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

Eensete · 8 Jan

moonpie Win7 went EOL in 2020. Disconnect this machine from the internet forever and then do a clean install from a validated Win7 ISO.

Stop being one of those people. The PC is behind a router, there are no ports forwarded, and Windows Firewall is tuned on. That combined with safe computing practices is all anyone needs. AV is just icing on the cake. I could be completely AV free and still be totally safe. I work in fraud for a living, the days of roving bots jumping onto any PC on the internet hasn't been a thing in over 20+ years, back when people plugged their PC's directly into the back of their gen 1 cable modems or completely wide open unfiltered ISDN lines.

Plugged in behind a consumer router, with standard OOB settings, a standard Windows Firewall turned on, and using a modern web browser, a fresh Windows XP PC would be perfectly fine to use online daily. Look at all those "Do not put old windows PC's on the Internet or you will get HAXXORED!" videos on YouTube, and you'll see they are go out of their way to disable Windows Firewall, not use any router at all, and plug in a direct connection to an unsecured network to get online. Yeah, no shit, if you cut the brakes off a car, and disable every safety system designed to keep you from driving with no brakes in the car, guess what, it's gonna crash

Mmoonpie · 9 Jan

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Eensete · 9 Jan

moonpie Supermium (what I run) is a completely up to date and maintained fork of Chromium for older OS's. Perfectly safe
https://github.com/win32ss/supermium

moonpie You are cutting your own brake lines.

No I'm not. Again, I work in this field for a living. Any PC behind a consumer routers, with no ports fowarded, and Windows Firewall turned on, is effectively immune from any external drive by virus/malware infection. If a user deliberately clicks a link in an email, or downloads an unknown executable and runs it, no AV will help them. Practicing safe computing > any AV product on the market, ever.

Also Microsoft Security Essentials still receives daily virus definition updates. I have it on my laptop and just checked the Signature version, it matches the latest one published by Microsoft.

So cut it out with the fear mongering. You aren't helping anything. Yes, if you put an older OS on the open internet, directly connected to an ISP, not behind a router, with no firewall turned on, and no AV, it's going to get infected. If you put a brand new out of the box Window 11 24H2 build on the internet that way, it would get infected too. No one does that. This isn't 1998.

Mmoonpie · 9 Jan

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whystrainwhy · 10 Jan

ensete I really appreciate you saying this ️ I've always wondered about this. Like for me, I can use Windows 10 pretty comfortably on a specific PC but when that time comes for it to go "out of date" and no longer receive security updates, I wondered how much that would matter, assuming my web browser is still up to date. 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?

Eensete · 10 Jan

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.

Mmoonpie · 10 Jan

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Eensete · 10 Jan

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.

Mmoonpie · 10 Jan

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Mmoonpie · 10 Jan

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whystrainwhy · 11 Jan

moonpie I've tried many different versions of Linux on many different machines and haven't found one to be comfortable. I get horrendous eyestrain and dizziness and headaches :/

Mmoonpie · 11 Jan

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Eensete · 12 Jan

whystrainwhy Don't listen to moonpie. He is spreading blatant misinformation. Just ignore him.

You can run Windows 10 perfectly safely by following the instructions I listed:

Do not click links or open attachments in emails

Keep PC behind a physical router

Keep Windows firewall turned on.

Do not visit sketchy websites or download executables you do not recognize

Do that and you will be fine. Your health is far too important to get spooked by liars like moonpie. He is just trying to victim shaming you. Ignore him

whystrainwhy · 12 Jan

ensete Thanks for saying that and I agree with you. I think Windows 10 version 1809 would feel good but it's hard to find a legit copy anywhere to try out. I'll keep this in mind. Do you have any thoughts about an old Macbook laptop once Mozillda stops supporting Firefox for specific OS versions? I think I have like a year or a year and a half before Firefox is no longer supported and I wonder what I'll do if I can't find a solution heh

Mmoonpie · 13 Jan

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Ssimplex · 13 Jan

moonpie

I disagree with you. You need to understand how malware really harms you, to eliminate paranoia. In general, I agree with @ensete - if you use the OS wisely, you can use even winXP Especially, if some win build works less harmful for users, in terms of eye-strain

Eensete · 13 Jan

whystrainwhy Unfortunately I don't have a lot of experience using Macs or know much about browsers for the platform, so I can't really speak to them, sorry.

Mmoonpie · 13 Jan

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