Hi Rich, nothing is perfect especially if it concerns computers and the internet. I get my info form the IT company who handles our system at a CPA firm. Federal law makes us partially responsible if there's a data breach that affects clients. We have to have a data security plan available for inspection by the IRS. Since I'm an Enrolled Agent licensed by the IRS and I also have private clients this applies to me at home as well.

1. Win 10. Anything older is a useless POS.
2. ALL updates must be current.
3. Use Defender, nothing else because it's integrated
into the OS.

This is just the beginning, the 8 hour tax update seminar I attended last December spent 45 minutes going over all the stuff I should be doing.

New hardware is part of this. New CPU's and mobo's are built with security in mind, the latest Win 10 updates will patch an older system but not close to what those same updates do with a new system.

Win 7 is a joke now, you should think of computers in dog years. A 10 year old PC is like 70 years old in the real world.

When someone says an update locked up their machine all day that tells me it's probably a 3rd party AV software problem. Dump it and use Defender, problem solved.

Over the last 15 years or so I've had a half dozen PC's running this music software with very few issues. All bone stock and fully updated OS installs. The worst problems were caused by a bad power supply nothing to do with the OS or updates.

Of course YMMV.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.