Windows XP support ended today. Now what?

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Templar

Templar

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Ok, I don't care so much about this (only Amigas at home), but in my business I still use a WinXP equipped peecee. This support ends WinXP Professional as well?

On the other hand, an all-around-anti-virus-suite will do the job after the end support, or it's better to move to Windows 7 at least? Not a word for Win8, they are totally crap for what I need.

Whoever uses WinXP even now, are they considering installing Win7 or Win8, or do they have some better ideas to secure WinXP as much as possible?

Suggestions and comments.

Thanks.
 
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My business PC still runs XP, its not connected to the internet (I have another PC for that) its more secure that way.
My XP machine has never ever crashed, not once in 10 years!!
Im loathed to move to windows 7 tbh, but I am going to start preparing to move over in the next 6 months.
 
90% of my clients still run XP. They all have the "wait until something happens" mentality. Even my small Business clients don't care, and will wait until the machine goes up in flames before they actually will consider listening to me.
 
We had an estate of over 9000 Win XP terminals. Installing an up to date AV agent isn't really good enough as it's the exploitation of areas the operating system that are the issue here. From now on Microsoft will not release any patches that address such exploits, leaving the OS at the mercy of anyone wishing to develop attacks for it.

That said, if the Win XP terminals are isolated from any external influence (not connected to the internet directly, unable to have people interact directly etc.) then these ones are the safest to leave for the time being. We have some terminals like this that are secured dumb terminals used for data capture for example.

Even so, realistically Win 7 or Win 8.1 is the way to go. We've gone to Win 7 for our environment, with just over half of our estate moved over now. Our biggest problem was legacy applications, including bespoke ones that historically were developed for 16bit platforms.

We've used App-V for most of our application deployments, which has allowed us to wrap up the delivery and installation of older applications (with some tweaks) onto our Win 7 platform successfully.

Depending on how big your desktop estate is, what Active Directory and Server level you are using and what Remote Access solution you are using, I'd recommend Win7. Win 8.1 has some great features for enterprise users on remote access (Direct Access) though so keep an open mind and do what's proactively best for your business. You don't want to spend your time upgrading and hacking things to work on Win7 only to have to do it later again.

Remember that you could always run some of the environments virtually also, leaving you some flexibility for older systems, in a more controlled application on your network.

Hope this helps
 
It's the end of the world as we know it.

But given most of us here at Amibay are still using Amiga OS in 2014 I'm sure many will be using XP for many years to come!
 
My workplace is almost entirely XP machines at the moment - the head of IT moved our workstations to 8.1 when he finally wrangled upgraded machines out of the big boss (though I'd gladly go back to the old crap if it meant not having to put up with Win8,) and he's trying to get me to hack together some kind of Linux build for the machines on the sales floor (since our actual Linux guy bailed recently.)

Personally, I'm still using XP at home, and will continue to do so until I can no longer get machines to run it on, by which point I'm hoping either ReactOS or Haiku will be viable as a replacement. This Win8 nonsense is just ridiculous.
 
Having never used a PC or Mac since my amiga is a million times more capable than...

Okay, I'm lying :lol:

Still, I always considered my Windows machine as vulnerable anyway. There's no difference for me.

I tell you what though. I have been considering a MorphOS licence.
 
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Its not like it wont work anymore is it

you can still use xp and install it

i use it on 1 of my machine and it has never been updated so its fine
 
I'm in a bit of a quandry to be honest.
I've been messing about with Win8.1 and Win7 at home.
I'm not a massive fan of 8.1, but I can navigate it without any major problems.
I find 8.1 performs better than 7 on my hardware, but I hate the UI of 8.1 (if I'm forced to move off XP, then 7 is a niced choice from a UI point of view)

Hmmmmm, Linux isn't viable due to all the proprierty hardware (iPhone, iPod, webcom, I stll have a NetMD MiniDisc player, oh, and my USB Cassete Deck) - although I've managed to get all of these to work in Linux (minus the NetMD MiniDisc) it's too much of a pain in the ass, I don't want to be fighting my OS just to get hardware working.

I would stick with XP, but I've been finding that as XP support has been dwindling over the last few months, so has support for latest versions of some software and some functionality (iCloud Control Panel needs Win7 or above!!!)

