HOLY CRAP it's a computer apocalypse, what should I do?

[Mike Blakesley]

So today is the day that Microsoft has declared all computers running Windows 7 to be useless, vulnerable pieces of crap.

I am really surprised that in the recent months, I have not been inundated by "offers" from Dell and other companies urging -- begging! -- me to buy new Win10 machines to avoid the certain doom and destruction that's bound to occur probably around midnight tonight after I've gone to sleep.

All kidding aside, what do you film-techers think I should do? Between my store, the theatre and my house, I have 10 computers in my own personal universe. All of them are on Win7, except one that we use to control the projection booth from the office, which is an old beater running Windows Vista.

We have the following facts:

- Four of my computers were supplied by Carquest and they have advised us NOT to upgrade to Win10 because our store POS software won't work reliably on 10. So, those four machines are out of the running for the moment.

- The one in my office at work is definitely ready for replacement -- it's old, slow and getting full of "stuff." I need to replace that one for sure, so it's a no-brainer.

- I have two in my home office. I use the newer one (about 5 years old) to do things like make signs, update our website, etc. The other one is mostly for music and video editing, and not all that much of that.... I have mainly hung on to it becauuse it has all of my projects on it and I'm a little leery of moving all that crap to a new machine. But it really should go, too... it's pushing 10 years old. So I should probably replace those two with one kick-ass machine. So that's two computers I need to buy for sure.

- That leaves:
-- The theatre boxoffice machine (it runs RTS and the internet and doesn't do much else) - it's probably six or seven years old but runs perfect and has lots of space on it
-- The theatre concession machine (it runs RTS and nothing else) - it runs well, but the touch screen on it is unreliable, so it might need a new touch monitor but it has plenty of hard drive space
-- The Vista one that controls the booth (we could probably integrate this into a new boxoffice machine, I guess) -- I got it used and no idea how old it is.

I guess my biggest question is: Should I try to upgrade any of these to Win10 or should I bite the bullet and start replacing them? Every one of them is at least 5 or 6 years old, that's my big worry about converting them to 10. Microsoft is doing its best to convince me that I am a complete blubbering idiot if I don't get all new Win10 machines delivered overnight, or sooner if possible. But if I don't do anything to some of them, what are my chances of going down some horrible virus phishing ransomware rabbit hole? I know what Microsoft says, but what do real users say?

It should be noted that I make it a point to never click on "links" just about anywhere, and I do have a good junk filter on my email. I've never installed "virus protection" on any of these machines -- they're all running Windows Essentials and I've never had a problem with any of them. (Knocks on wood)

Any sage advice would be appreciated.

[Frank Cox]

dilbert-unix.jpg
Seriously, why not consider at least starting to use an operating system that you can actually control yourself? I've been using Linux (and specifically Red Hat and Centos) for 20 years and it does what I need to do with a computer. And I know what's running on my computers and why.

"Linux on the desktop" is actually a very smooth experience. I currently use Centos 7 with the Mate desktop for my computers and my wife's computers.

As a bonus it won't cost you anything since you already have the hardware. Just download an install image and let 'er rip.

[Van Dalton]

Debian user here.* I've been on Linux, generally, for almost that long (started out on Mandrake). You couldn't pay me enough to run any of the newer Winblows these days. I still keep one 98SE (!!!) machine around as the old beater audio editing and Doom box (not on the network, obviously) but I otherwise jumped ship after NT 2000 (5.0) ran its course and never went back. All my PCs are on Debian except the other holdout that still has Mandrake 2009.0.

* Disclaimer: I probably drink more WINE than I should. Oh well. Nobody's perfect.

[Bobby Henderson]

Linux is only a good solution if a user's applications and other work-related hardware can run on it natively (or won't run too slow under emulation). Otherwise that user is stuck having to run either a Windows-based machine or a Mac.

I'm using a fairly old notebook that originally came with Windows 7 Ultimate loaded on it. I did the Windows 10 Pro upgrade on it a couple or so years ago when Microsoft was offering the free upgrade. I haven't had any serious problems with it (knock on wood). Given the graphics applications I use my own personal choices are only Windows or OSX. Linux is not at all an option there. Since I work in the sign industry I'm more confined to running Windows-based hardware since very little of that industry's niche software runs on OSX. All the pro-level large format printing RIP applications are Windows only. Same goes for software that interfaces with vinyl cutters/plotters. Our routing table software is also Windows-only. Some applications (like Onyx Thrive) require USB dongles. None of our mainstream graphics software from Adobe or Corel runs natively on Linux. Gotta run a Windows PC or a Mac for Adobe or Corel software to work, and CorelDRAW for the Mac is a buggy first release in need of a lot of fixes. In my own personal case I'm stuck with Windows for the time being.

