===Windows 7 Special -- Getting Ready===

===Windows 7 Special -- Getting Ready===

Non-profit and free for redistribution
Written on January 3rd | 2018
Published on January 3rd | 2018

For entertainment and research purposes only
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DISCLAIMER
The Paranoid's Bible and its writers hold no responsibility for the acts of others.

The Paranoid’s Bible is for research and entertainment purposes only.

Please visit our blog for more PDFs and information: http://www.paranoidsbible.tumblr.com/
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===Preface===

Windows 7 is most likely the last semi-user-friendly operating system to be released by Microsoft. This is mostly due to the fact that, unlike 8 and 10, the end-user can still take control of most things and retain some form of freedom on this proprietary system. Minor tweaks and configurations aside, a truly dedicated user or someone who’s desperate can secure 7 to such a state that it can become a nightmare for forensic analysts.

The purpose of this series of guides is to give the users of 7 a taste of what it takes to truly secure and protect their privacy when using anything by Microsoft. Besides that, we also want to get the reader used to digging around and customizing an OS to their needs and wants.

We know many within the privacy communities will find this useless or to be some form of faux pas, however we’re writing this for the uninitiated in mind. Many curious parties don’t want to jump feet first in the privacy pool, ergo we allow them to grow at their own rate by helping them customize and learn about something that they already are using—Windows 7.

It should be noted though that this doesn’t mean the Free Software Movement should be ignored, nor should any Open Source projects. The more people that get involved and work within these communities means we can see more user friendly software that could, in time, come to challenge proprietary software companies.

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===7 and Anti-Forensics===

While we know that anything by Microsoft is extremely unsecure, easy to root through and obviously made for the 5-eyes in mind, it can be however, to some extent, secured and made to leave less traces than the norm. While anti-forensics on Windows to some is usually just running Ccleaner and modifying some settings and--depending on who's writing the guide -- some modifications to registry. Windows and anti-forensic is simply a chore and won't do much to stop a determined specialist from digging up your chat logs, embarrassing fan-fics (that you thought were deleted) and the fact that you masturbate to anthromorprhic animals with spiked penises and 12 foot long prehensile tongues.

This is why we must assume, when using Windows, that we’re being spied on. Due to it being so widely used and popular amongst gamers, however, Windows is a good system to use in an air-gap setup and as an introduction in securing an operating system. This is also why it’s good to be used as a main OS for your “average user” setup, thus lessening some potential questioning by family, friends, or coworkers.

Using Windows for day-to-day activities, like banking, playing games, downloading or streaming movies and shows should help you pollute any results or leaks on yourself with a healthy dose of garbage data that some poor schmuck will have to dig through for anything useful in court or to use against you. The reason for this is that Windows is simply used by a lot of people who don’t know much about computers, thus a lot of forensic analysts get used to simply plugging into or taking someone’s rig and doing a few sweeps.

Now, with a few modifications, due diligence, encryption and a few others things… you can keep a lot of traces and tracks off of Windows so if you do mess up, and suddenly the ABCs are banging on your door...they’ll be busy with your Windows rig while you have your other devices hidden somewhere else or simply not on site.

===Resources===
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_agencies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-computer_forensics
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===Why You Need to Practice Anti-Forensic===

It’s almost as if it is human nature to lie, cheat and accuse others of what we, ourselves, are guilty of doing. This is one reason why people, even a normal civilian, should fear the witch hunts that can be born from a single accusation. Within the lies spun, stories, conspiracies and rumors are created from the ether that can destroy a person’s social life, way of life, and ultimately ostracize them from society at large.

Simply put: People will project what’s most true of themselves onto others.

The zealot with dirty thoughts will accuse of others of dirty thoughts.

The rapist, masquerading as a male feminist, will accuse other men (feminist or not) of being rapists.

The ultra-left-leaning activist will accuse all others of being bigoted, while they, themselves, are bigoted.

This means that anyone ranging from an activist to a leaker to a journalist or civilian need to lessen not only their digital footprints but also the tracks left on their personal devices. Sure, OPSEC and INFOSEC are great starts, however if, for whatever reason, someone decides to paint a scarlet letter on your back… you’ll be up a creek without a paddle whenever they decide to seize your personal devices and whatever other piece of technology they deem needed or suspicious.

