Windows 7 PC causing eye strain out of the blue ... any ideas?

I think I found it, I believe it is the NOD32 detection engine. It updated again by itself and the problem seems better.

That doesn't really make much sense unless it's putting so much load on your system that it's causing voltage ripples or something.

No, the detection engine is a real time software service that intercepts and processes everything the computer executes. This includes explorer.exe, video drivers, color management, etc. Improper handling in that engine could change the behavior of these components. I suspect that particular version of the detection engine was doing that. The engine updated again on 23rd and the problem vanished. No other changes happened on the PC

Why don't you just use Windows Defender?

Habit I guess. I've always used NOD32. But if this happens again I'm nuking it from my system and will switch to Windows Defender. It seems like it was a mistake and the corrected it a few days later with the subsequent update.

I ask, as I simply cannot get a "good" configuration out of my system that used to be OK. And I do use ESET.

See above. All AV detection engine run with full system privileges and can do basically anything on your PC, if they did not have this level of access they would be pretty worthless as AV programs.

moonpie Again, cut out the fear mongering. I can't use Windows 10 or later due to eyestrain issues. Your fear mongering is not only radically over inflating the risk, it is also entirely not helpful. I would say my lived experience of never having a computer virus in my life, including using Windows 7 for the past umpteen years and continuing to use it today, trumps yor "OMG you're cutting your brake lines!" nonsense. MSE virus definitions are updated daily, and routers and firewalls offer all the protection you need from drive by infections. Claiming running windows 7 is as dangerous as cutting your brake lines is laughably hyperbolic.

And finally, before I block you, this is a support forum. If you have nothing supportful or helpful to say, run back to Reddit or X or any of the other garbage social media sites out there where you can join the other clueless people who pretend to be experts on things they know nothing about.

You're basically saying that in a situation where Windows 10 no longer receives security updates but Mozilla Firefox still does for years to come, it'll be just fine? And by a router, are you referring to the typical network boxes that ISPs give you when you sign up for an internet service?

Yes, you will be fine.

The most common attack vector for viruses is you, the human. 95% of all fraud infections we investigate at my workplace come from people opening unknown email attachments. If you practice safe computing habits, like never opening an email attachment you don't recognize, never clicking a link in an email directly, and not downloading and running things from the internet you don't recognize, you are 99.999% safe

A router is something that sites between your Cable model/ISP provided internet gateway, and your computers. It's the thing that allows you plug in multiple computers to one connection, it's how most people get wifi in their homes, etc. A router does just what it sounds like, it routes traffic from the internet to a PC. If a random packet goes to your IP address, it will get to the router, not be routed to any of your PC, dropped, and that's it. Not to mention every single router sold in the past decade or so has it's own internal malware and virus protections built into it, and every ISP has network monitoring on their side as well.

People like moonpie are just fear mongers who like to scream "OMG viruses will kidnap your family and burn down your house and blow the world up if you don't do exactly what I think you should do!" because they don't understand the topic and try to prey on peoples ignorance to sound important.

moonpie Basing your security on a logical fallacy seems like a great idea.

Reported to the mods. A support forum is no place for people like you who not only spread false information but also think it is appropriate to make fun of other users.