Two decades ago was near the end of that Windows-malware peak. And really, if you were behind a NAT two decades ago, that would have stopped nearly all of it, so you might not have noticed how bad it was unless you were supporting a lot of Windows machines in varied environments.
There was a span of a few years when a Windows box connected directly to the Internet, using a public address, would reliably get pwned before long, even with nobody using it. But that was quite a while ago, and, again, just being behind a NATing router mostly solved the problem (assuming nothing infected ever connected to your local network).
There was a span of a few years when a Windows box connected directly to the Internet, using a public address, would reliably get pwned before long, even with nobody using it. But that was quite a while ago, and, again, just being behind a NATing router mostly solved the problem (assuming nothing infected ever connected to your local network).