Yammer Highlights January 2020

Dennis Parsons

Computer Help

With the recent official demise of Windows 7 I decided to conduct another of my “quick and dirty” Yammer polls to discover the state of play for members – had they already embraced the inevitable and moved to Windows 10, abandoned Windows entirely, or were they clinging desperately to Windows 7?

Somewhat surprisingly only 10% responded that they were still using Windows 7 with no intention of changing, 68% had switched to Windows 10, 14% indicated they had switched to something else or had ceased some time ago, and one member bravely admitted he still used Windows XP. He did qualify this by saying he only used it to run accounting software and never took it online, making it about as safe as possible to use.

Why the high uptake of Windows 10? I suspect the free upgrade path that Microsoft offered has played a large part, and as this is still available as far as I know it’s not too late to upgrade (Ed: It definitely is still available). Continuing to use Windows 7 isn’t really a viable option as you will be left behind as software such as browsers and anti-virus programs become unsupported on Windows 7, not to mention the lack of any future security updates. Time to bite the bullet and update.

https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=513814242713600

Security, Scams and Phishing

Jan bought herself a new laptop that came with a trial version of the McAfee anti-virus program which she wasn’t interested in continuing to use, so was wondering what her options were for a free anti-virus program – installing the program she was using on her old laptop, changing to another vendor or using Windows Defender that comes with Windows 10?

There are plenty of options to choose from, some good, some not so much, but the consensus seems to be that while it’s not a stellar performer, Windows Defender is “good enough” for most users. It was also suggested to run regular scans with the free version of Malwarebytes.

Being a newcomer to Windows 10, Jan wasn’t quite sure how to reinstate Windows Defender – she discovered Windows wouldn’t run Defender while McAfee was also running, so after being assured the solution was to simply uninstall McAfee she was happy to confirm that Defender automatically resumed.

https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=455654205964288

https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=498747096293376