Any of your computers that you purchased six years ago came with Windows 7 installed. Unless you paid for new licenses and gave your team time to upgrade them, those computers run Windows 7 today.

Some of your options include:
– Buy new computers
– If the computer is strong enough, upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
– You can ask your IT team if you use a technology called VDI. If so, they can uninstall Windows 7 completely. They can install Linux, or make a bootable thumb drive, or use a No Touch Desktop program. The computer can function as a screen and keyboard to a server where Windows runs

If, for any reason, you need to keep Windows 7 on some workstations, be sure to give your IT team time to implement compensating controls. For example, they can isolate the computers from the rest. Ask them to install Microsoft’s downloadable EMET security tool that works in Windows 7.

Support for Windows 8.0 ended in 2016.
Support for Windows 8.1 ends on January 10, 2023.

Please forward this to your friends and business associates, so they know January 14 is the when Windows 7 becomes a severe security risk to their networks.

The post Microsoft Will Stop Protecting Windows 7 on January 14, 2020 appeared first on Foster Institute.

You don’t need to know this part: There is a service called Domain Name Service, DNS, that is a massive index for the Internet. If someone in your family, or at work, types in make a wish dot com, DNS looks up those letters and finds that the Make a Wish server is at address 184.168.221.30. Since computers think in numbers, it can then take you to that website.

Your internet service provider provides you with DNS lookups. So, if someone clicks on terrible dot com or infected dot com, your computer will take you to those sites.

However, there are DNS services that will help protect you. When someone clicks on an address, those DNS servers will look up the address and, before sending you there, do its best to make sure it is a good site.

There is nothing to install, and there are no charges for the services. All you need to do is tell your computer to use the new DNS servers, and all the sites show you how to do that. Check out:

Clean Browsing

Norton ConnectSafe

OpenDNS

Quad9

Additionally, you might even notice a boost in speed!

Please forward this to everyone you know who would like added protection when they click on a link or even type in an address while surfing the web.

The post A Simple Change Can Help Protect Your Family, and It Works on Apple and Windows appeared first on Foster Institute.