XP's retirement will be hacker heaven

[kamranm1200]

But it's surprising that a lot of people don't know that their computer will highly be at risk after XP's End Of Life Support.

 

[andrew129260]

It's because the average user does not even know what windows is. Trust me. People are not tech savvy. A lot of them know to click E for internet, but do not even know it's called internet explorer.
If you ask a random person on the street what windows version they are running you will (most likely) ether get 2 answers.
1.) I don't know
2.) Whats windows?

And there you have it. It does not matter what Microsoft does or doesn't do. People do not care, and they mainly know how to turn it on and get on a web-browser. That's it. Now if it was on the radio and on the news, people might know. But I doubt that would happen.

It's kinda like asking someone what iphone they have. Sure they could tell you its an iphone 5 or whatever, but do they know what version of ios? Nope.
Just with PCs, its a "dell", its a hp. That's what they know. If they even know that.
In fact, some people will tell me thats what they are running. Oh I'm running hp.
*smacks forehead*

But alas, this is the public. And they don't care what it is, they just want it to work.
In fact I have had several users tell me that,
Just make it work. I don't want to learn it, just make it work!

There is a huge problem with that mindset. But that is how people are.
Kind of why I do not like apple products. They sell you on the idea that it "just works".
They know people like that. And they take advantage of people and sell them way overpriced.

Technology are like cars. You do not just drive your car. You do maintenance on it as well. Add air to tires, oil changes, etc. Technology is like that. Maintenance is needed for everything.
The mindset that "I just want it to work" is what ruins this generation.

\rant

Quick add: know the reason why the start menu was removed from windows 8? Microsoft claimed the "majority" of the user base did not use it. Know who the majority are? The people who click E for internet. Because that's all they do. Internet. This is why tablets and smartphones are all the craze, it lets people do things that they used to have to do on big computers.

Random fact:
I know of another LARGE retailer using windows 2000......on all their registers...

 

[bobafetthotmail]

And they don't care what it is, they just want it to work.
In fact I have had several users tell me that,
Just make it work. I don't want to learn it, just make it work!

We had great success in selling tablets to these kinds of people. You also have no idea of how much great used hardware we got for cheap/free from these guys. The rig in my specs is one of them.

Once you set up a mail client and a facebook/twitter/whatever app, it's sold.

I know of another LARGE retailer using windows 2000......on all their registers...

And that means what? All it does is running its "cash register client program" talking to a server doing all the accounting. It's basically isolated from the outside world.

 

[Jo6Pak]

for the 'average' user, i don't see this as being much different from the current situation. based on my experience working on co-workers' personal computers, most don't know the difference between a windows update and windex, nor are their machines fully patched, regardless of the OS.

 

[spencer1]

for the 'average' user, i don't see this as being much different from the current situation. based on my experience working on co-workers' personal computers, most don't know the difference between a windows update and windex, nor are their machines fully patched, regardless of the OS.

Well, I know two people who have had XP for years and haven't updated in years.

 

[sygnus21]

It's because the average user does not even know what windows is. Trust me. People are not tech savvy. A lot of them know to click E for internet, but do not even know it's called internet explorer.
If you ask a random person on the street what windows version they are running you will (most likely) ether get 2 answers.
1.) I don't know
2.) Whats windows?

This I can confirm.

Though usually when I ask what OS they have they say Windows, and yeah, when you ask what version, the answer usually is "I don't know". And unfortunately, these are also the people who don't do the windows updates.

I also found that a lot of people using those big old heavy laptops are still running XP. Why? Most likely cost - to replace the aging laptop, or to pay a pro to upgrade the OS.

 

[AC]

for the 'average' user, i don't see this as being much different from the current situation. based on my experience working on co-workers' personal computers, most don't know the difference between a windows update and windex, nor are their machines fully patched, regardless of the OS.

Well, I know two people who have had XP for years and haven't updated in years.

So do I, I was in complete shock when I was using my friends PC yesterday, was using XP SP1.

Another friend was having problems with his laptop, I was on TeamViewer, and I found out he was using XP with no service packs.

 

[Jo6Pak]

classic example: today a co-worker brought me a dell pc (vista home premium) to see if i could 'make it run faster'. well, since it didn't appear to be infected, about all i did was disable a bunch of useless crap on startup via msconfig. while i was in there, i checked mcafee to find the subscription expired in 2009. windows update said 'Last Update: Never'.

