I got this Advisory via the US Cert website. It appears to be a Critical Vulnerability for most versions of IE and suggests a 'workaround' until next patch day ( but maybe not for those of us who haven't yet fallen for the charms of W10!);
There may be an out-of-cycle fix for it before February 2020 "patch Tuesday".
In the meantime, I'll use Mozilla Firefox for my more sensitive websites.
I'm not too concerned as I haven't used IE for years but always installed the patches for it when they were available.
I occasionally do online banking but use the Banking & Payment Protection function built into Eset Internet Security which launches a browser of its own (and may be piggybacked on one of the other browsers I have installed, namely Opera, Firefox or Pale Moon?)
Hi TOGG, I would recommend using Microsoft Edge since it is a newer Microsoft version of the two browsers. Microsoft Edge should be compatible with websites since it is has matured and Windows 10 has been released on the market. The vulnerability patch for IE explorer is probably obsolete and may not protect against the latest threats as well as Microsoft Edge does. Any incompatibility with websites can be taken care of using Google Chrome. Google Chrome is compatible with most websites and does a pretty good job patching vulnerabilities. IE explorer is obsolete and may pose a security risk to your operating system.
I reached that conclusion many years ago, which is why I made Opera my default browser back in 2004, at a time when you still had to pay a small fee to register it!
I wasn't aware that Edge worked with W7 but am not very interested in using another MS product (even if it can actually be uninstalled, unlike IE). I have some browsers that use the Google 'open source' Chromium software as their basis but am not sure I would want to increase Google's already considerable data collection capabilities by using a version of Chromium 'tweaked' by them.
You will gather from the above that I am a reactionary old bloke with a very suspicious nature. As and when W7 becomes totally unusable I shall probably try Linux to collect email etc and/or continue my uphill battle to tame the Amazon tablet I was given for my birthday last month.
however I thought you may be interested to know that you can now have Edge on 7 and it works very well.
The favourites etc from IE are automatically imported and most if not all of features of Edge on 10 are on the 7 install
The most beneficial advantage for those that prefer IE/Edge to other 3rd party browsers is of course the increased security of Edge, against the now rather risky use of IE11 on 7 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge
The Internet Explorer browser was version 11.0.170 when Windows 7 SP1 reached its official "end of life" on January 14th.
I'm waiting to see if unofficial updates continue to update this browser like unofficial updates did for it in Windows Vista SP2.
Hi TOGG, I apologise, I didn't know you were using an older operating system that does not support Edge browser. I should have paid close attention to your "Some users have not fallen for Charm of Windows 10 which suggest that your still using an older operating system."You should consider upgrading to Windows 10 since Windows 7 is no longer supported and that will leave your system vulnerable to security threats of various types even if you have a commercialised security center installed and running. Microsoft stopped supplying patches for Windows 7.
Depending on which version of Windows 7 SP1 a person is using, and if it's up-to-date to January 2020, extended support for it may be available for several more months.
Windows XP Pro SP3 had extended support for another 60 months.
Windows Vista (all versions) SP2 had extended support for another 33 months.
I agree Flavallee, Microsoft does extend support for popular operating systems, but that might not always be the case. You are right when you typed "Windows XP was extended for another 60 months."
The "Professional" and "Ultimate" versions of Windows 7 SP1 is what I'll start testing after February's patch Tuesday.
I don't believe the Starter" and "Home Premium" versions will be supported, but I won't be testing those versions, so I won't know for sure if they are or not.
I personally adapted a new favorite when Windows 10 was released. Windows 7 used to be my favorite until Windows 10 was released. Windows 10 contains more features like the Microsoft Store Apps that allows users to enjoy a wide variety of Apps that the previous versions of Windows did not support such as full screen games, themes, organizers, business Apps and so much more. Some require a purchase while others are free. They are all closely monitored and updated by Microsoft and are safe to download.
Windows 10 is like a hybrid system, (Windows 8 and 7 combined), as well as Smart phone like features since Apps are installed just like they are on Smartphones.
Thank you for taking the trouble to supply the additional information. I shall keep it in mind as I consider my options.
One thing I didn't mention before was that I run my non Microsoft browsers under the 'protection' of the registered version of Sandboxie, which, hopefully, provides another layer of security (although I have seen suggestions that a recent change of ownership st Sandboxie could lead to its becoming less effective in some way!)
Now that a patch has been released to 'fix' this particular issue, it seems sensible to mark this 'Solved'. Obviously, just like buses, there will be another exploit for IE arriving in a minute!
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