Windows XP No-Support Deadline Has Arrived -- Ignore At Your Peril

ninetailz said:

Most of the visual novel runs on win7 but i don't know about the xp cause how do you even run on them ? same procedure like win7 ? and I am sad to see windows xp going :< it been here for 12 year but os moves on as people does XD

I've come across a couple that simply didn't like the idea of running inside Windows 7 for one reason or another, they tend to be the older VNs which are also oftentimes very good classics. There are also some that dislike running under a locale emulator like AppLocale or NTLEA, which having a native Japanese Windows XP VM solves splendidly.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm surprised to find a fellow VN reader/player here. Well met!

King Arthur said:

ninetailz said:

Most of the visual novel runs on win7 but i don't know about the xp cause how do you even run on them ? same procedure like win7 ? and I am sad to see windows xp going :< it been here for 12 year but os moves on as people does XD

I've come across a couple that simply didn't like the idea of running inside Windows 7 for one reason or another, they tend to be the older VNs which are also oftentimes very good classics. There are also some that dislike running under a locale emulator like AppLocale or NTLEA, which having a native Japanese Windows XP VM solves splendidly.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm surprised to find a fellow VN reader/player here. Well met!

I haven't used applocale yet windows 7 solves that for me, and its nice to meet you too :3 (yay finally found a vn player :3)

i found out about Windows XP end of support about 2 years ago and then thought to myself i know my school system isn't going to do anything about it, my Digital Design class requires us to use Photoshop CS3 and mychool system still hasn't updated to Windows 7 yet, we have a few computer labs running Windows XP and we have netbook carts with all netbooks running Windows XP, i am glad my home laptop is running Windows 7

Guys note that around 30% of the world uses windows XP; However soon less and less will use it but it is only a ticking time bomb in the sense that as soon as malware producers get a sniff of the final security update they will already exploit it.

Windows XP is safe to use but I wouldn't recommend staying on it, make plans to upgrade to Windows 7.

Hi there
a lot of residual XP machines will be running as VM's and probably quite safely too --especially if they are dedicated / single purpose isolated machines.

The remaining ones will be largely based on OLD possibly rarely used hardware - people might have switched to tablets for example and can't be bothered with PC's any more. A few "Dinosaur" types will still be around but the Hacker community will certainly find far richer pickings elsewhere -- I don't think many people will still be using XP for Internet Banking or things like that so the Hacker threat is IMO more perceived than real.

If you NEED XP (and there are still very good reasons as to why some people STILL NEED XP) then run it as an isolated VM. you can download any FREE Linux distro to run as a Host, install vmpayer (free) and run your XP system.

There's tutorials on how to convert a PHYSICAL machine to a VM.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi there.

The several hundred thousand "Ma and Pa Kettle" types won't be on the Internet at any one time -- if you are committing Fraud on any "sensible" scale you want to do it quickly -- In and out and get away with a reasonable "profit" before anybody catches you.

A few dollars here and there might be interesting if you are say working in a Bank and can process 100,000's of transactions in a short time but it's just not worth the effort to "the average criminal".

Most businesses whether on XP or not usually have fairly restrictive Internet Access policies anyway -- you have to be fairly high up or have a reasonably responsible position before you get "Un-controlled" Internet access - and if you are one of these types you are likely to get newer gear before anybody else in the organisation.

While people like Dutch and UK Gov'ts are paying for continued XP support -- Hope the taxpayers of those countries remember that at their Next elections - why this sort of money is being spent when there was 6 YEARS WARNING !! that XP would be discontinued I still think the threat is more imagined than real - especially as a lot of the old "Ma and Pa Kettle's" will never have installed any AV software in the first place.

Surf sensibly, don't download anything unless you know EXACTLY what you are looking for-- a lot of downloads are hidden with extra green arrows for downloading anything except the software you want, uncheck any toolbars etc and NEVER EVER open any email attachments unless you know EXACTLY who it comes from -- and a few sites now masquerade as "official one's" such as UK HRMC Tax revenue service - don't click on any links on those emails either.

99.9999% of people will get de-frauded NOT because of computer Viruses but simply by falling foul to Internet activities and bad computer practices which no AV software can prevent.

(I'm in no way suggesting that you shouldn't protect your machine BTW -- that's not the point of this post !!).

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

If you NEED XP (and there are still very good reasons as to why some people STILL NEED XP) then run it as an isolated VM. you can download any FREE Linux distro to run as a Host, install vmpayer (free) and run your XP system.

It should be stated though that simply turning a native XP install into a VM and using that like you've always did accomplishes absolutely nothing in terms of improving system security, plus there are cases where VMs simply can't fly because of unique factors like highly specialized hardware and such.

I do agree with your overall opinion, of course, I just felt there are certain caveats here that might've needed mentioning.

Hi there
The trick is to keep it Isolated - and a lot of hardware can interact directly with the VM -- especially if it's USB based as the USB drivers are usually "Pass thru" which means they can be installed LOCALLY on the VM without being installed on the Host.

For businesses IMO it makes sense for them to actually Virtualize their whole desktop applications so people would connect to a virtualised desktop infrastructure - avoiding the whole messy exercise in the first place.

(I.T admins would still have a load of work to do but the USERS would just see a desktop with a load of Icons pointing to the applications they would normally use -- instead of actually on the desktop they would be on the Virtual Server via the network).

Cheers
jimbo