if they haven't already).
Whenever you are online and open any software on your computer, someone "out there" is watching you do it. They might not be interested in you. But if you have a decent bank account, or use credit cards online, they might be interested in you. Firewalls and virus protection won't protect you if you're using a legacy unsupported version of windows.
You don't need the most current one, but you do need one that continues to get security updates. Right now, that means windows 10. In October of 2025, Windows 10 will cease to be supported or have any security updates, and windows 11 will be the "oldest one that gets security updates."
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Warning: stream of consciousness posting. OrangeBlossumBaby and Blueblaze have lots of Bs and Ls and orange and blue are complementary colors which always reminds me of Thunderball which was out when the 47 year coder wifey and I learned that color fact together in 7th grade. We got together at our 25th high school reunion. :-) It's quite the luxury to be able to run the various points made in this thread by her, as my tech savvy is extremely limited (niche?), though I'm learning a fair bit in this thread. Fascinating to see that so many old farts here have come to know so much about tech. Had coincidentally read through the Wikipedia entry on Edward R. Murrow last evening. There have been some changes since that era, though I do (barely) remember seeing him on TV. BTW, got down *that* rabbit hole via reading up on King Edward VIII, about whom I had also known very close to nothing. No fan of "royalty", BTW.