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No more support for Windows XP

Segnosaur said:
Yeah, its possible that some virus-writer will find some unknown exploit in XP, but with fewer people running XP it makes it a much less valuable target.
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This part isn't really accurate for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the issue isn't with people finding unknown exploits in XP. The problem is that later versions of Windows share a lot of the same code as earlier ones (they add and fix things, not rewrite a whole OS from scratch every time). That means when an exploit is found in Windows 7 or 8, there's a good chance the exploit will also work on XP. Microsoft, and any other software developer, generally try to fix vulnerabilities as soon as possible, but XP will no longer get those fixes. This becomes a real issue because it doesn't just rely on malicious people trying to find these vulnerabilities - every patch Microsoft releases for the newer version of Windows is effectively an announcement of how XP can be exploited.

Secondly, XP is still the second most popular OS by a huge margin. Give it a year or two and it might be almost as unpopular as Windows 8 and OSX. XP is going to be a very popular target for some time to come, and it's going to become much more vulnerable than any other target.
 
Desert Fox said:
Let us be blunt here. . . .
XP is nice and stable, does almost anything you want to do (still), and there has been little need to change.
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I was aiming more that Microsoft's ending of support for XP in April of 2014 has received a great deal of coverage in the general press for some time.
 
Cuddles said:
This part isn't really accurate for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the issue isn't with people finding unknown exploits in XP. The problem is that later versions of Windows share a lot of the same code as earlier ones (they add and fix things, not rewrite a whole OS from scratch every time). That means when an exploit is found in Windows 7 or 8, there's a good chance the exploit will also work on XP. Microsoft, and any other software developer, generally try to fix vulnerabilities as soon as possible, but XP will no longer get those fixes. This becomes a real issue because it doesn't just rely on malicious people trying to find these vulnerabilities - every patch Microsoft releases for the newer version of Windows is effectively an announcement of how XP can be exploited.

Secondly, XP is still the second most popular OS by a huge margin. Give it a year or two and it might be almost as unpopular as Windows 8 and OSX. XP is going to be a very popular target for some time to come, and it's going to become much more vulnerable than any other target.
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This is the main reason I am getting a Windows 7 computer,and keeping my XP computer around to run old programs (primairly games) but am going to take it pretty much off line.
Though the major anti virus companies are announcing they will continue to update their programs to support XP.
 
Dancing David said:
Not really, after all the patches it is really bloated, Win7 is nice if you have teh system run it, very stable compared to XP.

XP is hardly stable, even after SP3, but then I worked with a lot of machines with XP. It is nice for what it does, yet Win7 is even nicer and I hear good things about 8

Just for explanation, I was a tech aide in two buildings, over 300 machines running XP, it was a mess, the level of vulnerability was atrocious, even with SP3, even legacy worms could crawl through a field of XP machines.

Now when a virus or scareware hacks Win7 it is usually a booger to remove.
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I have run XP machines, doing jobs for me, for weeks straight. Maybe because I am old and remember 95/98/ME/etc.
Windows 2000 and NT were nice and stable.

One item is that I like the easier nature of XP's system restore better than 7's. I have used it a number of times. The Window 7 restore, even pruning it, creates the file from hell.

I also have had trouble with networks and 7. I just recently changed my storage machine to 7. My videos and movies are on their own drives separate from the OS. Trying to give network read/write/erase privileges was insane. Eventually ended up sharing those directories not the whole drive which worked.
 
Desert Fox said:
One item is that I like the easier nature of XP's system restore better than 7's.
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That's something I hadn't mentioned - the system restore on my XP laptop seems to have stopped working. Whenever I've used it it spends ages going through the motions then ends up telling me that it can't be restored to that point. Even when I try other points I still get the same response.

Yuri
 
FWIW the gradient between XP and 7 isn't that big. it might be if we were talking about clean installs, but with the amount of updates that there are on XP.

I've upgraded a few machines from one to the other and often found that performance was comparable before and after. That said that had 2GB+ of RAM anyway to YMMV, but I'd say if you add some RAM and upgrade you'll be fine and if you stick with XP you'll likely be fine too.
 
Desert Fox said:
I have run XP machines, doing jobs for me, for weeks straight. Maybe because I am old and remember 95/98/ME/etc.
Windows 2000 and NT were nice and stable.

One item is that I like the easier nature of XP's system restore better than 7's. I have used it a number of times. The Window 7 restore, even pruning it, creates the file from hell.

