Windows XP diehards: Can you survive the April 2014 deadline?

To those worried about EOL for XP. Have a look at a place where real work is done. No need to worry about the End Of Life for XP here.

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bobafetthotmail said:

I'm wondering how Microsoft will handle the Activation, will they release the OS so that it can be activated without connecting to the net, of will XP suddenly not be able to be activated?

2014 isn't the last year for activation, just for patches. I think the last year for activation is 2020. A Source.

Hi there
After that they will probably consider it "Abandonware" and have a Unique freely available key. This is already the case with Windows 98 (Key available legally all over the web if you want to run Windows 98 as a VM -- still works fine !!) and Adobe CS2 full suite including photoshop -- keys are on their website -- actually for LEARNING Photoshop this is great since there aren't a huge amount of changes -- some newer cameras etc --but you can always convert the RAW to TIFF with the cameras software if your camera isn't supported and then simply use Photoshop again.

Cheers
jimbo

That's for those who still want Windows XP, you notice a real difference in boot times between computers with Windows XP and Windows 7, and I mean the exact same hardware for both computers. My college has around 3/4 of the computers running Windows 7 Enterprise, and the other 1/4 on Windows XP Professional.

I just don't see the sense in hanging onto XP after 2014. Unless the machine is getting old, most should run Win 7 just fine. Six years ago, it was difficult to find a ready built machine that would run XP due to a lack of available drivers or because of hardware incompatibilities. Believe me, I know, I tried back then and never found one. I had to have one built because I didn't want to get Vista (the OS du jour back then) because of hardware and software incompatibilities (otherwise, I would have had to replace a perfectly good printer, a serviceable scanner, and replace one piece of software with a $400 replacement). I wound up having a builder build me a machine (I'll never make that mistake again). When Win 7 came out, I ran M$'s compatibility checker and the new machine was incompatible with Aero. Since I had gotten spoiled by an AeroSnap emulator I had that worked in XP but not in Win 7 (why should it?), I decided to wait until XP was about to die to the most bang for the buck from my machine. Since I had eventually replaced the scanner with two of them (a flatbed and a duplexing ADF), the printer, and the incompatible piece of software (the manufacturer made me an offer I couldn't refuse after I threatened to go to the competitor because they had abandoned the software I had), I finally replaced the desktop earlier this year (I built my own this time).

Business still using XP should have been planning to upgrade sometime ago. If the software or hardware they are using is incompatible with Win 7 or 8, they should bite the bullet and replace it. The extra effort required to maintain the aging equipment and protect the software they are using will eventually wind up costing them more than it would to have upgraded. Even if a company's computers are in a closed system, there is nothing to prevent a disgruntled employee or a prankster from plugging in a flash drive loaded with all kinds of delightful nasties and bringing down the entire system or stealing or otherwise compromising data).

bobafetthotmail said:

lehnerus2000 said:

I have no doubts that a bunch of activation hacks will appear after the 2014 deadline (after all MS won't be sending out patches to break them).

I like how you are so sure about how MS has plugged all the holes for XP. I'm pretty sure of the contrary.

Heck, on this same forum we get people with questionable windows 7 installations (and quite a few of them turn out to be cracked), and think XP is faring better?

@Bluerobot: Not significantly here, why are you asking? XP is worse in a long list of more important things. Why you care about boot times?


P.s. the main reason I still have an XP license nowadays is because of a virtual machine on Virtualbox I need to run the &/%/$&%£ software to move music to/from my oldish Kenwood portable music player. And to run a few other legacy stuffs if asked. And no, I tried it, but XP mode is not the same.

It was just one noticeable difference between the two operating systems, I could think of on the top of my head. Most average users, will base a operating system on speed, rather than security and stability; both lacking when comparing Windows XP with Windows 7.

x BlueRobot said:

...It was just one noticeable difference between the two operating systems, I could think of on the top of my head. Most average users, will base a operating system on speed, rather than security and stability; both lacking when comparing Windows XP with Windows 7.

You got the speed part right! When I got my Win 7 notebook (my first Win 7 machine, btw), it was so much faster than my XP desktop machine, I just quit using the desktop. And the desktop had a quad core CPU and 3.3 GB of usable RAM (4GB installed) running off a 7200rpm HDD while the notebook has a dual core CPU and only 4GB of RAM (which makes about even since Win 7 uses a bit more RAM than XP). Once I got reasonably used to using Win 7 (took about an hour although I was up and running from the word go), it was actually easier for me to use than XP. That may not have been true when Win 7 first came out but it's never a good idea to adopt a new OS soon after its release.

I haven't noticed much difference in security or stability between XP and Wind 7 because I haven't had much in the way of problems with either one.