Windows XP diehards: Can you survive the April 2014 deadline?
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Almost all of my teachers at my school still have to run computers using Windows XP because that is what they are given and also all of our netbooks are running XP, the only computers that are running Windows 7 at my school are the ones that have programs not compatible with Windows XP, my laptop is running Windows 7 and we also have a desktop running Windows Vista
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Almost all of my teachers at my school still have to run computers using Windows XP because that is what they are given and also all of our netbooks are running XP, the only computers that are running Windows 7 at my school are the ones that have programs not compatible with Windows XP, my laptop is running Windows 7 and we also have a desktop running Windows Vista
My friend got given a laptop by college for his coursework, and that was running Windows XP, it would overheat almost instantly and had quite frequent BSODs too 
Unfortunately, I never got a chance to debug the problem and see what exactly was happening 
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A Disneyland resort in Florida still uses XP to check in. Credit cards are used on that machine.
My church recently paid for a "Donations Kiosk", and the company that they bought them from sent them with XP. This was a few months ago.
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A Disneyland resort in Florida still uses XP to check in. Credit cards are used on that machine...
It's not a huge problem now but after the first of the year, I would be concerned.
...My church recently paid for a "Donations Kiosk", and the company that they bought them from sent them with XP. This was a few months ago.
Quite a few companies are probably dumping XP based software and hardware while they can. Hopefully, your Church can upgrade the kiosk to Win 7. If not, they should demand the company to do so or take it back with a full refund.
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That's not what I meant
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.
I'm sure MS hasn't plugged all of the holes in XP, but after 2014 they won't be bothering to look for, or fix any holes (unless the US Government forces them to).
When was the last time you saw an official W98 update?
When was the last time you saw an official W2K update?
MS will be concentrating on blocking activation hacks for W7, W8, W9, etc..
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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.
I'm sure MS hasn't plugged all of the holes in XP, but after 2014
they won't be bothering to look for, or fix any holes (unless the US Government forces them to).
When was the last time you saw an official W98 update?
When was the last time you saw an official W2K update?
MS will be concentrating on blocking activation hacks for W7, W8, W9, etc..
Exactly! And I'm sure the hackers will be looking for those holes (and will probably find them).
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I like how you are so sure about how MS has plugged all the holes for XP. I'm pretty sure of the contrary.
I'm sure MS hasn't plugged all of the holes in XP, but after 2014
they won't be bothering to look for, or fix any holes (unless the US Government forces them to).
When was the last time you saw an official W98 update?
When was the last time you saw an official W2K update?
MS will be concentrating on blocking activation hacks for W7, W8, W9, etc..
Exactly! And I'm sure the hackers will be looking for those holes (and will probably find them).
...or have a buttload stockpiled until the day Microsoft stops supporting XP.
That's what I'd do. Instead of using exploits when Microsoft will issue updates, I'd wait until they no longer support XP and then target the remaining systems that incidentally belong to either technophobes that will fall for ransomware or corporations that have a fair amount to lose.
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I'm sure MS hasn't plugged all of the holes in XP, but after 2014 they won't be bothering to look for, or fix any holes (unless the US Government forces them to).
When was the last time you saw an official W98 update?
When was the last time you saw an official W2K update?
MS will be concentrating on blocking activation hacks for W7, W8, W9, etc..
Exactly! And I'm sure the hackers will be looking for those holes (and will probably find them).
...or have a buttload stockpiled until the day Microsoft stops supporting XP.
That's what I'd do. Instead of using exploits when Microsoft will issue updates, I'd wait until they no longer support XP and then target the remaining systems that incidentally belong to either technophobes that will fall for ransomware or corporations that have a fair amount to lose.
That wouldn't surprise me.
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Hi there
as I said previously - there are still LOADS pieces of very expensive hardware attached to XP machines ( a lot running stand alone so security / Internet is a NON issue).
Some of this hardware has very long lifetimes / replacement cycles -- we are talking here about often specilaized lab gear. engineering monitoring gear, things like Gas analysers etc etc, to say nothing of equipment running often some quite expensive machine tools.
It's not an option to simply replace the OS (original Manufacturer either has merged, gone out of business or stopped making gear) so support for it so no drivers or software will be forthcoming.
The equipment also could cost THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS (even HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS) to replace - even if you could replace it.
