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orion456

Member
Joined
May 31, 2004
I have at least a 24 machines running WinXP and I have no intention of updating the OS+
when they are working fine doing basic functions that won't benefit from an upgrade. As
these machines die, they will be replaced as needed. The key now is to keep the machines
reasonably safe during simple browsing -- they are all POSReady.

It seems Opera, PaleMoon, Chrome, IE and now FireFox [as of Sept 2017] have dropped support for WinXP.

Do you know of any other browsers that still support WinXP? I have heard that LunaScape works but I have no idea if its safe or any good.

[PS: lets not discuss the joys of Win10 or Linux -- I have them, use them and they work fine but I'm not spending $, time or training
to upgrade old machines that work]

Thanks for your input.
 
Just to clarify: in a few months, Firefox user numbers under Windows XP (and Vista) will be reassessed... and a final support end date will be announced after that, so hopefully Firefox will extended support past Sep 2017.

Since Security Patches for Windows XP will be available until 2019 - it's not unreasonable to expect Mozilla to extend Windows XP support because of all the people in the world who use the registry tweak to continue to get security updates for Windows XP.

We'll see, anything can happen, but this is a great question.
 
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Opera stopped support with version 36.
I think the original poster is asking for a browser with continued updates.
Firefox has not made the official September announcement yet, that's your best bet.
 
http://alternativeto.net/list/updated-web-browsers-for-windows-xp

"With version 50, Chrome ended support for XP"

"Firefox is of course the first alternative to consider if you want to replace Chrome, but Mozilla announced Firefox 52 will be the last version supporting XP and Vista. Security updates will be released until September 2017."

"Opera, which is Chromium-based, announced that the last version for XP will be Opera 36, but support will continue with security and crash fixes. This is probably the best choice if you want to migrate from Chrome with few hassles and no radical changes."


I have never heard of any of the others with the exception of Lunascape but i wasn't the slightest bit impressed when i tried it out a few months back :(
 
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If I read the 2nd link right, they are not going to add features to firefox after ver 52, but they will continue to add security updates until Sept 2017 after which
they will decided based upon use. We have to wait and see the outcome of that.

Meantime winxp people use your firefox !!!
 
Upon detailed reading it seems that the original info stands:
In mid-2017, a final support end date will be announced based on the number of users still on Windows XP and Vista.

But Firefox is definitely the one last option for Windows XP.
 
Good news orion456,
Mozilla says that XP and Vista users running (current version) Firefox 52 will actually continue to receive security updates for another year.
So Firefox 52 will receive security updates until April 2018 - it just won't have new features of Firefox 53 and above.

P.S. Fun Fact. Internet Explorer 6 is so obsolete that it cannot even correctly display Microsoft's own web pages, by that I mean, Microsoft Windows plain pages talking about patches etc. cannot be correctly displayed under IE6 - yet useless for browsing IE6 will continue to receive "security patches" for two more years... lol
Granted it's for Point of Sale machines, still - security patches nevertheless. ;)
 
"Now based on the Chromium project, Opera 15 shares a lot of similarities with Google Chrome."
Jul 2, 2013
 
Original Poster is asking for a Windows XP browser with current security updates. Opera no longer updates Windows XP browsers, so it is useless to him.
 
Original Poster is asking for a Windows XP browser with current security updates. Opera no longer updates Windows XP browsers, so it is useless to him.

"Opera, which is Chromium-based, announced that the last version for XP will be Opera 36, but support will continue with security and crash fixes.

Cmon man i even highlighted :eh?: They are all in the same boat so best pick would be Opera simply because its faster, has inbuilt adblocker and uses much less RAM then Chrome or Firefox as Alaric pointed out.
 
The one thing that wasn't said, probably because we assume that people know this but A LOT of the browser names being tossed around on various forums are just Firefox mods, nothing else.
Rather than going with these mods, usually you are better off by going with the original Firefox, not a modded one, and then YOU mod it like YOU want it to look like...

But the big picture here is safety. You may say "just by using" WinXP you are less safe, but the truth is, a huge percentage of plain intrusion attempts CAN be stopped by using Avira or similar under WinXP and using a software Firewall and equally importantly security patched browser.

Has opera said when security updates end?
Sorry I missed the part about Opera 36 continuing security updates just like Firefox 52.
 
Just curious what are the machines for? School? work? I mean you could always do something free OS wise like Ubuntu and then still have support... But i mean as Xp fades into the cloud...s so to speak, it reminds me of the day when i still ran windows 95 and Netscape.... oh the horrors... i finally just gave up as support went away. Not trying to take away from the subject matter, just gave me memories.
 
Just curious what are the machines for? School? work? I mean you could always do something free OS wise like Ubuntu and then still have support...