I would not recommend running Windows 7 on a PC connected to the Internet at all. Anti virus software and other kinds of security software are going to do only so much good. The OS itself has to be continually maintained to plug fundamental holes. That the case with all operating systems, even Linux. There's lots of malware out there that specifically targets various builds of Linux. With Microsoft ending support for Windows 7 will the version of Windows Defender for Win 7 still be maintained at all?

It's a pretty difficult choice to change the operating system on an aging computer. On the bright side, computers are lasting longer than ever -particularly those purchased with great performance specs from the start. I haven't noticed much of a performance hit at all going from Win 7 to Win 10. I made the change on my personal notebook computer as well as a work desktop machine (that one went from Win 8.1 to Win 10). If you choose to upgrade the OS on an old machine, back everything up and do a truly clean install of the OS. If the old computer is already running slow under Win 7 it probably won't run any better on Win 10. Buying a new PC would be the more productive option.

There are a couple things I don't like about Win 10. Updates are forced. If you're running any old legacy software there's always the chance a Windows update will break some old software. In a graphics related area, the recent "Fall Creators Update" to Win 10 removed native support of Postscript Type 1 fonts. I have a lot of old "vintage" Type 1 fonts from the 1990's. As far as I can tell they still work okay. But many of my frequently used fonts have been replaced with OpenType versions.

[Frank Cox]

Your examples of specialized software that runs only on Windows is relevant only if you happen to need the specialized software that runs only on Windows. And most people aren't in the commercial sign making business -- they just want to check their email, surf the Internet, look at pretty pictures and play cat videos.

Here's a list of the main software that I use on my computer. There's a lot of other stuff that I just use occasionally, but the stuff that I use on a daily basis is this. (I'll just run through the software that I have as a launcher on my bottom panel/toolbar:

LibreOffice - word processor, spreadsheet, database. I don't actually use the database function myself, but it's there. I use the LibreOffice spreadsheet to do my theatre bookkeeping on and just print out the spreadsheets for the accountant at the end of each year.

Firefox - we all know what that is. I have it set up to block advertising and manage cookies and so on. I see other people reading web pages and I don't know how you can stand it with all of that crap showing up on your screen.

Vim - extremely powerful text editor. It has one hell of a learning curve but it's an amazing piece of software. I've been using it for years and still don't know half of what it can do. I have pages of notes on how to do various things with vim (stored in a nifty vim plugin called vimwiki, which is a very useful way to keep notes and organize notes). My wife used a simpler text editor called Pluma, which is similar to Windows Notepad.

Lyx - I use this occasionally for writing articles. It's a bit hard to describe exactly what it does but if you're writing anything with an organized format, this is the way to do it.

Scribus - desktop publishing program. I use it to edit a weekly ad that goes into a local publication. The publication itself is owned by a friend of mine who also uses Scribus on Linux to create the entire paper. I wrote a RIP for him some years ago to create the plates for his printing press from the output from Scribus. I also wrote the database that he uses to store the content of his paper.

Sylpheed - email client. I also use a program called mutt to access my email from my phone by logging into my computer remotely and running mutt from the bash command line. I use Termux on my phone for tasks like running ssh for remote access and stuff like that.

Tiger VNC - remote desktop access program. I use it for remote administration of a few computers that I look after for other folks.

Gimp - graphics editor program. It also works with a program called SANE to get the input from scanners. My wife used Gimp to create patterns and cutting plans for her quilts.

FBReader - ebook reading program.

Atril - pdf reading program.

Geany - programming editor and sort of an IDE. I just do my programming in C, it's the only programming language that I really understand, so this works dandy. If I was writing in Java or something then I might want something else but I like Geany for what I do. And on the subject of C, there's only one indentation style that I like, it's called Whitesmith and a lot of people think it's obsolete so other folks' code is usually written using a different style. I have a nifty program called astyle that will reformat C code into any standard style that I want, so I can reformat anyone else's code to Whitesmith, modify it, and format it back to what it was to return it. We dinosaurs have ways.

I also use a program called rsync to do backups of all of my computers to a fileserver. The backups run automatically every night as a cronjob so I don't have to do anything to make it happen. I have an email from each cronjob waiting for me every morning to tell me the status of each backup.

