Who is still using winxp and plans to continue after the April cut off?

[JLK03F150]

As long as you do not install this Windows Update Windows: XP End of Support Notification (KB2934207) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2934207 then you won't get the nags.

If you did install it, uninstall KB2934207.

We still have many XP machines on my job and a couple Win2k boxes. Uninstalling that update (for the few that are online) is great info. I guess we turn off auto update & go manual monthly for the malware update, or just use malwarebytes free monthly instead.

 

[(G{in}[AK)TION]]

dos anyone know if you would be able to still buy winxp keys from microsoft? my sister has done it a few times with office 2003. i believe she was able to get one for 35 dollars or so...

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

dos anyone know if you would be able to still buy winxp keys from microsoft? my sister has done it a few times with office 2003. i believe she was able to get one for 35 dollars or so...

Good question.
Something tells me "no".

Of course... well. There are other ways to get keys.


I think M$ is pushing to kill XP, so buying keys from them probably not going to happen.

But, I haven't read anywhere that you can't...

 

[petteyg359]

You don't get $1000 worth of value if you are only using the machines to do basic tasks like word processing and spreadsheet and some surfing and making a bunch of power point slides or picture albums for grandma.

If that's your general usage, than why in heck are you using Windows in the first place?

 

[Ray44420]

I use XP Pro for programming old Motorola 2-way radios. Some of the software will run on 7, but not all.
Oh yeah, some of it uses DOS, so I use that as well. DOS is still alive for me.

 

[c627627]

If that's your general usage, than why in heck are you using Windows in the first place?

I'll take this one although no one has to justify themselves for using what they want.

A whole lot of time was spent setting up old systems, making drive images of them... I spent a lot of time setting up old operating systems, every setting inside every program is just like I want it to be, every font is just like I want it to be. I have a drive image that takes minutes to install but would take multiple days to setup. My multiple old systems do the job fine, they are not my main rig, I have the newest-latest on my main rig. It would be mental for me to spend time, let alone money to upgrade them. People need to stop thinking in limited terms like old OS is the *only* OS someone uses so therefore they should spend time and money to upgrade it.

 

[Adragontattoo]

I STILL have a laptop running the original install of Win2k. P3 500/512mb/40gb IDE. It is my "loaner" system. Yup it weighs a few pounds, it is far from fast but it is ROCK solid.
Anytime someone asks to check their email, that is the system they get to use.

"It doesnt matter that I am not using my laptop/desktop/server/toaster oven, you can use that laptop!"

I intend to set up a VM or few, running XP due to some SW that won't/can't upgrade and is only licensed to XP.

 

[petteyg359]

I'll take this one although no one has to justify themselves for using what they want.

A whole lot of time was spent setting up old systems, making drive images of them... I spent a lot of time setting up old operating systems, every setting inside every program is just like I want it to be, every font is just like I want it to be. I have a drive image that takes minutes to install but would take multiple days to setup. My multiple old systems do the job fine, they are not my main rig, I have the newest-latest on my main rig. It would be mental for me to spend time, let alone money to upgrade them. People need to stop thinking in limited terms like old OS is the *only* OS someone uses so therefore they should spend time and money to upgrade it.

When the question is "Why should I spend $1000 to upgrade ten machines from XP that are used as glorified word processors?", then the "it might not be the only OS they use" is a straw man. If it's a word processor plus web browser, and you care about security, then "Why is it on XP in the first place?" is a perfectly relevant question. Maybe those machines are occasionally used for other things, but he until such things are in the picture, they aren't in the picture.

 

[wingman99]

I still will be using XP on two of may family's PC's. My main rig is windows 7

 

[c627627]

When the question is "Why should I spend $1000 to upgrade ten machines from XP that are used as glorified word processors?", then the "it might not be the only OS they use" is a straw man. If it's a word processor plus web browser, and you care about security, then "Why is it on XP in the first place?" is a perfectly relevant question. Maybe those machines are occasionally used for other things, but he until such things are in the picture, they aren't in the picture.

Of course it is a relevant question. One of the answers is that it takes (a lot of) *time* to install and setup everything on old machines, even if it is free, let alone if it costs money.

In my case, I spend that time once setting up a Windows drive image, which I use on multiple machines. I bought two identical laptops, spent *a lot* of time setting one up, removing bloatware, etc. Then I made an image which I used to set up the other laptop in minutes - I simply changed the Windows key on the other laptop.

I spent so much time perfecting that image that I now don't want to install even Windows 8.1 on those Windows 8.0 laptops, I don't want to spend any more time on messing with carefully setup programs and settings, which work perfectly and always will thanks to those drive image files. That is why some people don't want to upgrade already perfectly set up multiple systems.

 

[petteyg359]

Of course it is a relevant question. One of the answers is that it takes (a lot of) *time* to install and setup everything on old machines, even if it is free, let alone if it costs money.

In my case, I spend that time once setting up a Windows drive image, which I use on multiple machines. I bought two identical laptops, spent *a lot* of time setting one up, removing bloatware, etc. Then I made an image which I used to set up the other laptop in minutes - I simply changed the Windows key on the other laptop.

I spent so much time perfecting that image that I now don't want to install even Windows 8.1 on those Windows 8.0 laptops, I don't want to spend any more time on messing with carefully setup programs and settings, which work perfectly and always will thanks to those drive image files. That is why some people don't want to upgrade already perfectly set up multiple systems.

