Secure Browser

none | Today Sept 3 | Me

[Bob434]

Ok- Not sure how to post vanity threads- hopefully i did it right by posting into general chit chat?

Anyways, Looking for suggestions on how to run windows 7 securely on the internet since updates are gonna come to a close- I dual boot, and use Linux mint cinnamon as my main online OS- and use Windows 7 as my gaming OS, my photoshop OS- I do online Racing game which i have to connect to their site (Iracing) and occasionally have to look something up in firefox, but mostly i don't go online with windows except for those-

I would like to know which option would be best for insulating the browser while it's online- I kinda like the idea of sandbox, but I'm not sure if gaming in a sandbox would be fast enough or not- the racing game is pretty sensitive to internet speed- and I have a great connection usually, but not sure if sandboxing would slow that down?

For regular internet browsing, I could run a virtual machine, with another linux while in windows- which would be good way to prevent internet nasties from happening- but I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to do the racing them- and I think I'd have to reinstall the racing software into the VM, correct? (If so, i don't have much room left on my SSD-)

Something like "Time Freeze" sounds like a great thing- it basically does a snapshot of the entire system, then after you're done on internet, you restart, and it restores everything back to how it was before you went on net- That would be ok, but like in the game, it requires lots of updates for tracks, cars etc- so Id lose all that every restart- unless i somehow made an exception to those files- but I'm not sure how to make exceptions like that-

(Note, i do have system backups with macrium reflect- but again, I would lose any updates etc-)

I dunno too many kinda complicated options- I'm thinking maybe sandboxing, but again, it would lose updates- I think- pretty sure the racing site is mostly safe- but there's always the possibility they could get compromised I suppose- which is why i want a safer way to be online since windows 7 will no longer be updated-

[freedumb2003]

>>Anyways, Looking for suggestions on how to run windows 7 securely on the internet<<

I don’t think that is possible. It is just too old.

[Bob434]

I think it’s possible, but there are drawbacks liek losing all updates-

I had a program called Rollback RX which could recover from any disaster- virus or just wonking up the system somehow- it ran during boot- before windows booted- and could restore to a previous known good state- but here again, you would lose any recent updates or work- you could recover some files- but it was a pain— it save my bacon many times, as I was always muckign with the registry- or installing programs that would mess things up- or whatever- and there was a time for awhile there a few years ago that going online it seemed would result in getting redirected to sites that were compromised quite often- and it would autodownload crap- rollbackrx would fix all that- was a lifesaver-

anyways- I coudl always take it compeltely offline- but again, I belong to that iracing which is expensive, and wouldl ike to find a way if possible

[petro45acp]

VM a workstation is good. Better, use a VPN (PIA, NORD, etc.), duckduckgo is a non-caching secure search engine with browser plugins for internet exploder, Firefox, giggle crime....

Unless they are compromised by external actors or internal (pgp/zimmerman comes to mind)the VPN route is pretty good-ish. There is some bandwidth overhead (much like TOR), but if searches are not graphics intensive....

KYPD

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

Easy. Linux Mint with VirtualBox. Test your game first under VirtualBox. As long as you enable the CPU virtualization features and Open GL plays nice there is virtually no performance hit. Mint is very Windowsy. You won’t have a big learning curve.

You wont care if you get Windows 7 hacked/infected. Every VM technology has its version of snapshotting...VirtualBox included. It’s easy to manage snapshots in VirtualBox—you can take snapshots of a running VM or a VM in a saved or even off state. Once you create a snapshot, you can restore a previous snapshot, delete a snapshot, and view details of a snapshot.

Linux is great. Seriously.

[SunkenCiv]

have a look at Brave?

https://brave.com/

[GOPJ]

I don’t know if ‘Brave’ is the future but their idea on ads IS the future.

https://www.quora.com/Is-Brave-truly-the-most-secure-web-browser-available

...instead of blocking all ads, Brave seeks out the really intrusive ones–those ones known as “Malvertising” that can install malware on your computer without your knowledge–and replaces them with Brave’s own advertising that is less intrusive on your privacy.

The company will then keep 15% of the ad revenue for itself, pay 55% of the revenue to the content publisher whose site the ad appears on, give 15% to ad partners, and finally, give 15% of ad revenue to Brave users, who can then donate that money to bloggers and other content providers via micropayments–meaning that you decide which sites of those you love gets the cash for the ads.

[ShadowAce]

Tech Ping

[cymbeline]

“that can install malware on your computer without your knowledge”

If Windows is set to ask you before installing software, and you don’t click on attachments, can software from afar be put into your computer and executed? If so, how?

[Chances Are]

Have a look at Epic!

https://www.epicbrowser.com/

[minnesota_bound]

Get malwarebytes which is a anti malware and more importantly a anti ransomware program. Also webroot anti virus and use Firefox or your browser of choice but get the Adblock plugin which after a while of right clicking on ads and blocking they soon do not show up at websites. Ads can have malware embedded in them.

[Bob434]

thanks, i do use adblock- I’ll look into those others you mentioned-

[Bob434]

i use mint as my main os- an dual boot into windows for windows only games and for using photoshop-

[Bob434]

yeah I’m probably gonna have to settle on a VM- I’m not too familiar with VPN’s though- will have to look into those-

My main problem with searching the internet though is going on what looks legit- like say tractor supply site, and getting immediately redirected to nefarious site- That was happening quite a bit not so long ago- i finally got fed up with windows and installed linux in a dual boot scenario, and now just use linux as main os as it’s more secure- but I still need to do a little online work in windows os from time to time- plus, like i said, the gaming-

[Bob434]

thanks i’ll check that one out

[Bob434]

do you know if Brave works in a sandbox like environment? That woudl be good- I know windows 10 IE works in a sandbox settign if you want it too- but I really want to stick with windows 7 if possible-