Again, this is why you need to look into anti-forensics--just in case you're ever accused of something you haven't done or want known.
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===Everyone Assumes, so Don’t===

A lot of people working for the ABCs and law enforcement in general have an ego and tend to power trip. They think themselves more intelligent or more physically suited for whatever it is they do. This is a benefit to many because they believe everyone’s an “average internet user” that doesn’t know the difference between a monitor and tower.

Use this to your advantage when building a “sticky rig” and setting it up.

===Note:=== Sticky rig is a rig created for day-to-day use under the assumption that it'll be the one targeted in case of a seizure or warranted search. This is due to it being the one connected to the internet the most and the most stationary owned piece of tech.

These people think that your average hobbyist believes that moving and renaming files will somehow halt investigations. No, it’s true (http://www.forensicmag.com/article/2015/09/countering-anti-forensic-efforts-part-1). While, yes, a lot of uneducated users and posers exists who try to gain some sort of “cred” by spouting off some asinine techno-babble they learned from whatever CSI show is in flavor, (some of) the people who do forensic analysis believe this to be everyone else with a computer.

Like any wise tactician, you really should investigate the competition. If there are forensic white papers or some loud mouth’s personal website or blog that discusses these things—dig through it. This will help you counter some but not all methods being deployed to dig through a rig and tech. However don’t become an egotistical little snot like other people. While it helps to be confident and prepared it also helps to play into their hand and lay about several false positives for them dig through.

The real thing here is to waste their time, energy, money and resources. While there are legitimate anti-forensic methods, with any propriety software you’re just preventing the inevitable. So while it pays in time to layer up your security on all your rigs, don’t be too shocked if you mess up down the line and they seize your rig if you end up in a SHTF situation.

Generally, read up on the competition before thinking you’re in the green. These people have better toys than most and are paid to sit around all day finding ways to incriminate you even if you accidentally visited that underage Thai lady-boy escort site.

===Remember: === Some of these people are so egotistical that they’ll claim running Bleachbit or Ccleaner as being anti-forensic. Let that rumble around your mind for a bit—they think basic maintenance is anti-forensic.

===Resources===
https://belkasoft.com/countering-anti-forensic-efforts-part-2
http://www.forensicmag.com/article/2015/09/countering-anti-forensic-efforts-part-1
http://cyberforensicator.com/
https://belkasoft.com/
https://belkasoft.com/en/sqlite-analysis
https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/fast11/tech/full_papers/Wei.pdf
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===Preparing your Rig===

So, the first thing you must realize is that you need to do this on a fresh/clean install meaning that you’ve recently just installed 7. Any version works, in a sense, however Ultimate edition (64 bit) is recommended simply because it’s easier to work with and comes packed with a few more goodies than other editions.

The second thing you’ll need to realize is that Microsoft is putting all of its eggs in 10; ergo support is ending or has ended for most other versions of Windows. This means you need to either get your hands on an OEM copy or a pirated edition. While we don’t recommend piracy, it’s the sad state of things when it comes to Microsoft.

Third, once it hits 2020 support for 7 officially ends. No more updates, fixes, patches or anything. After that, whatever was done is done and you’re up a creek. So, please, really look into an open source/free software operating system, soon.

Finally, old hardware (2009 or older) is king as many will claim from a privacy enthusiast’s point of view. A lot of new hardware is already infected with corporate or government code. This can’t be removed or cleansed, it just exists. We must assume it’ll always exist simply because we never know what’s fully done to proprietary hardware, and that even if a source is released not everyone will be digging through it for flaws or exploits (or even willing to make them public).

So, to recap: Look toward grabbing an OEM copy of Windows Ultimate 64, some 2009 or older hardware (Focus on AMD and a board that supports ddr2 sticks that maxes out at 8 to 16 gigs). Then, obviously, focus on passive cooling (heatsinks, high-end thermal paste, powerful fans…etc) to help lessen the drawbacks of heat.  This way you can avoid most (government or corporate) infected hardware and not worry about it broadcasting things to whoever paid or threatened its makers into giving them access.