Again, there's a lot of other stuff that I use occasionally, but this is the main stuff that I use all the time.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I guess my biggest question is: Should I try to upgrade any of these to Win10 or should I bite the bullet and start replacing them? Every one of them is at least 5 or 6 years old, that's my big worry about converting them to 10. Microsoft is doing its best to convince me that I am a complete blubbering idiot if I don't get all new Win10 machines delivered overnight, or sooner if possible. But if I don't do anything to some of them, what are my chances of going down some horrible virus phishing ransomware rabbit hole? I know what Microsoft says, but what do real users say?

I just recently upgraded a whole bunch of ~5 year old machines to Windows 10 and it went fine. The performance of those machines is also fine for what it is, there isn't any real noticeable downgrade to Windows 7, the boot process is even somewhat faster.

Windows 10 isn't as heavy as many people think, it's mostly the applications you run on it, so even a lot of "older" hardware runs it just fine. Keep in mind that Microsoft might drop compatibility of certain hardware after some Windows 10 upgrades. That's MS new model, we're now eternally stuck at Windows 10, but the Windows 10 of 3 years ago is already another beast than the current version...

BTW: You can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

We also have some machines we keep back at Windows 7, because the software on it demands it. In some cases we're going to try to run it in a VM environment. It's important not to use any Internet browser or e-mail client on those machines, because that's the most common attack vector for most malware. On POS systems, I'd make sure that nobody can just launch a browser and go out surfing on those machines. Also, I'd urge my POS supplier to come up with a solution for an upgrade path to a supported solution, especially if you're still under some kind of support contract.

It should be noted that I make it a point to never click on "links" just about anywhere, and I do have a good junk filter on my email. I've never installed "virus protection" on any of these machines -- they're all running Windows Essentials and I've never had a problem with any of them. (Knocks on wood)

Any sage advice would be appreciated.

The chances of becoming a victim of a ransomware attack are pretty real, if it's not you, it might be one of your co-workers getting fooled into it. While most of those ransomware entries via e-mail are pretty obvious, there are quite a few really clever ones out there. But even a totally up-to-date Windows 10 with latest virus scanner will not always save your ass in such a case, it's very important to have good and regular backups and make sure they're not reachable over your network. So, a network share on a NAS for example, isn't a good backup solution, as it will get encrypted neatly along everything else your infected machine can reach.

Regarding the Linux approach:

We're running a lot of Linux, but it's primarily confined to servers. I've tried to introduce a Linux desktop quite a few times, but we simply use too much specialty software to make it work. Maybe if you really just need a simple internet kiosk, it will work just fine, but once you find yourself in an ecosystem depending on others, stuff tends to break down and you see yourself reverting to Windows or maybe MacOS.

[Steve Guttag]

There is way TOO many Windows specific programs I need to use due to choices made by "others." I run a Mac at home (always have, since the '80s). I run parallels on the Mac to run Windows because, as I said, there are way too many Windows specific programs that I need to be able to run.

Linux...F-that. I've played with it a bit, with different Distros, and desktop environments. It's goofy and unstable. I've had way more problems with it and everything is like eating Hydrox cookies when you wanted Oreos. Linux seems like it is more for people that like tinkering with their computer as much as using it (mind you, I'm speaking of personal computing, not purpose-built systems, like many commercial systems, like servers). I know some people that love the Linux computing life...more power to them. As for Firefox, at some point it got VERY slow and I abandoned it.

Back to the OT. I wouldn't run ANYTHING with financials on it (including credit card or other accounting) on Windows 7, at this point. If you have any security breach and get compromised, you'd be liable for running an OS where Microsoft has given (a rather lengthy) notice of its discontinuation of security support.

People I trust have told me that computers that have had Win10 loaded as a clean install have performed substantially better than "upgraded" OSes from older Windows. Note, much of that data came out when Win10 was in its "free upgrade" period where there were numerous problems (we didn't upgrade at that time). That said, our office recently upgraded to Win10 via upgrade...be prepared...that process takes time...measured in hours. For the most part, the process was painless. Even when it was done, there were still updates for it to do. At the moment, I'd say my computer boots up notably slower under the upgraded Windows10 and it isn't a slouch for a desktop...not a powerhouse but it has an i7 processor and 24GB of RAM...it still has a spinning rust drive though. I have built up a couple "bare bones" Windows 10 computers now using low-end processors (Intel Celeron) with 4-8GB of RAM...they went smoothly and their boot up times are similar to the Win7 machines so there may still be something to the clean-install versus upgrade. There are many variables so it may not apply as a blanket statement.

