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Windows XP is going to be DEAD Soon :)

SabrToothSqrl

SabrToothSqrl

Well-Known Member
This is sorta forum related....

http://countingdownto.com/countdown/143839

I own an on-site computer repair / upgrades / network / virus removal / etc. company...

if any of you are reading this on a Windows XP computer... STOP right now, and go buy something newer.

Then call someone like me to come move your files/emails/etc to the new machine.

XP goes out of support on April 8th 2014.

This means... no more updates. No fixes, no patches, NOTHING.

SO... hackers, scammers, and generally not nice people are going to have a FIELD day making lots of BAD software that will eat your computer and data alive.... and Microsoft will say too bad, so sad, your software is 13 years old!

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/endofsupport.aspx

Also, if you are using Office 2003... STOP and go buy something newer. or use open office, i don't care.

Just like your 1987 Chevy wagon that you can't find parts for any more... this is going away.

and unlike your 12 year old 951... you can't fix this problem on your own.

DON'T install a new OS, just buy a new machine. it's cheaper, faster, and easier.

If you don't like the stupid full screen crap that is windows 8, google "io bit start menu". just don't install the crapware that comes with it. Make sure to uncheck that box, and you should be good.

<<end of public service announcement>>

<<did my good dead for the year>>
 
I haven't used XP in about 8 years. Can't believe some people are still using it. Currently running Windows 7.
 
"The very first month that Microsoft releases security updates for supported versions of Windows, attackers will reverse-engineer those updates, find the vulnerabilities and test Windows XP to see if it shares [them]," wrote Tim Rains, director of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group.

"If it does, attackers will attempt to develop exploit code that can take advantage of those vulnerabilities on Windows XP. Since a security update will never become available for Windows XP to address these vulnerabilities, Windows XP will essentially have a zero-day vulnerability forever."


If you don't like Windows 8, plenty of on-line retailers will be happy to sell you a brand new machine with Win7

or hey, go mac, I personally LOVE my iPad..
 
interesting, I still have two perfectly working XP machines in my office, they've been reliable for yrs.

Win 7 for myself on work and home desktop, win 8 (with start8 installed, and always in desktop mode) on my laptop, I can't stand the new GUI crap.

not sure honestly, if either of the xp machines have "updated" in 3 years .. lol

if I have a virus, its not slowing anything down, nor is any real critical data on the machines. About the only thing I do on them is backup the email to a flash drive every 3 months or so.... I have norton installed but don't really pay attention to that either :)

what is really at risk if we don't do any online banking ? (thats a serious question)

as far as Mac? no thanks, IMO it kinda sux. (not to start a war on pc vs mac, but I don't care about extra features and BS, all I do is some basic web surfing, email, and the occasional torrent)
 
I'm gonna run out right now and replace my 2 XP PC's. Please forward me $8,500 so I can go buy AutoCAD 2014, Office 2013, and my other software I need that will be Windows 7 or 8 compatible. LOL, if life were just that easy...... I have a laptop with Vista and another new Laptop with Win 8 but they are not for work.


Shouldn't this be in the "Off topic" area?
 
A lot of the old software will work on W 7, a lot will not. I have a couple of W 95 programs that work fine on 7, some others would not, luckily they were not something I used often and found other ways to do things. I still have XP on several machines at work and at home, work I will have to evaluate the machines before I upgrade. I stayed with XP as long as I could due to some of the manufacturers had not certified there software for 7, Ford Motor Co being one of them, now I guess it is time to change.
 
Basically if you have an XP machine, connected to the internet, or that deals with outside files, you are vulnerable to losing that machine and all data on it.

Any vulnerability, exposed after April 8th 2014, will not be fixed. So, basically if the bad guys find a way in, the hole they used, will NEVER be closed.

If your machine is not connected to anything else - no networks - no internet, nothing. then yes, of course it will continue to turn on, work, and be as out dated as a rotary phone.


I'm not the one forcing you to switch, it's just out of support.