While, yes, you can use newer tech and build yourself up a pretty decent gaming rig... anything serious should be done on a rig created from older-tech taken from pre-used rigs purchased from rummage sales and/or second-hand shops, like Goodwill or what have you. The other thing to remember is that if you purchase hardware off the net, there'll always exist the chance of a 3rd party tampering with it, government agents or not, in order to spy on you or infect your system or another party you share a network with.

=== Tip #1: ===  Use a hardwired connection, none of that wireless crap. This applies for anything, actually.

=== Tip #2: === Really research your choice of motherboard before committing to a build. The reason for this is that some boards' bios can be customized with unlocked/custom roms. This could potentially be helpful in the long run.

===Tip #3: === Don’t use SSD. Those things hold a lot information even after secured deletion and a wiping. Keep to platter drives like SATA or IDE. Not as powerful and modern but a good trade off for making a forensic geek work for their keep.

===Tip #4:=== Towers can be safely ordered online as long as you remove pre-installed peripherals.

===Resources ===
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/05/intels-management-engine-security-hazard-and-users-need-way-disable-it
https://www.guidingtech.com/67821/microsoft-support-end-windows-7-8-10/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_cooling
https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/05/12/greenwald-nsa-plants-backdoors-in-foreign-bound-routers/
https://www.wired.com/2013/09/nsa-router-hacking/
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===Air-Gapping and You===

While the civilian version isn't as involved or complicated (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gap_(networking)), air-gapping is a major part of any anti-forensic plan. Simply restricting computers to specific tasks and keeping them unplugged when not in use can reduce a huge amount of potential traces from ever being made. This may seem like a waste of space, resources and time however in the long run it is a gift from heaven, especially when you take into account that it means less maintenance for you, which roughly translates to less wear and tear on your hardware.

You don't need to waste a lot of money, nor do have to reduce several rigs to a single task. The form of air-gapping that we're going to discuss is a dumb-downed version meant to help you reduce your tracks but also to reduce your overall potential for screwing up.

An example of this form of air-gapping works as thus:

- A more powerful rig/system used specifically for gaming, streaming and other intensive things like watching videos on YouTube.

- A similar rig as the above use specifically for editing of art, video or for similar projects (note: Usually seen as a burner rig/disposable rig if used for activism, protest, dissent or similar items).

- A lower-end rig meant for doing online shopping, banking, taxes and similar items.

- A memory intensive rig to serve as a "storage" rig, usually using RAID, for things like photos, videos and other items (note: these storage rigs are usually used for non-threatening or volatile items. E.G: Family photos, home videos, documents, tax backups...etc). This rig will always be disconnected from the internet and any network.

- A burner/throwaway top (Netbook or laptop) used for a variety of things, like dispersing content for activism, propaganda or for other similar purposes (or even nefarious means).

- A burner/throwaway top (Netbook or laptop) used for poon-vanning, which roughly translates to a disposable laptop and a series of high-capacity USBs used to leech off of open or unsecured WiFi networks to download pornographic content (note: can be applied to pirating parties or raids where a person uses the above to download music or movies).

- If you use Social Media, a burner top should be used.

- Printers should be bought in cash and  from rummage sales. The cash only principle applies for printer ink and paper (Note: Printers have code that can show from what printer something was printed).

While basically compartmentalization, doing the above with the items we'll be discussing in the following guides should help you cut down on not only tracks but also resource waste. We've seen some people achieve boot-up times that are just under 10 seconds. This all depends on hardware and how well you maintain your system, however we'll discuss maintenance at a later date, but for now... move onto the next chapter.

===Remember=== If using a burner top, always turn it off and remove the battery before returning to your home. This doesn't mean do it in the garage or a block away. You need to do it right off the bat, ideally a few blocks away from your original starting location (which should be a few miles away from your home) when you first started to download or upload.

===Resources:===
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_steganography
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===Mirroring===

While this chapter will discuss what mirroring is, we won't go into detail on how to do it, yet. That'll be done within another guide, however for now we feel its pertinent to bring up the fact that an un-discussed and often overlooked step of anti-forensics is knowing when to ditch your current HD for something a little fresher.

