Neowin has reported about Google Project Zero researchers finding out a zero-day vulnerability in Windows 7. Google Zero researchers are known for finding vulnerabilities not only in Google software but also in all the other popular software like Windows operating system, usually the ones which are used in conjunction with Google’s software. This new vulnerability exists in the win32k.sys kernel and affects only Windows 7. According to Project Zero researchers, this vulnerability was being used together with Chrome browser to target users’ systems. Google has already patched Chrome browser, but Microsoft has yet to release any patched for Windows 7. Perhaps Microsoft will release the updates on the first Tuesday of next month.
Project Zero advises upgrade to Windows 10
Even though Google’s security researchers were not able to find this exploit working on 64-bit version of Windows 7 and it is being reported to work only on the 32-bit version of Windows 7, they are advising everyone to upgrade to Windows 10. This is a good advice for everyone who has a computer with good enough hardware that can work with Windows 10 easily. For installing Windows 10, you should have a PC with at least 1GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, 20 GB hard disk drive, and a graphics card supporting DirectX 9. For installing Windows 10, you can use Windows ISO Downloader tool to download not only Windows 10 but Windows 8.1 ISO images as well. Then you can use a tool like Rufus to create installation USB media.
Why not use Linux until Microsoft releases patches?
But since Windows 7 was released almost 10 years ago in 2009, many people who have older hardware might not be able to upgrade to Windows 10 as their computers is not suitable for Windows 10. Those people can either buy a new computer, or they can use an alternative operating system such as Linux which is much more secure than Windows 10. You can install popular Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Mint or a faster distribution like Puppy Linux. You can install Puppy Linux in dual boot configuration along side Window 7.