I really feel a lot of people on these Forums just think -- Get rid of XP -- you can install W7 / W8 in 15 mins. They have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA on how businesses work ..
I suggest if you live in the Seattle area in the USA or in Toulouse in France try and go on a Visit to BOEING or AIRBUS -- it won't take you very long to see what I'm getting at.
Their Back office (H.R, I.T development, AR,AP) etc might be running W7 but a lot of the engineering stuff will still be based on XP.
XP will be around a lot longer than just until 2014.
Cheers
jimbo
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Hi there
as I said previously - there are still LOADS pieces of very expensive hardware attached to XP machines ( a lot running stand alone so security / Internet is a NON issue).
Some of this hardware has very long lifetimes / replacement cycles -- we are talking here about often specilaized lab gear. engineering monitoring gear, things like Gas analysers etc etc, to say nothing of equipment running often some quite expensive machine tools.
It's not an option to simply replace the OS (original Manufacturer either has merged, gone out of business or stopped making gear) so support for it so no drivers or software will be forthcoming.
The equipment also could cost THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS (even HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS) to replace - even if you could replace it.
I really feel a lot of people on these Forums just think -- Get rid of XP -- you can install W7 / W8 in 15 mins. They have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA on how businesses work ..
I suggest if you live in the Seattle area in the USA or in Toulouse in France try and go on a Visit to BOEING or AIRBUS -- it won't take you very long to see what I'm getting at.
Their Back office (H.R, I.T development, AR,AP) etc might be running W7 but a lot of the engineering stuff will still be based on XP.
XP will be around a lot longer than just until 2014.
Cheers
jimbo
I've worked in big businesses (I get my pension from one) most of my working life. I've also seen a lot of equipment rendered obsolete because the manufacturers didn't keep up with the computer technology to run the equipment, preferring to sell newer equipment instead of supporting the older equipment or the manufacturer went out of business. I've also seen businesses adopt major software packages that became obsolete because the manufacturer either abandoned the software or also went out of business. The company I get my pension from learned the hard way to keep up with technology and, instead of individual IT techs in each department doing their own thing (often incompetently), the company now has a large IT department that ensures compatibility with all software used by the company and also keeps it all up to date.
The department I worked for bought an installed carousels (similar to the ones dry cleaners use) in the larger warehouses. Since, at the time, all IT operations hadn't been integrated yet, The department just went for the lowest bid and would up with a system that was using dated computer technology to operate the carousel. This was shortly before IT operations were integrated into one department. The new IT department decided to upgrade the computers and software for the material system so all departments were integrated (a long overdue move and was being implemented gradually and piecemeal). It was bad enough that the still relatively new carousels weren't designed to integrate with the existing material system when it was purchased but when the IT department upgraded all the computers, the carousel software wouldn't run on them and the company we got the carousels from wouldn't upgrade the software for us (they were purchased as is). Instead of letting the IT department do the job properly, they farmed the job out to an independent contractor with the instructions to make something that looked like Windows (the company was still experimenting with the idiotic business units concept, with each department competing with each other and outside sources, instead of working with each other). I was assigned to work with the contractor to write software to run the carousels. I tried to get across to the guy what we needed to operate the carousels and the importance of integration with the new material system to avoid unnecessary and redundant manual data entry. The guy wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, he wasn't funded adequately (he was the low bidder), and/or the IT department wouldn't play ball with him so the result was an abomination that essentially made the carousels inoperable except manually, which was less cost effective than simple bins and aisles. We had to scrap out over a million dollars of carousels because no one would buy inoperable equipment.
It's one thing to maintain a small closed system for a single machine, such as a plasma CNC or a piece of diagnostic equipment (even then, those machines will last only as long as computers are available to run the software needed to keep those machines running; being able to upgrade the software to keep up with current technology would extend the life of those machines dramatically). For an entire system, such as for a major retailer with outlets and warehouses scattered across a large country, such as the U.S., a closed system just isn't going to happen. Any practical means of connecting all the computers, including office and POS, is going to be subject to hacking if the technology isn't kept current. That's not to mention the need for those systems to communicate with suppliers and contracted services.
Yes, it's expensive to keep everything upgraded but the cost of not doing so is going to be even higher. Any company that doesn't realize existing technology will eventually become obsolete and doesn't plan accordingly (such as buying equipment that depends on computers and software that can't be upgraded) is going to get burned or go under.
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