This is where mirroring comes in to serve as what some will call a time saving method. It's quite simple, actually. You get up to a certain point in preparing the OS, usually after Windows updates and installing your drivers and maintenance related programs. From there, after your first (or second) cleanup and optimization, you use any 3rd party software you like and mirror your HD's current state to one or more backup HDs.

This way, if you ever want to remove your current HD, for any reason what so ever, all you have to do is backup a series of miscellaneous files and transfer them to one of your mirrored HDs.
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===Recommended Programs===

As it says, recommended programs that we’ll list in an alphabetical order with a short description. This is what we’ve used on our test rigs and have found to work nicely. You may deviate as you may have your own.

The rule of thumb here is to replace 7’s default or built-in programs with others that work better or more open and free to use. Others are useful in their own ways, however you should only download and install what you believe you need.

The less programs installed means the less information you generate.

===Remember:=== Download and place on a USB. This way you'll have them on hand whenever needed.

===Note:=== Always download offline installers where you can, and to also always install your programs offline. Read through everything carefully, ensuring you uncheck/disable any extra-options like a program trying to force-install Chrome.

---Archivers\Unpackers:--- You only need one.

7 Zip: Unpack all the archives, also open source.
http://www.7-zip.org/



---Antimalware & Anti-virus:--- Download the free versions, not the demos. Set all services to manual or disabled until you need to update and/or run scans.

Adaware SE: A multi-scan program that detects malware and some viruses.
https://www.adaware.com/antivirus

Emsisoft Emergency Kit: Should remove most possible infections and other malicious items.
https://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/eek/

Malwarebytes: Became somewhat more businesslike than before, still good.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/

Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit: You’ll probably need this.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/antirootkit/

Spybot S&E: Has trouble finding some infections, however their immunization’s great.
https://www.safer-networking.org/

Spyware Blaster: Immunize your computer from potential threats.
https://www.brightfort.com/spywareblaster.html



---Anti-Spying:--- Stop spying and tweak settings. Always read the documentation. If it doesn’t need to update, block

Ancile: Spiritual successor of Aegis.
https://bitbucket.org/ancile_development/ancile/downloads/

BeCyPDFMetaEdit: Purge meta-data from PDFs.
http://www.becyhome.de/becypdfmetaedit/description_eng.htm

Blackbird: Similar to Ancile, should be ran after Ancile.
http://www.getblackbird.net/

Destroy Windows 10 Spying: Redundant but still useful.
https://github.com/Nummer/Destroy-Windows-10-Spying/releases

GWX Control Panel: Redundant but still good to have on hand.
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

JPEG & PNG Stripper: Drag & Drop an image file or an entire folder, remove meta.
http://www.steelbytes.com/?mid=30

Keyscrambler: Encrypt your keystrokes.
https://www.qfxsoftware.com/

Ultimate Windows Tweaker: Redundant as most can be done by hand, still useful for the lazy.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-v2-a-tweak-ui-for-windows-7-vista

XnView: A bit of an editor, better used to remove meta from images.
https://www.xnview.com/en/

XP-AntiSpy: Automate some configs, easier to do for those with little time.
https://xp-antispy.org/en/about/

X-setup PRO: Redundant and deprecated, still useful
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/x_setup_pro.html

Windows Access Panel: Lazy man’s toy, keep on hand.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-access-panel-for-windows-7-vista

Windows Privacy Tweaker: Can do VIA manual configurations, still good to have on hand.
https://www.phrozen.io/page/windows-privacy-tweaker



---Browsers:--- Surf the net.

