What's the chances of getting a virus by going online before completing many months' worth of updates?

[WildEyedAndHairier]

My Windows 7 pc has been packed away since we moved last year. DH (thought he would give me a lovely surprise with my own study area) switched it on fine, said it needed lots of updates. He posted a message on fb to me saying this and then shut it down.

I now can't start Windows at all - keep getting blue screen. Followed instructions to press F8 while booting. Got repair computer option but it's been stuck on "Windows is loading files..." for ages.

I'm going to have to re-install aren't I? If there is a virus/viruses, is that even going to work?

You could try booting from the disk / dvd if you got one with it. If it won't boot at all, that's probably a hardware issue than a software one.
You might have to take it to someone to get fixed.

But to answer your question, seven minutes is generally the time bandied about for an unprotected computer to be on the internet before it's compromised. Don't forget it's not just all the patches you were missing, but the out of date antivirus. I doubt your DH was on long enough, probably a hardware fault.

Ok first of all have you tried safe mode? If that doesn't work have you tried the system repair option then doing a system restore? You can have a read of instructions here:

Launch System Restore

Secondly I wouldn't worry too much about the risk of getting infected if you are plugging your computer into a router. Your router will have a firewall which will block any attempts to 'hack' your computer. Unless of course you've opened up any ports which is unlikely or you'd know.

Nowadays most virus 'infections' are as a result of opening dodgy emails, links or dodgy websites. So if you do need to reinstall as long as you go to the update site straight away then the risk of infection is minimal.