My machines do everything from protein folding, astrophotograpy to dedicated data collection off measuring instruments, to netbooks for random pick up and run surfing. Yes Linux would work in some applications (and I do use it on about 10 computers) but I have never been able to get Linux to run as nicely as winXP (see my 2 year journey just to get Ubuntu 12.04 to let me add a user - something I could do in WinXP in 10 seconds), not to mention numerous tools I have that only work on XP and I know exactly what they will do and what they won't. Why should I buy new copies of Excel or CasperXP or CorelDraw just because M$ says so? My old Excel97 works just as well on 99% of data projects. Heck I am even still using original copies of Lotus123 on some machines. I bought it, why should I throw it away if it does the job better and faster than Excel.

This idea we all have to upgrade constantly, when often the upgrades deliver nothing useful to the majority of users, is quite annoying - not to mention the tremendous cost of it all and the piles of new bugs. Win7 is fine but all I see is more of the OS hidden from the users and having to relearn the same old stuff because M$ decided to move tools and rename them - a very useful use of my time I'm sure. M$ is saying win7 and win10 are more secure but they keep dumping piles of security upgrades each month. How secure can it be if every month something is still wrong? Even Ubuntu is now producing updates every few days and constantly bugging me to update immediately.

It's just weird how we are caught up in this apparent need for the next cycle of upgrades and updates to come faster and faster. Could it be just another way to convince us to spend spend spend but actually get little more in return?

OK rant over........argh.

PS: I am very glad to hear FireFox will be providing security updates for the next year. Hopefully until the security updates to WinXP stop in 2019.
 
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My machines do everything from protein folding, astrophotograpy to dedicated data collection off measuring instruments, to netbooks for random pick up and run surfing. Yes Linux would work in some applications (and I do use it on about 10 computers) but I have never been able to get Linux to run as nicely as winXP (see my 2 year journey just to get Ubuntu 12.04 to let me add a user - something I could do in WinXP in 10 seconds), not to mention numerous tools I have that only work on XP and I know exactly what they will do and what they won't. Why should I buy new copies of Excel or CasperXP or CorelDraw just because M$ says so? My old Excel97 works just as well on 99% of data projects. Heck I am even still using original copies of Lotus123 on some machines. I bought it, why should I throw it away if it does the job better and faster than Excel.

This idea we all have to upgrade constantly, when often the upgrades deliver nothing useful to the majority of users, is quite annoying - not to mention the tremendous cost of it all and the piles of new bugs. Win7 is fine but all I see is more of the OS hidden from the users and having to relearn the same old stuff because M$ decided to move tools and rename them - a very useful use of my time I'm sure. M$ is saying win7 and win10 are more secure but they keep dumping piles of security upgrades each month. How secure can it be if every month something is still wrong? Even Ubuntu is now producing updates every few days and constantly bugging me to update immediately.

It's just weird how we are caught up in this apparent need for the next cycle of upgrades and updates to come faster and faster. Could it be just another way to convince us to spend spend spend but actually get little more in return?

OK rant over........argh.

PS: I am very glad to hear FireFox will be providing security updates for the next year. Hopefully until the security updates to WinXP stop in 2019.

I'm not sure I agree with this. It might not benefit a niche of users with special purpose tasks but over time it does benefit the majority of users. If we were still using XP we would be limited to 4gb of RAM. Yes, there was Windows XP 64-bit but it was more of a server software and very expensive.
 
I'm not sure I agree with this. It might not benefit a niche of users with special purpose tasks but over time it does benefit the majority of users. If we were still using XP we would be limited to 4gb of RAM. Yes, there was Windows XP 64-bit but it was more of a server software and very expensive.

Not like winxp 64bit couldn't have had updates to bring it nearly equal to win7. M$ just needed a fancy new OS for us to buy as opposed to free fixes to its security flawed mess.

Isn't it weird that after 15 years winxp still needs numerous monthly security updates?

I wonder how many people actually need more than 4GB? Right now I am using 1.2 GB and TaskMgr says my peak use is 2.9GB and that is over the last two weeks of 24/7 use.

I'm not saying win7 isn't a logical step, maybe even necessary, but killing winxp is definitely more about $ than necessity for most users.
 
4gb ? Im a casual-ish gamer and my normal usage is around 4gb-6gb.good example: the new game Mass Effect: Andromeda alone eats 6gb-8gb so my usage hovers around 8gb-10gb with occasional spikes to 12gb if I start multitasking... I have 2x8gb + 2gb fixed swapfile on the SSD, took out one of the sticks the other day and had a low memory warning from Windows while gaming (honestly cant remember the last time I had one of those) :( For office work 4gb might be just fine but if you do anything more punishing then Office/web browsing 8gb is minimum (and a really nice speed boost). If a friend building/upgrading a rig asks me how much memory you need nowadays I always say 16gb if gaming :(
 
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