Firefox: Was good, slowly becoming crap.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

TOR Browser: Best known for use by TORpedos, good for other things than the ugly.
https://www.torproject.org/



---Cleaners & General Maintenance:--- Clean temp files, misc files, registry files and other misc items. Can repair some minor items, too. Only update by going to the programs sites, never allow it to auto-update

Bleachbit: Gets some things Ccleaner doesn’t.
https://www.bleachbit.org/

Ccleaner: Bought up by Avast, however still useful.
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

Clean After Me: Clean up some tough items, good for the lazy.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/clean_after_me.html

Doc Scrubber: Purge meta data in documents.
https://www.brightfort.com/downloads.html

Java Ra: Clean up crap left by Java installs. Fix and tweak some things, use it to uninstall and clean it up fully before installing the latest copy.
https://singularlabs.com/software/javara/

Little Registry Cleaner: As it says on the box, however misses some items.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/littlecleaner/

MRU-Blaster: Cleans quite a bit more than Privazer.
https://www.brightfort.com/downloads.html

MV Regclean 7.0: Cleans registry. Disable its internet connection.
http://www.velasco.com.br/produto.php?uid=0

MyDefrag/JkDefrag: Better than windows’ built in, has some decent advantages and even optimizes the system.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/mydefrag.html

Ncleaner: Read the documentation and double check the settings you choose. Some setting tweaking, ignore their “Warning: blah blah setting”.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ncleaner.html

Privazer: Pretty decent and gets a whole lot of things cleaned in one swoop. Set everything for max privacy and at three wipes.
https://privazer.com/

Privazer Shellbag Cleaner: Outdated but useful since the above doesn’t fully clean them.
https://privazer.com/download-shellbag-analyzer-shellbag-cleaner.php

Steam Cleaner: Clean up all those junk files from Steam games.
https://github.com/Codeusa/SteamCleaner/releases/

System Ninja: Removes a lot of files others miss.
https://singularlabs.com/software/system-ninja/

TFC: Cleans Temp Files.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/tfc/

Tron Script: Glorified batch files, helps automated things for cleaning.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TronScript/comments/72gk69/tron_v1024_20140925_fix_ccleaner_vulnerability/

USB Oblivion: Remove traces of USB devices.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/usboblivion/

Wise Cleaner: Gets a lot of things others don't, however be aware that the WinSxs  backup option shouldn't be checked/enabled.
http://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-registry-cleaner.html

Wise Registry Cleaner: Similar to the other two recommended reg cleaners, however catches things others don't.
http://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-disk-cleaner.html



---Diagnostic:--- Benchmark, generate reports, check some items and become increasingly bothered by that random .dll

Belarc Advisor: Security auditor for Windows.
https://www.belarc.com/products_belarc_advisor

Cports:  Network monitoring made easy.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html

Executed Programs List: Use to ensure settings stick, if files are shown here you’ll need to make adjustments.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/executed_programs_list.html

Last Activity View: A good way to gauge if settings stick besides showing you things that need adjusting.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/computer_activity_view.html

MUI Cache View: Use to view MUI items, can also purge them from here.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/muicache_view.html

Nmap: A pretty straightforward and easy to use (Once you learn how) network mapper/scanner.
https://nmap.org/

Open Save Files View: Use to ensure settings stick, will show what files you opened if the settings aren’t adjusted.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/open_save_files_view.html

System Internals:  A multitude of decent programs like Autoruns. Good to have on hand when doing some digging and diagnostics
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysinternals-suite

Turned on Times View: Another useful tool, lets you know when you’ve turned your rig on and off.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/computer_turned_on_times.html

User Assist View: Yet another tool to use to gauge info on your rig
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/userassist_view.html



---Firewall:--- As it says on the box, Joe. Only need one.

Comodo: Free firewall, upsets the CIA due to its paranoid mode.
https://www.comodo.com/



---IM & Chat:---

Mumble: Voice chat program that's open source, good alternative for the others.
https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Main_Page

Pidgin: Simple program that allows you run multiple chat instances, like Skype, IRC or whatever else is supported (If you need to use something like Skype, this is a good alternative).
https://pidgin.im/

TOX: Simple IM that offers end-to-end encryption that you route through TOR.
https://tox.chat/



---Media players:--- Only need the two, really.

Combined Community Codec Package: Better to just use this to avoid anything odd or malicious when trying to get things to play.
http://www.cccp-project.net/

Foobar2000: Foobar is love, Foobar is life.
https://www.foobar2000.org/

Windows 7 GIF Viewer: Get back your .gif viewing ability, also returns a false positive.
http://www.goofwear.com/windows/



---Preventative:--- As it says on the box, prevent things.

