• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

What do you like for anti-virus software on win7?

H

hunterjwizzard

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2020
Messages
1,418
I know several of you are still running windows 7 as a daily driver. What do you like for anti-virus software on that? My dad still has 7 on one of his machines and seems to have picked up something nasty.
 
Installing an AV on Windows 7 is like trying to use duct tape and bailing wire to patch up a B17 shot to swiss cheese with 3 engines on fire and the last running on 5 cylinders.

There's just a point where it can't be saved.

No AV on the market is going to plug all of the vulnerabilities in Windows 7. If it is used to keep going out on the internet, it is going to continue to get infected.
 
Well, most A/V software is there to protect you from files you download or links you click. The router provided by your ISP does a lot of keeping your PC ports closed from the greater WWW.

Before routers were the norm you were directly connected to the WWW, and if you used a hub instead of a switch all your local network traffic ended up going out through your modem.

I don't know if it was the ISP's that got tired of all the traffic (everyone in your area shared bandwidth), compromised machines hosting bad stuff, or just the advent of Wi-Fi and laptop use in homes that ISPs started giving you a router along with a cable modem making things more secure.
 
Unknown_K said:
Well, most A/V software is there to protect you from files you download or links you click.
Click to expand...

That hasn't been a valid method of protection for well over a decade now. There are plenty of methods to own a remote computer via ACE/RCE just having them visit an infected website. You can also do things like MITM attacks with bitflipped domains that rely on common memory bit errors in computers that happen all the time. Defcon or Blackhat had a conference on this topic some years ago, it's scary effective.

Then there is the ongoing CPU architecture vulnerabilities that have been found one after another. Most of these are not patched on Windows 7, and cannot be patched or protected against by an AV. You can't trust software if you can't trust the hardware its running on.

Unknown_K said:
The router provided by your ISP does a lot of keeping your PC ports closed from the greater WWW.
Click to expand...

Software can work around this with NAT traversal and 3rd party command and control servers. Teamviewer, Radmin and Hamachi are some examples.

Unknown_K said:
I don't know if it was the ISP's that got tired of all the traffic (everyone in your area shared bandwidth), compromised machines hosting bad stuff, or just the advent of Wi-Fi and laptop use in homes that ISPs started giving you a router along with a cable modem making things more secure.
Click to expand...

*Everyone* got tired of the hundreds of millions of infected devices out on the open internet. IXs and backbone providers started enforcing peering rules that isolated the bad actors vomiting out streams of syphilis infected internet traffic.

Windows 7 has no business being a daily driver anymore, especially to people not at all versed in computer security.
 
hunterjwizzard said:
I know several of you are still running windows 7 as a daily driver. What do you like for anti-virus software on that? My dad still has 7 on one of his machines and seems to have picked up something nasty.
Click to expand...
Windows/11 has pretty good AV. If he MUST use 7 make sure its air-gapped and downloads go via another machine. If he does run a browser, look at sandboxe-ie to isolate the nasties....

 
Huh, getting pretty nasty about Windows 7 now aren't we.

I use it daily as my main OS, still get updates both for security and for the inbuilt defender and malware checker. And guess what? No infections.

Also using McAfee VirusScan Enterprise, which gets daily signature updates, and can run on older OS's back to W2K.

You just need to be careful about what sites you visit, what emails you open, and what links you click - which has always been the case with any OS.
 
Robbbert said:
Huh, getting pretty nasty about Windows 7 now aren't we.
.
.
.
You just need to be careful about what sites you visit, what emails you open, and what links you click - which has always been the case with any OS.
Click to expand...

Agreed. M$ loves (and profits on) FUD. I still use XP (and yes, on the web) for a daily driver. Common sense keeps you out of trouble far better than any AV suite.
 
I believe that installing a low impact AV is a good idea. It might stop damage from a legitimate website showing a malicious ad.

I try to keep the MS AV up to date on my Windows 7 install though I do not plan on using the Windows 7 system to browse the web. It just wouldn't make sense to spend several hundred dollars replacing the software that won't run on Win 10 for the short duration left under support.
 
Windows 7 is also the oldest Windows that uses Edge (no longer updated) that allows add blockers that make casual browsing on older equipment usable.
 
The absolute best protection is do periodic and complete external backups; i.e. USB drives, etc. Easy and cheap.
 
Why not do it all? I have an ad blocker and an anti-virus installed. After all, the best backup is the one you don't need to recover from. Plus I have the automated backups that the OS does. Not exactly a fan of having the backup drive always connected so I also run periodic old style backups to a different drive and copy data files occasionally to yet another drive. If all that fails, the house has burned down and I have more pressing issues than restoring a backup.
 
I used to like Avast and AVG until they became bloaty spyware themselves... I think Malwarebytes is still decent
 
krebizfan said:
Why not do it all? I have an ad blocker and an anti-virus installed. After all, the best backup is the one you don't need to recover from. Plus I have the automated backups that the OS does. Not exactly a fan of having the backup drive always connected so I also run periodic old style backups to a different drive and copy data files occasionally to yet another drive. If all that fails, the house has burned down and I have more pressing issues than restoring a backup.
Click to expand...
My W7 machine is not my daily driver. It's a gamer and only online for those few and far between video update visits and to download a game from some site. So, a periodic backup works for me and no bloat from those crappy old anti virus this and thats. (and that's how the fight started)
 
In the case of parent who may not be a computer geek I would suggest upgrading to Windows 11 and setting them up as a non-administrator. I did that for my MIL and the troubles stopped. I think the key in her case was the non-admin account (and she still runs Windows 10). But Windows 7 is harder. If the Windows Defender is being updated that is fairly good. But it doesn't seem to stop the clicks they make in the browser that ends up causing trouble. If they insist on playing games in the browser you will have trouble.

For most situations where Win 7 is still being used for local applications or peripherals, I recommend dual booting with a Linux install for browsing only. I tell them, "don't use the browser on your regular login. Choose this other login and use the browser there. You can us your regular login for your printer and scanner". If that doesn't work I upgrade them to Windows 11 or attempt to get them to use Linux only (not always that easy). Windows 11 will also require some changes and upgrades and sometimes the software or hardware doesn't work without a lot of trouble.

It really depends on the user. If they are fairly savvy you can make these changes. Otherwise just make sure they are a non-admin and use browsers that are somewhat better at blocking the bad stuff.

Seaken
 
seaken said:
For most situations where Win 7 is still being used for local applications or peripherals, I recommend dual booting with a Linux install for browsing only. I tell them, "don't use the browser on your regular login. Choose this other login and use the browser there. You can us your regular login for your printer and scanner".

Seaken
Click to expand...
In that situation I think dual booting is a fine alternative be it Linux or whatever you're comfortable with.
 
Unknown_K said:
Windows 7 is also the oldest Windows that uses Edge (no longer updated).
Click to expand...
The interesting thing is that the updater still runs, still downloads the latest version - but then won't install it. Trying to install it manually fails too.

I wonder if there's some registry key or some other simple thing preventing it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top