I also have had trouble with networks and 7. I just recently changed my storage machine to 7. My videos and movies are on their own drives separate from the OS. Trying to give network read/write/erase privileges was insane. Eventually ended up sharing those directories not the whole drive which worked.
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I understand, hopefully you have a good firewall on your forward face, yes permissions in 7 are a bite.

I tend not to use system restore in general, just have images and backups of data. That is a better way to go than system restore, for me.
 
Dancing David said:
I understand, hopefully you have a good firewall on your forward face, yes permissions in 7 are a bite.

I tend not to use system restore in general, just have images and backups of data. That is a better way to go than system restore, for me.
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With data, I tend to use a program called "Karen's Replicator" and use it to save o an external hard drive and make manual copies to the storage and entertainment machine) as well an an external I use for my laptop.

As far as protection, the household router has its own firewall and each computer has its own firewall and anti-virus.

Still, Io plan to change all my machines to 7 and have a copy of 7 which I plan to install in my laptop when I get a full day off (I take it to work and don't want it down.) Laptop is the last machine I need to change over to 7.

My new desktop I built last year has always run 7 - It is an 8 core and have a pretty high end video card - XP was not a good choice for that machine so went with 7.
 
Yuri Nalyssus said:
That's something I hadn't mentioned - the system restore on my XP laptop seems to have stopped working. Whenever I've used it it spends ages going through the motions then ends up telling me that it can't be restored to that point. Even when I try other points I still get the same response.

Yuri
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Your XP is likely hosed up in such a case. . . .If you were to stay with XP, you need to do a fresh install (Before April 8)
 
Desert Fox said:
Your XP is likely hosed up in such a case. . . .If you were to stay with XP, you need to do a fresh install (Before April 8)
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Why would they need to do a fresh install before April 8th??

I thought Microsoft was merely not adding new updates. I was not aware they are shutting down XP Updates...

This site seems to agree with that, but I could be wrong:

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/soft...s-how-you-secure-your-pc-and-save-all-updates

You'll still be able to install old security updates, but no new patches will be released.
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As well as this site:

http://www.zdnet.com/xp-sp3-download-it-while-you-still-can-7000027323/

"Microsoft will continue to make all patches and fixes made to Windows XP up until April 8, 2014, available to users via Windows Update. 'There are no current plans to remove existing Windows XP security updates from Windows Update after end of support on April 8, 2014,' a spokesperson confirmed."
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Also, technically they aren't even not adding new updates if you include Microsoft Security Essentials updates. Those will be still provided for XP users indefinitely (they say "a limited time" but I have heard it will be for a few years):

If you already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, you will continue to receive antimalware signature updates for a limited time, but this does not mean that your PC will be secure because Microsoft will no longer be providing security updates to help protect your PC.
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http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-support-help
 
OnlyTellsTruths said:
Apparently, yes. As I just found out when looking for an answer for the above post.
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Hmm. I must be on ignore....

TheL8Elvis said:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2014/01/15/microsoft-antimalware-support-for-windows-xp.aspx

To help organizations complete their migrations, Microsoft will continue to provide updates to our antimalware signatures and engine for Windows XP users through July 14, 2015.

ETA:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download?os=winxp&arch=other

After support ends for Windows XP on April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates for Windows XP to help protect your PC against malware. On this same date, Microsoft will also stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP. If you already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed when support ends for Windows XP, you will continue to receive Microsoft Security Essentials updates for a limited time to help identify malware on your PC. You can also still get the Malicious Software Removal Tool for Windows XP for a limited time through Windows Update and the Download Center.

I read that in conjunction with the top link to mean the limited time is "through july 14, 2015"
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Hmm, I was going to migrate to Mr Nay's old gaming computer, but that's got XP on it too.

Not sure I can afford to buy 8.1. How much is it? The MS site won't let me start the buying process apparently because I'm running XP.
 
Orphia Nay said:
Hmm, I was going to migrate to Mr Nay's old gaming computer, but that's got XP on it too.

Not sure I can afford to buy 8.1. How much is it? The MS site won't let me start the buying process apparently because I'm running XP.
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If you have XP you might be able to update to 7, but your better option maybe to buy a new computer. This would be true if your computer is 4+ years old. Hardly worth spending money on it.
 
rjh01 said:
If you have XP you might be able to update to 7, but your better option maybe to buy a new computer. This would be true if your computer is 4+ years old. Hardly worth spending money on it.
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Nope, the computer's got way more capacity than I need from it to do the piddly stuff I get up to. It just needs a new OS.

How much are 7 and 8.1?
 
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