TLS 1.2 on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1

As always, we recommend updating your operating system to Windows 11 and Microsoft Office 2024 or later (if you have an Office 365 subscription, it will offer you a free upgrade).

In any case, Microsoft released an update package so that older versions of Windows can use TLS 1.2, a secure and widely compatible version; TLS 1.3 is the latest version when available.

The options for obtaining this update are as follows:

• Run the Windows Update tool on your computer and install all system updates. Microsoft may require you to upgrade to Windows 10. Once this is done, and if you did not previously have a genuine license, Windows will display a warning message in the lower-right corner of your desktop (we recommend always having an activated genuine Windows installation for security reasons).

• Manually run the KB3140245 update, available for Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012. There is no update package for the client versions of Windows 8 or 8.1. It can be downloaded from http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/search.aspx?q=kb3140245.

• Make sure you download the version that corresponds to your version of Windows, and download the 32-bit or 64-bit version according to your system. If you have not updated Windows in a long time, you may need to apply several updates before your system is up to date.

Keep in mind that the update only adds TLS 1.2 support and does not enable it automatically: in Windows 7, you must configure the Registry settings (DefaultSecureProtocols) to enable it. In addition, some programs may need to be updated to the latest version before they work correctly (although this is very rare).