However, I was quite happy with my Win8.1 setup until last night, when it completely f****d up - explorer.exe crashes everytime I right-click an icon now :lol: :o ..... so much for the better "stability" of newer Windows versions :double

I'll be reinstalling 8.1 again, but if it gets screwed again, or if I get p****d off with the UI, it's back to 7 I go.
 
We just recently completed a Windows 7 roll out at my work, honestly Windows 7 is the way to go, Windows 8 is evil
 
johnim said:
i use it on 1 of my machine and it has never been updated so its fine
Click to expand...
Too true right there.
I do have one machine with XP on it, and it's a fresh install, no updates or anything.
I've always found (and still do) that Windows seems to maintain it's stability more if you DON'T install the updates :o:lol:
 
i always think that when support ends for an os then the vulnrabilities decrease.
These hackers and virus people dont want to target old os's that people are less likley to be using..

i mean windows 95 for instance thats full of vulnerabilities. stupid things like being able to send packets that are to large for it.. But i dont see any one out there actively targeting 95..
the more people move to a newer os the more they target the new os..

there is a extra layer of sequitity involved when you have an out dated os. its not a good layer. its just a simple matter of no one wants to bother with it.

A decent updated anti virus and correctly configured firewall should keep you safe and sound with your xp..
the only reall issue comes when you want to install new hardware or software that simply isnt supported, this shouldn t be much of a issue though as the xp systems people have now probably wont be getting upgraded anytime. and any hardware failures would usually result in a replacement of the same hardware rather than upgrade to bigger and better.

personally i still think 98se is what id use if i wanted to use and older
OS. and if i was able to run xp at good speeds then i would just go for windows 7 instead. simply for the better driver support (unless i had some legacy hardware that simply wont run on 7)

people will eventually move from xp.
Even i eventually (begrudgingly whilst kicking and screaming) moved from 98se to xp as i was simply forced out of the os due to wanting to upgrade components.
This is only really a issue if you use your pc for gaming IMO.

I will admit that i do have an XP system set up here. (mostly because that was the cd i found 1st)
it hower boots directly in to xbmc connected to my tv. and i use it as a media center.
xp has the most minimal essential updates done to it so it can run using the least ammount of resources as possible. And even then explorer.exe and any other un needed tasks shut down once xbmc has booted fully.

so i guess that covers everything, and also added a bunch of un neeeded info too.
 
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Only use XP at work which will be upgraded to 8.1soon.

Home machines have been xp free since Vista was in beta (not running Vista on any machines now either 7, 8.1 or Linux).

Going to build an AROS box out of spare parts as a secondary machine for my A1200 ;)
 
woodycool said:
I'm in a bit of a quandry to be honest.
I've been messing about with Win8.1 and Win7 at home.
I'm not a massive fan of 8.1, but I can navigate it without any major problems.
I find 8.1 performs better than 7 on my hardware, but I hate the UI of 8.1 (if I'm forced to move off XP, then 7 is a niced choice from a UI point of view)

I would stick with XP, but I've been finding that as XP support has been dwindling over the last few months, so has support for latest versions of some software and some functionality (iCloud Control Panel needs Win7 or above!!!)
Click to expand...
If you're running 32-bit 7, it's my understanding that you can overwrite explorer.exe with XP's version and have it work. Might be worth a shot.
 
that replacing the exe thing sounds a little bit far fetched.. but i guess it is MS.

i know that my old msword product key installed word win 95 win 98 and prety much any other ms official product disk i had at around that time..
 
Every time I use or see Windows XP now it looks ancient and is damn slow!

Windows 7 is the OS at the moment, it runs smooth and is pretty much the new (better) XP imo. Compatibility is pretty much there and it's very stable.

Windows 8 - I'm still not decided over it - was using it today and it's not all that bad - I just wish M$ would give you an option at the start of installation whether or not to turn off the dreadful 'Metro' interface and just have it as a Windows 7 'classic' version.
I've said all along 8 is kind of like a hybrid OS that doesn't know what it is - a tablet, a touchscreen, a PC? a piece of candy? :picard
 
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