Should You Update to Windows 7 – Can You Risk Not Being Secure? – Sewing Machines Los Angeles

Many of us know that Windows 7 was lunched in October 2009. The new system is to replace the Windows Vista lunched in January 2007. And Windows Vista was lunched to replace Windows XP (lunched in October 2001). You will be exposed to the new operating systems when you purchase new PCs, or notebooks. For business groups, many still use XP or Office 2003 at work and skipped Vista and Office 2007, due to normal replacement cycles of about 5 to 7 years. The main reason we have new released system is to add new usability features and, more importantly, increased security.

Security is probably the most important issue for individual consumer or business today. A hacker is able to, with proper tools, turn an XP computer to do their bidding, lees for Vista and hopefully even lesser for future operating systems. Likewise, a hacker can easily subvert a website written a few years ago using the tools today (HTML, SQL, ASP and PHP), but more difficult for modern websites written in.NET language.

What do hackers do when they access to your operating systems? They can steal corporation information, access passwords, clean out bank accounts, and make long distance calls at your cost. If you have a five year old firewall with outdated anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, it is only a piece of cake for determined hackers to get through. They usually do that every day. It is know that both personal and corporate identity theft are like money machines.

That comes to the unique feature of Windows 7, concentrating on securing remote access to business networks. This new system protects data on thumb drivers and mobile devices (called BitLocker). Mobile control, telecommunicating and access database anywhere have and will have become more important to business in the future. A new tool called AppLocker is also included in Windows 7. This allows the administrators to ensure those programs in the network are authorized, preventing unlicensed software from installing into the computers. This is all good until the new system is found to contain any fault by hackers finding ways to defeat the new system. Well, we will new Windows 8 perhaps.

The key point that we will always need new system is because we cannot just patch an operating system to remove the security vulnerabilities. That might change or affect the way that current operating system needs to operate. This is also why, similarly, Adobe PDF and many other programs can be hacked and the company keep developing newer version. It is always best to update your program to the latest version.

Practically, newer versions are usually expensive and often require more horsepower to run. Like Vista, your computer will need the powerful dual core CPU with lots of memory and fast graphics cards. Although Windows 7 does not need quite much power, it will be working the best with the latest technology. Never upload Vista into your old XP PC with 256Mb of memory.

Can you risk not being secure? This shall give you the answer whether you need to update or not.