So, I'd say, depending on your needs, give the upgrade a try and see if the performance seems good enough. If not, start changing them out. Computer hardware is relatively cheap. The cost of Win10 pro may very well be 25% or more of the computer may be considering so that could factor in (depends on what sort of computer you are considering and what sort of computer you already have).

[Marcel Birgelen]

the moment, I'd say my computer boots up notably slower under the upgraded Windows10 and it isn't a slouch for a desktop...not a powerhouse but it has an i7 processor and 24GB of RAM...it still has a spinning rust drive though.

If the "fast startup" works, it should be noticeably faster than under Windows 7, even with rotating rust, but there could be a couple of startup processes or legacy drivers that will not allow you to use it. Fast startup is essentially something like waking up from hibernation from a just-booted computer.

The best upgrade you can give your average desktop is probably an SSD drive. I've given a few older machines an SSD drive and they perform pretty much like a new machine out of the box with all the pre-loaded crapware removed. Most of the time I keep the rotating rust drive as secondary drive to offload big files.

That being said, my primary workstation for video editing, something with 64 cores and 256 GByte RAM and a RAID1 SSD array as boot drive, boots slower than any other machine around, primarily because it behaves more like a server, with all the checks, RAID initialization and stuff going on at boot...

[Justin Hamaker]

Any computer running credit cards should be updated. Realistically anything on the same network as a computer running credit cards should be updated.

With the Carquest computers I would pressure the software company to work on an update. If one of those computers goes down it will almost certainly have to be replaced with a windows 10 machine. Plus, I assume it's connected to a wide area network or extranet. This means it should be updated as soon as possible for security purposes.

With personal computers I would go by whether it's still suiting your needs.

One thing I would highly recommend is getting SSD drives when you can the reliability and boot up time is significantly better.

[Steve Guttag]

Win10 has now been active for a few days on my desktop machine...its boot times are now faster than it was but not faster than Win7 and I checked, Fast Startup is "checked" though grayed and the system never goes to "sleep."

[Bobby Henderson]

Your examples of specialized software that runs only on Windows is relevant only if you happen to need the specialized software that runs only on Windows. And most people aren't in the commercial sign making business -- they just want to check their email, surf the Internet, look at pretty pictures and play cat videos.

For casual Internet use a person doesn't even need to chain their leg to a traditional computer for that. I can check my email or look at cat videos on my phone or my iPad.

In Mike's case he mentioned a number of workplace computers, some of which are running a specialized point-of-sale system. Those kinds of setups will probably not work in an emulated environment on a foreign operating system.

Many pieces of comemrcial software have their own activation systems, some of which require native OS operation to work. Hardware USB dongles have their own OS-specific requirements. Very often when someone sets up a computer to run Linux that user has to choose among open source Linux-based alternatives to the commercial software he used on Windows or Mac OSX.

Linux has a decent number of open source graphics applications (Inkscape, GIMP, Scribus, etc) but they are not acceptable replacements for industry standard professional graphics applications (such as Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator) in a graphics-oriented business. One of the big issues is being able to handle client-provided art files accurately. Importing artwork in rival graphics applications is a very hit and miss situation, especially files from Adobe applications.

I think Blender is probably the best open source graphics application available to Linux. It's a very powerful 3D modeling and animation tool. The downside is it's not nearly as "user friendly" as commercial 3D applications like Cinema 4D and Maya. But the interface in Blender 2.8 is greatly improved. New users won't be so horribly lost. Still the learning curve is pretty brutal.

But even a totally up-to-date Windows 10 with latest virus scanner will not always save your ass in such a case, it's very important to have good and regular backups and make sure they're not reachable over your network. So, a network share on a NAS for example, isn't a good backup solution, as it will get encrypted neatly along everything else your infected machine can reach.

There are more threats to a person's computers and digital data than just ransomware attacks. An old fashioned fire or weather phenomenon that destroys your house or workplace building can be every bit as destructive. With that in mind I keep multiple backups of my data in at least two separate places. Tens of thousands of graphics files weigh too much to store in the cloud, so it's really a matter of maintaining external hard drive systems and replacing those hard drives periodically.

Perhaps my biggest criticism about computer users in general is most of them really suck at managing their files. So many people out there have barely even a basic understanding of how a file and folder structure works. They'll be just as lost in the OSX Finder as they are using Windows File Explorer. What happens is they simply let things go, allowing randomly named files to pile up in any number of folders on the computer system. When an emergency strikes, such as a failing hard drive, they won't even know where to begin. That's because they have a freaking mess on their hands. In the end any attempts to back up their precious yet disorganized data might be futile. Organizing one's data ought to be a daily thing, like brushing and flossing your teeth. It's not something to let go for years on end and then only confront in a panic situation.

