Dear JordanI certainly intend to keep using Window 7. As Flash says, with a good firewall and anti-virus strategy you should be fairly safe. I have to confess that I do not allow automatic updates for Windows on my computer and regularly go for months without remembering to update my Windows 7. As for catching mail viruses, I use Avast and so far as I can see it blocks downloads if it finds a suspect attachment. Of course we all need to use common sense too. I have Windows 10 set up on a substitute disk that I can easily swap and it has all my software loaded, but like you I find it unsatisfactory. I have neutered its ability to update automatically and removed all the home calls (so far as I can tell, anyway) but it still leaves me unhappy.
Paul On 06/12/2019 18:29, J R FOX wrote: I'm going to be asking this one around, but particularly wanted to hear Flash's take on it. MS security updates or support for Win 7 will come to a screeching halt (?) next month. There was some talk online about the possibility that MS would offer some *paid* extension option on the updates, mainly for businesses, but I think that was a trial balloon at best, which ultimately came to naught. Does anyone intend to keep running Win-7 for awhile ? Just how "unsafe" do you reckon that is apt to be. (Assuming that you continue on with your existing anti-virus apps.) Of course, I would like to find some more expert opinions on this, as well. I can tell you that I know of at least one local business that continued to run XP for a couple years after its official "termination" date, that they ran a lot of stuff which regularly touched the internet, and that they suffered no known harm as a result of doing this. Perhaps the supposed risk is much overblown ? I do have some options, as there are a couple Win-10 rigs to hand here, which can easily be swapped in or out, as necessity dictates. I still don't like Win-10 -- at all. There is plenty of software I run (frequently) that does not much like it either. When there is more time for me to experiment, I plan to apply Flash's published Win-10 "counter-measures" to a Win-10 setup, plus maybe some stuff that makes the UI look and function more like that of Win-7, to see if that hobbles the OS in any meaningful way. (As some online reports have threatened that it would.) Jordan