A recent experiment showed how vulnerable old classic Windows operating systems can be when connected to the internet. Literally a few minutes; That’s how long it took for a virtual machine on XP to turn itself into a malware hotbed.

Famous YouTuber Eric Parker installed virtual machines with Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems and connected them to the internet without any third-party protection. There was no firewall or antivirus. Parker wanted to find out how quickly these operating systems would be infected by viruses on the network.

The result turned out surprising and to some extent even touching – within a few minutes a huge number of viruses, trojans and other malicious programs appeared on both systems. Some viruses completely compromise the security of systems by automatically creating new accounts and installing malicious services.

Later, after installing Malwarebytes antivirus on an already infected Windows XP, Parker discovered at least 8 active viruses. However, due to the limitations of the free version of the program, the actual number of viruses may be much higher.

A Windows 2000-based system suffered even more damage. After a few minutes, the virus attack caused a complete crash of the operating system and a blue screen of death.

According to the YouTuber, such a devastating vulnerability is due to the complete lack of modern security mechanisms in older Windows. In contrast, newer operating systems, starting with Windows 7, are much better protected against automatic unauthorized installation of various Trojans, even if the firewall is disabled.

The experiment clearly revealed the worst-case scenario for both operating systems, which lack the most basic security measures. Using classic network tools such as the Nmap scanner, hackers have the opportunity to freely download and run viruses and malware directly on the user’s system, after nmap provides information about the presence of an outdated and therefore vulnerable system.

Therefore, if for some reason you need to use older versions of Windows (XP or 2000), experts strongly recommend using protection by firewall, antivirus and other methods.