 

[A Guy]

Running Windows XP means you are non-compliant and open to liability

Information Technology Pros in the healthcare industry may want to get a head start on their spring cleaning. Microsoft extended support for Windows XP ends on April 8, 2014. After this date, Microsoft will not release any security patches or updates for Windows XP. This will effectively make Windows XP non-compliant with HIPAA / HITECH after Microsoft support ends.

Source

A Guy

 

[Diosoth]

My points still stand-

1) having an older OS on hand may be necessary to run certain older programs, especially games. Not every old game will run on new Windows, not everyone knows DOSbox(which doesn't run everything anyway) and DOSbox doe snot have 100% support.

2) the Raspberry Pi and it's new competitors will offer strong competition to MS for business and school use, since it offers a cheaper computer and free OS

It's funny that people are insisting XP users upgrade, not only for this but many other reasons, yet I go to a Windows 8 thread and it's full of people saying they'd never upgrade 7 to 8 for any reason.

As for the updates, well... I've seen so many issues with the updates from this month and last month that I wonder if MS is testing these updates before they go live. They're so focused on 8 that it seems they don't care much if the patches for 7 and XP even work properly, and a patch that causes BSODs, slow performance or your genuine registration to no longer register aren't positive updates.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...It's funny that people are insisting XP users upgrade, not only for this but many other reasons, yet I go to a Windows 8 thread and it's full of people saying they'd never upgrade 7 to 8 for any reason...

That's because Win 7 is nowhere near its EOL (01/14/2020); XP is (04/08/2014). By the time Win 7 approaches its EOL, I'm hoping (more like praying) that M$ will have an OS out that is better than Win 8. Otherwise, I'll be taking a hard look at something like Linux.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

1) having an older OS on hand may be necessary to run certain older programs, especially games. Not every old game will run on new Windows, not everyone knows DOSbox(which doesn't run everything anyway) and DOSbox doe snot have 100% support.

In case you didn't notice, all surveys talking about how much XP boxes are still around aren't done by divination or massive telephone questioning campaign, but by examining the logs of a bunch of important websites, and extracting the data they collected about the user. THis for example. Yes, it's your browser that broadcasts this data, tells OS, browser version, approximate geographical location, and even more if allows tracking services and scripts (to disallow that you need addons that do it, like Ghostery or Noscript).

So yeah, they don't have XP just to run some legacy stuff and oldish games. THey use it to do the most dangerous thing they could do with it.

It's funny that people are insisting XP users upgrade, not only for this but many other reasons, yet I go to a Windows 8 thread and it's full of people saying they'd never upgrade 7 to 8 for any reason.

Well, XP is at the end of its life, without updates it's an open door. And w8 sucks.

As for the updates, well... I've seen so many issues with the updates from this month and last month that I wonder if MS is testing these updates before they go live. They're so focused on 8 that it seems they don't care much if the patches for 7 and XP even work properly, and a patch that causes BSODs, slow performance or your genuine registration to no longer register aren't positive updates.

Simulating all possible combinations of hardware and software of 600+ million computers they have no control on is not possible at all. It ain't Apple dev team, that know exactly all their products.

They do what they can.

Updates were problematic only for a very limited amount of users. (like me) but not for most of others, as you can see even in the thread about that.
There may be a lot of complaints, but just because there are a lot of PCs running 7 in the first place. their % is tiny.

 

[Wrend]

I only updated to XP about three years ago, and 7 one year ago for hardware and software compatibility reasons. Before that I was using 2000.

If it weren't for updating my hardware and software, I'd still be running XP, or maybe even 2000 without issue (I liked the classic 2000 look better than the needlessly bubbly look and color scheme of XP). Loved the firewall I had for those versions of Windows as well.

Anyway, I'm 99% certain that running XP and going on-line with it after it is no longer supported by Microsoft wouldn't have been an issue at all for me. I haven't been infected with a virus or the like since before 2000, nor have I been "hacked" (at least to my knowledge - which is probably worth more than most of you might likely think).

I also only use the unlocked administrator account on my home computers, as there's no real reason for me not to.

Most other people still seem to have 50+ iterations and/or types of viruses or malware on their home/personal computers these days, regardless of which version of Windows they're using.

That being said, this doesn't mean that I don't recommend that other people (PC user "civilians") update to a supported Windows OS.

Besides, Windows 7 is a pretty great OS in its own rights, and the Aero theme is nice as well (this coming from someone who prefers the classic 2000 look to the XP bubble look).

