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

[bobafetthotmail]

1. you can find other freeware disk burners (among a ton of other good freeware), here.

2. I know of that issue. The only solution is getting another (different) DVD burner, it's a rare enough issue that should not happen again to you. You can get one for near-free by scavenging older PCs or notebooks and as you said they are rather cheap nowadays (as long as it does not do bluray).
As I said when discussing it some months ago in another thread, if it was anywhere near prevalent, MS would be scrambling all its staff to fix it before its HQ got overrun by angry mobs with torches and pitchforks.

3. depends from what you need to save. I have double backups (one internal HDD one external HDD) plus critical stuff backed up on Dropbox, yet so far no HDD died on me (and even if it did I would notice and replace it before real data loss). IF you need to keep dozens of copies at different ages, then yeah, DVDs are the only possible route.

 

[Faladu]

Support ends, nothing more is done with it by M$.

BUT......

It's not like XP just croaks and refuses to boot on 4/9/14, that would most amusing.

M$ abandoned Windows 7 gadgets already, which to me was pretty pathetic.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Shhh! You are giving them good ideas!

 

[jgiels]

I really liked the gadgets, choice of what I wanted on my desktop. For M$ to end it pissed me off.

 

[Wenda]

I really liked the gadgets, choice of what I wanted on my desktop. For M$ to end it pissed me off.

Me too, so I put them back.

8GadgetPack - Gadgets for Windows 8

Hope this is of use to you.


Wenda.

 

[NoN]

Well, after those will have to buy an anti-virus security suite...doing the patching job, if they do not want upgrade.

 

[Stephanie]

BP Oil UK are still using Windows XP, I hope this changes soon

 

[Jacee]

Keeping the old XP for my Husband and guests to use.
Been with MS Security too long to let them get out of the gate LOL!

 

[x BlueRobot]

Most of the computers at my college are still running Windows XP with no problems. The computers are slow at times, in comparison to some the Windows 7 machines we I usually get a chance to use but I doubt the college will replacing the XP machines any time soon.

 

[XweAponX]

I'm not worried about this deadline, I am as of mow, saving the most important updates manually for implementation.

The things that may be problematic are the Dot Net updates. But lately I have found a release of XP that someone put together that includes added drivers and all of the most recent updates slipstreamed into the installer. 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?

I Wish Microsoft would update the OS so that it can have IE9 loaded, which works much better than IE8. So far, I've been using Chrome and that works just fine.

 

[McRuff]

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.

StatCounter Global Stats - Browser, OS, Search Engine including Mobile Market Share

 

[bobafetthotmail]

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.

 

[jimbo45]

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

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Yeah, but I was under the impression that XP is expecting to talk with a server to know if the code is authentic or not.

Do they plan to change that and release a iso called Win XP The Last Of All?

I was under the impression that beyond 2020 the only way to keep XP is pirating the copies. Which is technically illegal, even if none will really care about it anymore.

 

[lehnerus2000]

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).

 

[x BlueRobot]

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.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

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.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

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).

 

[x BlueRobot]

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.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...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.