RacerXXX; most software I've seen, runs just fine on 7 or 8. in fact, both of them even have compatibility mode.

You're more than welcome to keep running XP, just realize that even one XP machine on a network of PCs raises the likely hood of comprised data.

I'm just letting you guys know because I don't want anyone to lose data or have information compromised.

As far as I know, none of you are my customers, but since you all like SEA-DOO, I thought I'd give you a heads up.

Since I work in the IT field, security, and data recover-ability are huge for me. No one wants to lose hundreds of photos of their kids...

If you were a hacker, or group of people who wanted to take over millions of computers... all you'd have to do is wait until April 9th to deploy your attack to XP machines... they would never be fixed. You'd have full access/control to literally millions of machines...

You guys do what you will, obviously it's your stuff, and your life, I'm just letting you know the facts so you can make an educated decision.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I will add, use multiple back methods, couple people I know bragged about their terabyte backup drives, they crashed and all data was lost.
 
quite honestly for me, my only real concern backup wise is photo's and using the same honesty, I don't ever look at the photo's anyway.

for "real" backup, i'd say everything i'd ever be concerned about would fit on a 16GB flashdrive. which would encompass entire email history on 3 machines, (8gb) and my entire photo collection, maybe 4gb. the rest I could care less about.

the other 3 TB of data is pretty much movies and TV shows that I haven't bothered deleting.

if xp (or other OS's for the matter) has security flaws, I don't really care, there's no real interesting data to steal, 98-99% of the critical data is online , or stored in old fashioned paper files.

curiously....

if xp has flaw's or possibly will have them come May, won't norton or kapersky or whatever anti viri program you use protect you ?

isn't that the whole point of having anti-virus ?
 
Yes, some companies are touting that they will continue antivirus protection for a year or so... I wouldn't trust it, and it's only going to buy you a year or so...
 
WELL.........

Its not 100% true.

I have buddies who work for NVIDIA and for Microsoft. Yes, they want to kill support to XP, but industry is still using it. Vista/win 7 was a pile of crap, and win8 hasn't been proven yet. Not to mention there are a lot of people who think the tiles screen is a waste of time... and the fact that you really can't shut down programs is a problem for some.

Its funny though... I get real info from my NVIDIA buddy... and I just argue with my MS buddy. I basically told him that a "phone OS" has no biz being in my work computer.


Anyway... I know they want to kill support... but I'm betting they will still patch security issues. They just wont support newer drivers and so forth.
 
oddly, I always like win7, never tried vista.

win 8, well the tiles page (I call it GUI) is ridiculously stupid. I've mentioned before, between myself, parents, daughter, I have 5 win 8 machines that i've worked on, everybody absolutely hated the tiles screen but as soon as I installed Start8 program, and let them have their start button back, got them into desktop mode, they all the did same thing as me, went to desktop mode, and never ever went back to that stupid tiles page, I see absolutely no reason behind it honestly. the ONLY thing I like about the newer laptops is the touch screen which you grow accustomed to quite quickly. I seriously doubt i'd go back to a non touch laptop unless somebody was giving away a machine the same day mine got run over by a car.

i'm old skool, I want to go back to windows 3.11 for workgroups ! it was wonderful ....
 
I think I still have distribution for WFW 3.11 if you are interested. Also, looking up on the top dusty shelf I see 4 new, shrink-wrapped distributions of Win 98 second edition, also office 97. Buried off in another corner are some NT workstation and server distributions. Lots of other goodies I will not mention.

----flame softly burning
With every new release of (bloatware) operating systems and other trash included with the distributions or with the newer, more powerful system needed to run the trash, is more and more trash.

I been around the computer world for way too long and recently was forced out of work (no tears please, this is a good thing). I recall PDP 1105 systems with 4k core memory (yes, I said 4000) running an operating system and an application very well ... man, that dated me didn't it.

