Windows 10 users after 14 October 2025

[icowden]

People need to be careful with these, they aren't perfect. Mobile phone fraud: 'They stole £22,500 using my banking app'. He was protected by Facial Recognition on his device and PIN on the app.

Seems like they clocked his pin and used that to unlock his phone (phone will fall back to pin once facial recognition failed) and his bank account (or found his bank account pin on his device). On discovering it was lost he failed to secure the phone - he could have used any device to do this and gave them 24 hours to play with it.

But yes, they aren't perfect. However from the PC point of view, I can't log into my bank account without my phone. I have to use 2FA. So anyone hacking my PC will not be able to gain access to my bank account.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Seems like they clocked his pin and used that to unlock his phone (phone will fall back to pin once facial recognition failed) and his bank account (or found his bank account pin on his device). On discovering it was lost he failed to secure the phone - he could have used any device to do this and gave them 24 hours to play with it.

But yes, they aren't perfect. However from the PC point of view, I can't log into my bank account without my phone. I have to use 2FA. So anyone hacking my PC will not be able to gain access to my bank account.

Possibly shoulder surfing for the phone PIN, used to happen with ATMs and now its phones. The number of people's PINs I see because they do nothing to hide it is shocking.

 

[Alex321]

Possibly shoulder surfing for the phone PIN, used to happen with ATMs and now its phones. The number of people's PINs I see because they do nothing to hide it is shocking.

It annoys me that every now and then, my phone refuses to allow me to use my fingerprint, and insists on using my Pin "for your security". It seems less secure to be typing a number when it is possible it could be seen by somebody else, than to be using your fingerprint.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Defender is ok but it depends on the user classifying the access required and the implications aren't always clear to the end user. It also gives internal windows services a pass and doesn't ask the user at all. The SMB service for example wouldn't have been flagged up at all (because how many end users would be able to make an informed choice).

Anyway, as I've mentioned multiple times, the risk isn't necessarily existing known exploits like EternalBlue, it's the new ones that are beomg discovered all the time and come next Autumn, won't be patched any more for W10.

Well in independent tests, Defender was shown to be better (at preventing / detecting infections) than many of your well known anti virus. I'd say it is more than okay based on that.

Not in this case. The incoming connections (from the Internet) are blocked by default by the firewalls. You have to fiddle about to open up random connections and ports.

At least 99% of infections are caused by someone downloading something, and opening / executing it. Network based ones won't get past your firewall, as it won't accept the incoming connection unless you have purposefully allowed it. Again user action required.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Well in independent tests, Defender was shown to be better (at preventing / detecting infections) than many of your well known anti virus. I'd say it is more than okay based on that.

Not in this case. The incoming connections (from the Internet) are blocked by default by the firewalls. You have to fiddle about to open up random connections and ports.

At least 99% of infections are caused by someone downloading something, and opening / executing it. Network based ones won't get past your firewall, as it won't accept the incoming connection unless you have purposefully allowed it. Again user action required.

Indeed, email attachments are big culprits.

 

[icowden]

Indeed, email attachments are big culprits.

As are teenagers apparently...

 

[ColinJ]

As are teenagers apparently...

Indeed!

I once had to clean out a friend's PC that was taking 30 minutes to boot into Windows. It turned out that her teenage sons had installed so many dodgy porno EXE files that the computer had 500 viruses running, one of which I discovered had rerouted her dial-up internet access to a premium rate international phone number!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Indeed!

her dial-up internet access

Wow, when was that, the 1990s or even earlier late 1980s?

 

[ColinJ]

Wow, when was that, the 1990s or even earlier late 1980s?

My post about it was 2010, so some time before that.

I used the Internet all the time but didn't get broadband until 2003. I remember spending £100 on dial-up in one week that year!!!

I would be surprised if my non-techy friend got broadband until years after me. In fact, I would not be surprised if she never did get it! She seems to do everything on her phone now.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I remember spending £100 on dial-up in one week that year!!!

I was a cheapskate and used it for email for the minimum time possible. It cost 1p per minute, in the 90s, from memory. Your £100 is 166 hours or basically leaving it connected all week.

I had free dial up in the late 80s, but that was covered by work, and for work purposes.

 

[ColinJ]

I was a cheapskate and used it for email for the minimum time possible. It cost 1p per minute, in the 90s, from memory. Your £100 is 166 hours or basically leaving it connected all week.

I had free dial up in the late 80s, but that was covered by work, and for work purposes.

I know that the figure is correct, but you've got me wondering now if that was for a month! I was using dial-up for 8+ hours a day. I might see if I can check Halifax bank statements online going back that far...

As for Windows 10 expiry... I feel tempted to buy a Macbook Air this year when that happens! (I can always try one of the bodges to force Win 11 onto my old Lenovo, but the device is showing its age in other ways too.)

 

[HMS_Dave]

I was a cheapskate and used it for email for the minimum time possible. It cost 1p per minute, in the 90s, from memory. Your £100 is 166 hours or basically leaving it connected all week.

I had free dial up in the late 80s, but that was covered by work, and for work purposes.

I remember using a service called "xstream". It was an 0800 number dialup so was actually free but connection was never guaranteed and you could be disconnected at any time!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I remember using a service called "xstream". It was an 0800 number dialup so was actually free but connection was never guaranteed and you could be disconnected at any time!

Is that an early x rated channel?

 

[HMS_Dave]

Is that an early x rated channel?

You'd be waiting a few days for anything worthwhile to view.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Stream_Network

 

[Paul_Smith SRCC]

After Linux Distro hopping using a USB as mentioned upthread I have now done a full install of the Zorin 17.2 Core. Initially it was not my first choice, 'Mint' did not seem to work consistently, especially allowing access to my C Drive, sometimes it would work, often it wouldn't; this may not have been an issue if I had done a full install but it was a deterrent. 'Chrome Flex' I really liked but one of my two laptops did not have a compatible specification, which is a shame as it was by far the quickest, their forum support was also proved to be less helpful, I asked two questions and got no response from each. 'Zorin', is based on 'Ubuntu'; understandably both felt very similar. 'Zorin' had a few things that won me over, you can change a folder colour for example, I often don't wear my glasses when using my laptop so that's a feature I quickly realised that I really like. I did watch many Zorin YouTube review videos that were very favourable, Christopher Barnatt and Destination Linux were just two that influenced my decision.

First impressions are yes you have to get used to a different layout, it does look more archaic; for me that translates to simple and straightforward! It's been relatively painless and intuitive so far, to be fair that is exactly what 'Zorin' promote, it is aimed at being an easy transition for those switching from Windows. There are less apps, but in reality apart from 'iTunes' personally I can do everything I could on W10, just in a slightly different way. I have tried to embrace what they offer by default, 'Firefox' instead of' Edge' or 'Chrome' as a browser is definitely no deal breaker. There are quite a few apps in their store for things like view and editing pictures, music, they even have solitaire; although to be fair Microsoft still has the edge with the latter. I was already using LibreOffice but as I have an Outlook email account I can use 'Word Online' if I need to.

An app or programme does not have the been in their store to be installed, I can run BikeCAD, it's not quite as straightforward to install as it was with W10, but I got there, which seems to be a theme with Linux, often you have to do an additional process which may need a bit of head scratching to achieve what you are trying to do, but by the same token you don't have to be 'Alan Turing' to get the results you need either. I'm actually quite enjoying learning something a bit new that will hopefully mean I don't have to buy new hardware just because Microsoft are trying to force me to; 'Open Source' may well be just what I need.