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Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

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Many programs on your computer access the internet even though they don’t need to. They phone home for a variety of reason including telemetry and checking for updates.
I don’t need or want most programs phoning home for any reason. Still, they try.
With programs getting more invasive I thought it would be appropriate to show you how to block their access to the net.
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Windows 7 Support

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Last week Microsoft announced extended support for “Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise customers in Volume Licensing” through January 2023. “Volume Licensing” means businesses, not home users. Home users will be EOLed on January 14, 2020.
This will leave users with either Windows 8.1 that nearly nobody wants, or Windows 10 that many people don’t want. I’m not all that sure anyone wanted either one to begin with. A Windows 7 Service Pack 2 would have done nicely. Never the less, here we are.
Windows 7 support for home users will end over 10 years after it was released. We whined when they stopped supporting XP, an operating system that they supported for nearly 13 years. But, to be fair to Microsoft lets look at some other operating systems:
(Dates are best I could find, if you have a correction please post it.)

Apple
macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) Oldest supported Mac OS, Released in 2015
iOS – oldest supported phone (iPhone 5S – September 20, 2013) = approx 5 years old

Linux
Linux varies wildly by vendor but here is my best estimate:
Kernel 3.X EOL 2015-16, 3.5 to 4 years after initial release
Kernel 4.X initial release was 12 April 2015 and is current.
There is a kernel branch called LTS that differs from the above. These “”longterm maintenance” releases have varying expiration dates.
Individual vendors set there own schedules and can often range up to 6 years. The latest Linux Mint LTS release is 19/Tara was released June, 2018 and is supported until April 2023, just shy of 5 years.

Android
Android support is an unmitigated disaster. There seem to be no rules at all. As far as I can tell most phones stop getting updates about 3 years in.

Conclusion
You can see that Microsoft supports their operating systems a long time. Longer than anyone else. Still, for us Windows 7 lovers, end of support will truly suck. From Microsoft’s viewpoint maintaining 3 desktop operating systems is difficult, I get that. But the thing is, they are going to keep maintaining it for businesses anyway. Leaving home users out of the loop seems to be a cold blooded money grab. It is, IMHO, a big middle finger to everyone at home using Windows 7.

*notes
Windows lifecycle fact sheet (Applies to: Windows 10 Windows 7 Windows 8.1)

My Home Server – Windows 7

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Here is my current setup. I will be attempting to switch over to a Linux server setup in the near future (just because).
This machine was my secondary workstation and has been repurposed for my home server.
This is a quickie article. No hand holding. If you do not know your way around Windows this article is not for you.
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Fix – Windows 7 Update Not Working

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Microsoft broke Windows 7 update. Whether or not it was intentional…
Purported solutions to this problem abound.
I keep getting asked about it so here is my solution.
I have used this exact method on dozens of Windows 7 installs and it has worked.
I cannot guarantee it will work for you.
winup23456
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Upgrade To Win10 And Keep Previous Windows Version

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thI’m going to show you how I upgraded to Windows 10 and kept my Windows 7 install. I alluded to this method earlier. Although not tested this should work for Windows 8.1 too.
I searched the Windows 10 EULA and I can find nothing that restricts this but I’m not a lawyer either.
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GWX – Get Windows 10

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gwxEarlier this week several Geek sites parroted an article at MYCE entitled Update for Windows 7 and 8.1 silently installs Windows 10 downloader (nice work there guys!). Although the article did not bash Microsoft, commenters around the web were pissed off. At first I thought these comments might be a little bit of anti-Microsoft hysterics. Still, it made be curious enough to research the issue. Now, I’ve changed my mind…
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Alternative To Moving Libraries

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thpinpostlogoAs many of you know, I consider moving libraries an essential part of my backup strategy.
I decided to post this article because through the years I’ve discovered some folks don’t get it and some folks don’t want to do it.
There is an alternative. [Read more…] about Alternative To Moving Libraries