Back to XP. I have seen all the generations of Windows OS come and go and some really never going away. As recently as 3 years ago the main customer where I worked still had at least one (critical) app running on NT. I have not seen a flood of hacking problems appear as soon as official support ended and I do not believe it will happen with XP. As long as you are reasonably careful, and keep your critical stuff stashed somewhere with extra protections (and an image that you can go back to) you should be ok.

I personally have so much computer crap around my house for projects that I lost interest in, I have no interest in computer games or cutsie apps so have no interest in updating hardware to run new bloatware. In fact in the last few years of working on computers every day I was so burned out on them I really needed to force myself to get on one of my home systems to check email.

It has also been my experience that the outfits making protection software will continue to address specific problems that pop up on operating systems not supported any more by the manufacturer, but where there is still a significant customer base.

I will stick with XP for a while more.

---- flame dying down, do not want to really rant right now

So, what am I doing here pecking on this keyboard when it is 80 degrees out, no nearby fires, and I have a small fleet of SeaDoos that are calling for my attention!!!

Rod
 
When I switched to 7 from XP I had some software issues in my office that made me wish I could have stuck with XP. I really dislike one software company and hated have to pay to upgrade their sub par crap software.

I also had to upgrade Quickbooks since the version I was running (2004) would not run on 7, so now I have 2013 and HATE it. It is the most bloated POS version yet. I was so frustrated with it, I purchased a GAMING PC for my receptionist so she can now run it without the poor computer hanging up.

So to whomever laughed at the folks that do not want to upgrade to 7 from XP, as another poster alluded to, the cost to switch runs deep for some folks. I am thanking god my Autocadd Software with overlays still runs fine in 7 and 8. That would have crushed me financially.
 
Doc, NVIDIA might patch XP issues, but nope, April 8th, Microsoft says 'so long suckers' to anyone running XP...

we all had to give up our leaded gasoline cars didn't we?

7 is a great OS, and you can still buy plenty of machines brand new with it.

I believe HP will even still sell machines with 7 loaded on it. All new...


Anyone who lives near Harrisburg, PA and needs PC help, let me know :). I can get your photos, files, etc from your old PC to your new.

Also, don't anyone dare pay for an antivirus! Microsoft gives it away free!

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

I love this antivirus. It's FREE, FREE, and did I mention FREE?

it's not a resource hog, it's easy to use, and it updates itself constantly...
 
semi OT
are there any reasonably cheap NAS alternatives out there right now ?
I keep my desktop, really only because it holds 2 TB of Data on 4 drives. (non critical data but lots of it)
I'm thinking of eliminating it all together, selling it cheap and going with laptop only.
right now the only reasonable option is a 2 or 3TB external, eliminating the need for the 4 sata WD drives I have on the desktop
or finding a convenient way to put the sata's into some kind of nas system....

for all intents the desktop really is my nas storage but thats a lot of hardware just to hold some drives.

thoughts ?
 
SabrToothSqrl said:
7 is a great OS, and you can still buy plenty of machines brand new with it.

I believe HP will even still sell machines with 7 loaded on it. All new...

I love this antivirus. It's FREE, FREE, and did I mention FREE?

it's not a resource hog, it's easy to use, and it updates itself constantly...
Click to expand...

I just read today the MS will keep windows 7 due to popular demand/complaints.

I have Norton 360 and love it but it costs me every year.
What the diff between this and the one M gives out for free.......BTW I love that 4 letter word....F R E E.
 
SDB I think they are both comparable , although notorn offer's some additional features (that I don't use)

I tried MSE once and got burned by virii. so I switched back to norton, not a huge deal for me the office got a new laptop and it came with 1 free license, and for $20 ish we bought 2 additional's.

I used zonealarm for years but they increased the price for 3 computers to a crazy $125 figure and wouldn't budge so I dumped them.
 
Go here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/ , choose Freeware Categories, Security, there are reviews on several FREE AV solutions, Avast is on the top, I have used it, it is good. I found this site years ago and have downloaded multiple free software programs, it is a safe site to use.
 
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