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Yes, the question sounds like I am a paranoid person, but seriously...

I have a machine that runs Windows 7, and I do not intend to update it. However, any number of programs have been acting oddly of late and the computer has been running far slower than in the past.

As an example, I just created an Excel spreadsheet and the contents were a) limited to a total of about three dozen cells and b) there was absolutely nothing fancy in the spreadsheet. I typed ctrl-s to save the file, and was greeted with an hour glass. After waiting a full minute, I clicked on the spreadsheet and the file greyed out, i.e., the program crashed or hung. Needless to say, upon restarting all of my inputs were lost.

So, is it possible that the updates coming from MS, such as those for MS Office, have been causing these problems? If not, I cannot imagine why a system that has been working fine for years is now acting so weirdly...

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    “So, is it possible that the updates coming from MS, such as those for MS Office, have been causing these problems?” - Only Office 2016, Office 2019, Office 365 receive security updates. Only Office 365 receive product updates (new features). Windows went out of support in 2020 and has received zero security updates since that time.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 19, 2021 at 22:32
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    Quoting from DuckHook, a SuperMod at UF: your machine getting pwned isn't just about you but is about the rest of us. The drones of the various botnets that infest the internet are comprised of pwned machines with exactly such dead OSes as yours. (...) a pwned machine serves as a wide open gateway into your LAN, (...) it is the classical method to bypass router firewalls. Once in, the rest of your LAN is wide open to them, especially given the fact that such a cavalier approach to the most highly compromised OS ever developed means you're unlikely to have implemented any defence in depth.
    – ChanganAuto
    Commented Apr 19, 2021 at 22:35

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So, is it possible that the updates coming from MS, such as those for MS Office, have been causing these problems?

Unless you are using Office 365, there are no updates for Windows 7 other than Security Essentials and security updates for Office 2010 (not feature or fix updates). I got security updates for Security Essentials and Office 2010 in April 2021, but even these updates are limited in what they can accomplish.

Windows 7 support ended a year and a half ago (about) and the likelihood is that you have a virus.

Back up your data, and then if your computer supports Windows 10, update to Windows 10.

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I have a machine that runs Windows 7, and I do not intend to update it

Windows 7 is no longer supported, so first of all, I really encourage you to update to Windows 10 unless your computer is not connected to the Internet.

So, is it possible that the updates coming from MS, such as those for MS Office, have been causing these problems?

A system that has been working fine for years can become unreliable or even crash for a countless number of reasons, from an external intervention (malware), to something that hangs (an update or software installation that is interrupted and leaves the operating system unestable). But it could be any update or software, as Microsoft doesn't offer any updates to Windows 7.

Even if you haven's installed anything, things "happen" in the background in your computer: log files keep growing, maintenance tasks occur, hard disk drives become full, disks are defragmented... and anything can potentially crash without your notice with unexpected secondary effects.

You could try to reinstall Windows 7 to make sure if it's a software problem (we don't have to discard a hardware failure although not probable).

But, in any case, the best time would be inverted in installing an updated Windows 10 which is the best way to try to keep (although never guaranteed) your system working.

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