 

[bobafetthotmail]

I suspect a lot of modern malware fails to run in Windows 2000.

Point is that as windows 2000 userbase declined, so did the amount of development of malware for it.

For XP on the other hand...

Also, bulk of malware I see on laptops I have to clean up spreads through social engineering and the usual old tricks to fool a naive user.
So yeah, most people with passable IT experience tend to spot the trap from afar (and/or avoid suspicious sites and software alltogether) and get a lot less infections regardless of the OS.

 

[Forky]

I still have XP on a laptop drive for a couple of pieces of diagnostic software as it wont even install on Windows 7 & running it in a XP virtual machine isn't a good idea.

The only time I take XP on line is for Windows updates including MSE, I wont do any online banking or emails with XP any more.

Home desktop is Windows 7, laptop I have the Windows 7 drive in mostly.

As for Windows 2000, I've just been given an old desktop machine just to run parts cd rom's & service manuals, the machine isn't connected to the net so its secure enough for what we will use it for.
I does seem a bit odd working with 2000 after being used to XP & then 7.

 

[Stephanie]

...It's funny that people are insisting XP users upgrade, not only for this but many other reasons, yet I go to a Windows 8 thread and it's full of people saying they'd never upgrade 7 to 8 for any reason...

That's because Win 7 is nowhere near its EOL (01/14/2020); XP is (04/08/2014). By the time Win 7 approaches its EOL, I'm hoping (more like praying) that M$ will have an OS out that is better than Win 8. Otherwise, I'll be taking a hard look at something like Linux.

Agree %100 Lady Fitzgerald, I have 1 Windows 7 desktop and two Linux desktops I like Linux a lot

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...It's funny that people are insisting XP users upgrade, not only for this but many other reasons, yet I go to a Windows 8 thread and it's full of people saying they'd never upgrade 7 to 8 for any reason...

That's because Win 7 is nowhere near its EOL (01/14/2020); XP is (04/08/2014). By the time Win 7 approaches its EOL, I'm hoping (more like praying) that M$ will have an OS out that is better than Win 8. Otherwise, I'll be taking a hard look at something like Linux.

Agree %100 Lady Fitzgerald, I have 1 Windows 7 desktop and two Linux desktops I like Linux a lot

Right now, I have too many programs and some hardware I depend on that will not run in Linux, even if using WINE. If the M$ outlook is still looking bleak by 2018, I'm going to have to make some major adjustments to my program stable and workflows so Linux can become an option.

 

[marsmimar]

Right now, I have too many programs and some hardware I depend on that will not run in Linux, even if using WINE. If the M$ outlook is still looking bleak by 2018, I'm going to have to make some major adjustments to my program stable and workflows so Linux can become an option.

If Microsoft continues to ignore mainstream PC users with Windows 9, 10, or whatever they decide to call their new iterations, I think the Linux community will rise to the challenge and make sure Windows users can migrate to a Linux platform with minimal work-flow interruption.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Right now, I have too many programs and some hardware I depend on that will not run in Linux, even if using WINE. If the M$ outlook is still looking bleak by 2018, I'm going to have to make some major adjustments to my program stable and workflows so Linux can become an option.

If Microsoft continues to ignore mainstream PC users with Windows 9, 10, or whatever they decide to call their new iterations, I think the Linux community will rise to the challenge and make sure Windows users can migrate to a Linux platform with minimal work-flow interruption.

That's what I'm fervently hoping and praying for. Sadly, many of the mainstream, commercial programs I use now, such as M$ Office and Adobe Acrobat Standard, are heading toward becoming subscription or cloud based subscription only, a move I'm not too happy with (to put it mildly), especially the cloud based one.

 

[Wrend]

On my home PC, I pretty much just use "Google Office" (as it were) these days. Granted, I'm sure that isn't really an option for a lot of people, both professionally and personally.

I play a fair amount of games and run some software (and likely hardware) that I'd have a hard time getting to work in Linux. I'm not opposed to Linux at all, and actually really like some aspects of it, as well as messing around with it. I just don't think it's currently feasible to use it as my main OS. Fortunately I don't really need to make that tough choice, since Windows 7 works so well for me. But if things keep progressing the way they have been with Windows and Microsoft, it'll be something for me to consider more seriously using as my main OS. (I've been messing around more recently with Debian 7.1 "Wheezy," and some modifications/customizations with it, mostly just for fun, but also to see how it's progressing and to educate myself on it. Still some work to be done on that last bit there, I'm sure.)