If my computer was hit with a ransomware attack I would, at worst, lose some files I made that day. I could reformat the computer's hard drive and be back up and running in a few hours at most. I'm personally more wary of hard drive failures.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Win10 has now been active for a few days on my desktop machine...its boot times are now faster than it was but not faster than Win7 and I checked, Fast Startup is "checked" though grayed and the system never goes to "sleep."

There should be the option "Change settings that are currently unavailable", which elevates the configuration screen to Administrator level and then the options should be available.

There are more threats to a person's computers and digital data than just ransomware attacks. An old fashioned fire or weather phenomenon that destroys your house or workplace building can be every bit as destructive. With that in mind I keep multiple backups of my data in at least two separate places. Tens of thousands of graphics files weigh too much to store in the cloud, so it's really a matter of maintaining external hard drive systems and replacing those hard drives periodically.

Those risks have always been there and are the reason why you need good off-site backups too. Like I stated in another topic, we have our own off-site backup location at a datacenter, besides the backups we leave on-premise. That alone, should be good enough for what we do. Maybe it won't save us from the ultimate bomb or rogue asteroid hitting, but it should cover most non-world-ending scenarios.

The thing with ransomware is though, that it can really spread through all kinds of connected systems, something that e.g. a normal hard-drive failure would not do. Also, while the chance of a catastrophic incident hitting your house or workspace is certainly not zero, the chances of hitting a ransomware attack are far bigger.

A lot of those attacks have been pretty successful (as in, the attackers got the money), that's why they continue to be such a threat. Sometime they hit a high-profile target like a hospital, local government branch and you often read that they paid the ransom... The attacks are also constantly evolving, more advanced versions are scanning for computers with open ports with leaky versions of RDP, VNC and whatnot. Even Linux machines aren't entirely safe anymore.

[Leo Enticknap]

I have updated computers manufactured as far back as a Dell desktop made in 2006 to Windows 10, without any problems or issues. With the older machines, I've usually added more RAM (not a significant cost: 8GB of DDR2 can be had for around $30) and an SSD ($20 for 120GB) in the process of doing so. The big expense, of course, is the WIndows 10 license. When I upgraded the older machines, it was during the period when M$ was offering a free upgrade from W7.

The math doesn't work out well now, especially for desktops. You can get a refurbed tower or micro form factor PC that is 2-3 years old for $200, which is about what a Windows 10 license (around $100 for home or $130-140 for Pro), plus a RAM and SSD upgrade for your own W7 PC would cost you.

As for Linux, yes, it is theoretically possible to most regular applications with a free distro that you can with Windows, but there is a learning curve involved, and if you want to run Windows software that doesn't run solidly under WINE, it becomes a much less attractive option. My computers all dual boot from separate partitions onto W10 and Ubuntu, but there is no way that I could stop using Windows altogether and still do what I need to do.

[Ed Gordon]

As Marcel noted, you may be able to upgrade Window 7 machine at no cost. I have found that OEM machines (Dell, HP, Lenovo, ...) will upgrade and register a digital Win10 license for these machines. I don't think this will work with machines built from scratch. I suspect Windows sees the OEM license key stored in BIOS and allows the upgrade. If I were in your situation I would create a system image backup and then do the in place upgrade (run the Win 10 setup from within Win7). If it works and you verify that the upgraded machine has a valid digital license, you can put an new SSD in the old machine and do a fresh install of Window 10 and your legacy applications. When installing Windows 10 it really wants you to use "your microsoft account". You don't have to, but they go out of their way to hide that fact.

Other thoughts:
Windows 10 update has options to postpone updates, and to set time period when updates can occur. If you accept the defaults, you will be rudely surprised when it starts an update unexpectedly.
Windows 10 is faster than 7, but it gets slower with each update and additional Crapware that can be difficult to remove. Windows 10 is more stable in regards to HDCP than Win 7 was. Finally, when the upgrade and updates are complete review the privacy settings in Win 10. By default Win10 spies on every dam thing you do and sends it to Microsoft.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I don't think this will work with machines built from scratch.

I just recently upgraded a vanilla Windows 7 Pro install (non-OEM) to Windows 10 this way, it was a machine we built from scratch in a 19" chassis a few years ago, which we used for playback of alternative content. Maybe we were lucky in this case, but I somehow think Microsoft only checks if the Windows 7 (or 8) license is valid and activated.