The fallout from last week's ransomware incident continues. Computers in more than 150 countries were affected by the WannaCry worm, which encrypted victims' files and then used their network to spread itself to other devices in the same area.
It was originally reported that only Windows XP and 8.0 were vulnerable, because Microsoft had previously released patches for all other versions. Although this remains true, it has now emerged that many Windows 7 machines were hit by the rogue software because they hadn't had the patch installed.
It's very important that you always ensure that automatic updating is enabled on your computer. You should also check occasionally in your control panel to ensure that updates are being installed without error. It's not uncommon for the Windows automatic update system to stop working, which means that your computer could be unprotected.
If you still use Windows 7, you can rest assured that you are safe from the WannaCry ransomware. But you should check that you have automatic updating enabled, and that it has been working successfully. You can find out more at https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/306525/how-to-configure-and-use...
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If only MS would have updates that are related to the system only, that's why so many are no longer on auto update IMHO.............aside from that - fully agree with holding updates off for a couple of days, too many flaky updates that knock off random PC's (NB that doesn't imply MS is always at fault, there are so so many variants in PC hardware & software in the world, how could you cover every possibility every time?)
I have windows 7 32bit can I upgrade to 64bit?
Not directly. You would either need a different drive to install it on or back up all of your data (documents, pictures, videos, etc.) to another drive, gather all of your product keys for Windows and other apps, download 64bit drivers, wipe the drive, perform a clean install of the 64bit version, install all of your apps/programs, configure Windows to your liking, and restore all of your data. Unless you have more than 4 gigs of ram (or intend to upgrade your ram) or have a specific program that requires 64bit Windows it probably isn't worth it. Your 32bit Product Key would work for 64bit as long as it's the same version (64bit Home for 32bit Home, etc).
Australia: Thanks but it does not tell you if a machine is infected but yet yet activated which is where most infected machines are now at. Recently we have discovered a worm or virus that is so sophisicated we are stunned, the antivirus program is running and fully updated and unless you investigate it fully you would never know that the machine is infected.
We are wondering whether it is WannaCry?
I run Win7 32bit. Does this also apply to optional updates.
No. Optional are just that, optional. Just install the Recommended ones (those are the security updates) and you'll be fine. The majority of the optional ones are feature updates/addons or beta tests they try to trick you into installing.
Thanks Rev_Don your definitely on the ball.
Enabling automatic update is not the ONLY answer. MS has screwed up an update way too often for that to be a legitimate option. Plus if you have multiple computers and a slow internet connection you can easily have no access to your computer for several hours on Patch Tuesday. I always set it to check but not download the updates. I wait until 2 days after an update notification pops up before downloading and installing updates. That way I can control when it happens (when I don't need to actually use the computer like at the end of the day) and the net will be blowing up with reports of the bad or botched patch. This is a MUCH better approach for anyone who is at least a little bit computer literate and has served me well since Windows Update first launched.
I will also manually check for updates anytime something like WannaCry rears it's ugly head just to make sure that sort of emerency patch isn't missed.
And for the record, legitimate and reliable sources have stated that between 90 and 98% of the affected computers were running Windows 7.
I use Windows 7 and there were two updates just this week, both on updating the protection.
Thank you for the heads up, though!
Su
If you let Windows 7 do it by itself you "open" a time window of up to four weeks during which your computer is not protected against exploits that may have been patched but the according update has not been downloaded and installed yet.
My many thousands of (in their own words computer illiterate!) customers have done very well with checking once every week.
I give them a shortcut to Windows Update on the desktop and written instructions to run WU and 'Check for updates' ONCE EVERY WEEK. They are instructed to always install ALL updates.
They all have not modified machines from known manufacturers and there were over 16 years only one hand full of problems with WU, mostly after virus infections from EBKAC errors.
Re. Desktop shortcut to WU: So far NOT POSSIBLE in Windows 10 version 1703 (creators update). Grrr.
make a shortcut to:
ms-settings:windowsupdate
Takes you right to it.
Thanks for the reminder Rob
I found an excellent Microsoft article covering everything about this WannaCrypt ransomware, including the potential way it spreads
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mmpc/2017/05/12/wannacrypt-ransomware-worm-targets-out-of-date-systems/
"The threat arrives as a dropper Trojan that has the following two components:
A component that attempts to exploit the SMB CVE-2017-0145 vulnerability in other computers
1)The ransomware known as WannaCrypt"
The worm functionality attempts to infect unpatched Windows machines in the local network.
2)At the same time, it also executes massive scanning on Internet IP addresses to find and infect other vulnerable computers"
This second Microsoft article details what to do if you have been infected with WannaCrypt ransomware:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/portal/mmpc/shared/ransomware.aspx