Hostman: Lazy-man's solution to editing, updating and managing host files on Windows.
http://www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman

Peerblock: Think of it as a meta-firewall that allows you to block IPs VIA lists, whether you download them or make your own.
https://code.google.com/archive/p/peerblock/downloads

Winpatrol: Monitors your system for changes, and also alerts you about said changes.
https://www.winpatrol.com/



---Text editor & Word processor:--- Simple text editors, good replacements for Word and Office.

Notepad 2: Notepad replacement, decent enough for editing and fixing code even.
http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html

That's about it, however you can find more @ https://paranoidsbible.tumblr.com/RP
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===Drivers and other Software You'll want on Hand===

One other thing to remember when installing Windows is that you'll need quite a few drivers to ensure everything's running as it should be, which usually translates to having an ungodly amount of versions of XNA framework and Visual C++ runtimes. While not exactly needed, to some extent, it does pay in dividends to download and keep several copies on hand of not only your hardware's drivers but some of the 3rd party software usually needed by games or other applications.

First and foremost, do research into your hardware. Look at manuals and use a program like CPU-Z to get the information you need, usually just names and version numbers. It's really important to also do your research on whether or not you should update, as some so-called "updates" can actually make your system unstable or brick it.

So, to recap: RESEARCH! RESEARCH! RESEARCH!

Your first step should be to find the appropriate drivers for your audio and graphics chipsets/cards. From there, double-check your hardware's documentation to see what other drivers you made need. You'll want to be doing this before setting up and working on your new rig. Finally, you'll most likely need the below software, especially if you're going to try using anything like games.

===Note: === Go ahead and get your latest bios, in case, however really do look into if you need to update or not. Screwing up bios can brick your rig.

.NET Framework: Another common 3rd party software games usually need or want.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17718

Direct X: You should know about this by now.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

Flash: Should be dead by now, honestly.
https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html

===Note:=== Just grab the Flash Player Projector if you really need to play or goof around with any .SWF files. Use a download add-on for Firefox to grab games or whatever it is you're looking for or want.

Java: A true horror story.
https://www.java.com/en/download/

===Note:=== Download the latest offline installer. Never let it connect to the internet, nor should you let it auto-update. Use Java Ra to uninstall it before installing the latest version. Run Java Ra again to clean up random junk Java creates.

OpenAL: OpenAL is a cross-platform 3D audio API, used in games and other software. Grab both the Windows installer and SDK.
https://www.openal.org/downloads/

PhysX: NVIDIA PhysX is a physics engine.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.17.0524-driver.html

Visual C ++: The demonic bastard from Microsoft that almost every game tries to install, especially if you download something from Steam.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads

===Note:=== You'll want to grab all Win 7 supported downloads, specifically offline installers if they have them. You'll want mostly 64 bit, however a few games or applications will force 32 bit on their own. Don't fret, they'll usually push those versions themselves.

XNA Framework: Microsoft XNA is a freeware set of tools.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15163
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20914

===Note:=== Very rarely will you actually need the above. The same applies to anything before 3.1. Just grab the two above (3.1 and 4.0) to be on the safe side.



===Updates to make Windows Updates Work:===

===Notes:=== Ensure you get the proper versions for your OS (E.G: x64)

KB3102810: Speedup WU and increases its speed.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49540

KB3112343: Fixes.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50031

KB3138612: More fixes.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51212

KB4019990: More fixes.  Choose the appropriate version.
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4019990

WindowsUpdateAgent-7.6-x64: Updates the client. Choose the appropriate version.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3138612/windows-update-client-for-windows-7-and-windows-server-2008-r2-march-2
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===Afterword====

This is honestly just a quick primer to ensure you're prepared to what you're getting into and making sure you get your hardware and software prepared for what's to come. Once done with this, take a break, then start formulating your game plan. You're going to want to ensure that you've gotten all your software in order and backed up on a USB or two before even thinking about installing Windows 7. The reason for this is to ensure you're not scrambling and downloading anything while unprotected.

Before you move onto the next guide, please head over to https:// www.speedtest.net and record your net's download speed. This will be used for a later guide.