That's great for those on a currently supported system, but when your operating system is headed for the morgue, you're going to have to invest some time and money anyway, and like most things, its best to get it done with earlier rather than later, before Jimbo Jones from Springfield, Slovakia downloads the deed to your house from that insecure system

 

[c627627]

Downloads the deed to my house?! I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what old systems are used for and what is stored on them. I don't think it's smart to keep anything sensitive on your main rig let alone your old one. I keep it on an external drive connected to a power surge strip with an ON/OFF switch, which is OFF 99% of the time. Closest thing to not ever using it, ever.



But for the sake of argument, I do have identical anti virus software installed on both Windows 8 and Windows XP. They both detect the same malware when exposed to it. They both lite up like a X-Mas tree when the same malware sites are visited using the same Firefox browser...

I have Windows 8 protected with what I tested to be one of the best post zero-day anti-virus definitions (Avira freeware) in combo with best Firewall I could find being tested out there (Comodo Firewall Freeware) and despite of all that I am still certain, that a high level computer hacker can get access to my system from anywhere in the world at any time they want.

I am only protected against script kiddies and inexperienced copy-paste hackers who download attack software from underground web sites.

I am protected from them on my Windows 8 through the same third-party software I mentioned that is also installed on my old Windows XP systems.


We are simply not going to update numerous old machines because they are not our main rigs... and we are not going to throw them away either, they are perfectly fine for what they are being used for. I am not sure what the end goal of the argument is, I can't even install Windows 8 on my old machines in the house, but they run Windows 2000/Windows XP dual boots just fine.

 

[wingman99]

What I wonder how long will Google have and make new chrome web browsers for XP?

IE 8 works vary slow now with software on the severs that are up-to-date even stalls.

 

[petteyg359]

Downloads the deed to my house?! I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what old systems are used for and what is stored on them. I don't think it's smart to keep anything sensitive on your main rig let alone your old one. I keep it on an external drive connected to a power surge strip with an ON/OFF switch, which is OFF 99% of the time. Closest thing to not ever using it, ever.



But for the sake of argument, I do have identical anti virus software installed on both Windows 8 and Windows XP. They both detect the same malware when exposed to it. They both lite up like a X-Mas tree when the same malware sites are visited using the same Firefox browser...

For the sake of argument, how long are you expecting the anti-virus and browser vendors to continue supporting a dead system? The anti-virus vendors at least have a little bit of profit motive, but hardly anybody else does.

 

[c627627]

For the sake of argument, the same anti-virus program that is on my Windows 8 rig is also on both operating systems on my old Windows 2000/XP dual boot. If it still works on Windows 2000, and it does, I would say the antivirus program will work on Windows XP for a *very* long time to come.

For the sake of argument, I also know how to manually transfer anti-virus definitions from one rig to another... even if program versions are different, but I don't anticipate I will have to do that for another decade... maybe more... the machines may die before that happens.

 

[orion456]

For the sake of argument, how long are you expecting the anti-virus and browser vendors to continue supporting a dead system? The anti-virus vendors at least have a little bit of profit motive, but hardly anybody else does.

30% of windows installs are still XP - over time that number will slowly drop, but that's still a huge number of machines that protection software makers will love to service, even if M$ doesn't.

At my business they are still installing XP machines. It's cheap, its easy to use, everyone understands it, there is no new training and with excellent protection software it works fine, even with the latest M$ office. If you have to reinstall thousands of machines and retrain thousands of people, just to get better protection, its a lot cheaper to buy very good 3rd party protection software and leave the users alone.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

What I wonder how long will Google have and make new chrome web browsers for XP?

IE 8 works vary slow now with software on the severs that are up-to-date even stalls.

IE 6 FTW!
IMO IE was the best of the IE series.

 

[c627627]

heh, woe there.

The only advantage of IE6 is when you right click on a web shortcut link, the correct current location of its custom icon is correctly displayed. MS broke that feature in IE7 and have not fixed it to this day in 2014, not in IE7 or IE8 or IE 9 or IE10 or IE11. They all still incorrectly display it as %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll instead of its real custom location if you customized it.


But in any case, if you step out on the internet with IE6, you will be hosed quickly. I would definitely not recommend using it under any circumstances for security reasons, and interestingly, a lot of major web sites cannot work under IE6, even though it comes with the still supported as of March 2014 Windows XP.

Luckily, Firefox will work for a long time under Windows XP.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

heh, woe there.

The only advantage of IE6 is when you right click on a web shortcut link, the correct current location of its custom icon is correctly displayed. MS broke that feature in IE7 and have not fixed it to this day in 2014, not in IE7 or IE8 or IE 9 or IE10 or IE11. They all still incorrectly display it as %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll instead of its real custom location if you customized it.


But in any case, if you step out on the internet with IE6, you will be hosed quickly. I would definitely not recommend using it under any circumstances for security reasons, and interestingly, a lot of major web sites cannot work under IE6, even though it comes with the still supported as of March 2014 Windows XP.

Luckily, Firefox will work for a long time under Windows XP.

'tis why I use Chrome or the fox

 

[c627627]

Yea. On the topic of keeping the old ways, Firefox 29 is coming and it has some major User Interface changes, so anyone reading this, after Firefox 29 comes out next month, use this add-on
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/
to keep your old settings, which upcoming Firefox 29 will break.