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

[techtitan100]

If you haven’t yet heard the dire warnings, listen up. Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP after Tuesday, April 8th. That not only means no technical support, it also means no updates, bug fixes and — more important — security fixes.

Read More at: Windows XP No-Support Deadline Has Arrived -- Ignore At Your Peril - Forbes

 

[margrave]

I still have one box running XP.
That's the way it will stay.
No worries.

 

[GEWB]

I have two running XP, and so they will stay.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

 

[King Arthur]

My Pentium 4 system with Windows XP and my Japanese Windows XP VM on my Windows 7 system will keep on chugging as always, fears be damned.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm still amazed...no, astounded by the number of people who should know better insist on staying with an OS that will no longer be supported, exposing them to exploits from hackers just waiting for what will be a golden opportunity, not only endangering the holdouts, but also others who come into contact with them.

 

[King Arthur]

My justifications for keeping my Windows XP Pentium 4 system and my Japanese Windows XP VM are as follows:

* Neccesary to optimally run older Japanese visual novels (they dislike running under AppLocale/NTLEA and/or Windows 7).
* I have older Adobe software that run better under Windows XP. No I will not repurchase them because these work just fine.
* I have a printer whose Windows 7 driver is feature-incomplete compared to its XP driver. This is dealbreaking as I use the printer to print on transparency film, the feature that is not provided under the Windows 7 driver. Again not replacing it as it works just fine.
* Having XP systems around, both a physical one and a VM, are nice to have as a lot of older software I have or will come across simply run better there (like the above Adobe example).

XP leaving support also doesn't make that much of a difference to me personally as I only run Windows Update like once a year or so anyway, barring MSE definition updates and the like. My XP systems are ~1 year behind on updates as it is, thus no big deal to me personally.

And just for the record, yes I do realize and accept the risks of administering systems this way.

 

[ninetailz]

My justifications for keeping my Windows XP Pentium 4 system and my Japanese Windows XP VM are as follows:

* Neccesary to optimally run older Japanese visual novels (they dislike running under AppLocale/NTLEA and/or Windows 7).
* I have older Adobe software that run better under Windows XP. No I will not repurchase them because these work just fine.
* I have a printer whose Windows 7 driver is feature-incomplete compared to its XP driver. This is dealbreaking as I use the printer to print on transparency film, the feature that is not provided under the Windows 7 driver. Again not replacing it as it works just fine.
* Having XP systems around, both a physical one and a VM, are nice to have as a lot of older software I have or will come across simply run better there (like the above Adobe example).

XP leaving support also doesn't make that much of a difference to me personally as I only run Windows Update like once a year or so anyway, barring MSE definition updates and the like. My XP systems are ~1 year behind on updates as it is, thus no big deal to me personally.

And just for the record, yes I do realize and accept the risks of administering systems this way.

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

 

[lffoar]

Fitzy,
fair dinkum, you are a bloody wag :roflmao:

 

[Alejandro85]

I'm trembling in fear.............. :huh:

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Fitzy,
fair dinkum, you are a bloody wag :roflmao:

Why, thank you!

 

[King Arthur]

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!

 

[ninetailz]

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)

 

[techtitan100]

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

 

[SimpkinX]

Don't forget!

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.

 

[jimbo45]

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

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...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...

The easier pickings from XP holdouts will be just as valuable to hackers as richer pickings elsewhere. XP based ATMs are already being attacked. Small businesses that haven't switched over will be worthwhile pickings. Ma & Pa Kettle may not have a lot of loot to loot, but several hundred or thousand together will. It's possible that one or more security holes have already been discovered by hackers who are just waiting to take advantage of them once XP machines are no longer protected. If not, some security holes will be easily found when M$ releases patches for Win 7 & 8 and the hackers reverse engineer them to try and catch the idiots who don't keep their systems updated. Some of those hacks will also work on XP.

 

[jimbo45]

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

 

[King Arthur]

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.

 

[jimbo45]

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