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TL;DR: Is there a safe way to play games over the network with an old computer with an old OS?

My son (5yo) really likes base-building games and we would like to play together.

Finding coop games we both like and can play on one computer is tough, let alone RTS games, so I was wondering if I could play with my own pc and an old computer over a local network, which allows a large library of (mostly old) games to play together. Games need to find each other over the network, and I will need a way to transfer files.

My plan was to use my own computer and an old laptop he can call his own and play on.

Connecting an old Windows 7 (EOL 2020) to the home network and internet seems like a bad idea however, so I was planning to disconnect my pc from the home network (cable and wifi), and then connect it directly to the old machine so they can only see each other.

I was wondering if this is a bad idea, perhaps I'm missing something?
(Lingering malware on old device? Or issues when reconnecting to a home network and internet later?)

Perhaps there is a better way altogether?
(e.g. don't disconnect but use whitelist firewalls, subnets, VMs, or ... something else.)

I have some knowledge of setting up networks but please assume I'm a noob.
(becoming a dad seems to have turned my brain into mush)

Strangely I didn't find any related questions, I thought this would be a common scenario.
I pondered asking on gaming.stackexchange.com , but that seems to have more focus on specific games themselves, and my questions are more about safe networking.

The old laptop needs some specific drivers and will just not work properly on Windows 8 or 10. I was happy the recovery still produced a working OS. Also sometimes things just work better on an old OS. So assume the OS will not change.

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The risk of using old unsupported OS is overstated if you know how to use them properly.

  • As already mentioned web browser will stop supported Windows 7. OK, don't browse the web using the OS.
  • The same applies to antiviruses but you may simply run what you know is clean and safe.
  • In a perfect world this OS/device should be put in a separate network segment, so that it can't access your other devices directly.
  • Make sure this OS/device is properly firewalled. Either don't permit any connects from the outside to this OS or make sure there are no open ports or the built-in firewall doesn't allow any incoming connections.
  • In the best case scenario network services for this OS shouldn't be allowed to access the Internet.

Given the above you may run any OS you want without worrying.

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  • The problem is that very few people will be able to follow this to the letter. Using an up to date operating system is probably one of the single most important things people can do to increase security.
    – vidarlo
    Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 11:25
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    @vidarlo using an up to date OS does not guarantee security. Nowadays the user is the biggest security threat. If you have an up to date Windows 10/11 you can as well download and run new yet to be detected malware and you're hacked. Most AVs are reactionary, not proactive.
    – Artem S. Tashkinov
    Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 13:43
  • Up to date OS does not guarantee security, but using EOL operating system more or less guarantees lack of it. And re. users being the biggest threat: yes. And you create a list of things the user shouldn't do - which in my opinion is a recipe for disaster. Even well disciplined organizations struggle to follow rigid security rules. Rules such as don't browse the web is very likely to be broken when some just is looking for a video related to gameplay or whatever.
    – vidarlo
    Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 14:19
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    more or less guarantees lack of it - citations needed. A properly firewalled/isolated system running only known good applications is no more insecure than an up to date system. Locking down the system or simply disabling outgoing connections to ports 80 and 443 is enough to prevent using any web browsers. You may also disable outgoing connections to UDP port 53 = DNS resolution broken, you're not able to open anything.
    – Artem S. Tashkinov
    Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 14:27
  • Yes, but as you say: the threat is the user. That system is not properly isolated anymore the moment the user browses the web with a unsupported browser. Then you have a software with probably known security vulnerabilities executing random code from the Internet. Not upgrading may make sense in some scenarios, but in this scenario I struggle to see any reason to not upgrade to a supported operating system. It's even free.
    – vidarlo
    Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 14:29
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Connecting an old Windows 7 (EOL 2020) to the home network and internet seems like a bad idea however, so I was planning to disconnect my pc from the home network (cable and wifi), and then connect it directly to the old machine so they can only see each other.

Upgrade to a supported OS.

Most devices shipped with Windows 7 can run Windows 10 - which is a free upgrade. Windows 10 is supported at least until 2025.

Windows 7 presents two problems:

  1. You don't get updates to the OS any more
  2. Third party tools such as web browsers stops supporting it.

By installing Win10 you're effectively extending the maintenance until at least 2025, and possibly longer, as LTSC is supported until 2029, pointing in the direction that security updates will be available.

If you don't want Windows 10, Linux distributions such as Ubuntu will probably work just fine as well.

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  • Do you have an actual example of such a game?
    – vidarlo
    Commented Feb 3, 2023 at 23:27
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    "Planescape: Torment" and Age of Empires 2" come to mind straight away. You need to run them on an emulator. Lots of other games designed for XP or earlier require emulators, depending on how they were programmed. It's tons easier if you just run WinXP to play them. Yes, I am that old that I have those games, like them, and still want to play them ... ["low low low looow ..."]
    – schroeder ♦
    Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 17:27
  • @schroeder Interesting! Thanks for the excellent examples. Ironically it seems that the DRM solution is what created problems for AOE2?
    – vidarlo
    Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 19:57
  • The laptop needs some specific drivers and will just not work properly on windows 8 or 10. I was happy the recovery still produced a working OS. Also sometimes things just work better on an old OS. So assume the OS will not change.
    – MoonLite
    Commented Feb 5, 2023 at 12:15

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