Windows XP Riskier Than Ever, Microsoft Security Report Says

[tomc100]

therealduckofdeath

As an IT specialist I use the start menu everyday, every hour, and nearly every minute.

 

[razor512]

Why not just sell new serial numbers which users can purchase and reactivate on their windows XP installs to get more support?

Many people like windows XP because it does all of what they need/ want to do on the computer, and on top of that, it is extremely fast on modern hardware, generally responsiveness that requires an SSD on windows 7, can be had with just a standard HDD on windows XP, especially in terms of boot times.

it is a light OS that only needs to really load about 40MB worth of data into memory in order to fully boot. it was designed during a time when hard drives were only a tiny fraction of the speed of modern hard drives.

For many users, they are using older computers that are doing what they need at a speed that they are comfortable with. Upgrading a older system designed for windows XP to 7, leads to an extremely sluggish experience, so for those users, even a free copy of windows 7 or 8 will not make them upgrade as they will likely still be a $500+ upgrade for the, all to do the same thing they are doing now.

To get an XP user to truly want to upgrade, you need to give a reason other than the OS is old, as that argument is similar to telling someone to stop using the wheel because it is old.

People buy and use an OS based on the functions it offers and what it allows them to do. (would you buy windows 7 if it came with no built in applications (just the desktop and nothing else), and no option to install other software or customize it?

The goal is to get work done and if the older OS is doing that just fine for the user then there is no reason to put money into upgrading it, especially compared to what that money can instead be put into.

For example, If the living room window of your home works perfectly fine, but the company that made the window comes out with a new model where the only change is a shinier bezel around the window. Now would that user pick the new window over upgrading from a 720p tv, to a larger 1080p tv for the same money?

Money is not unlimited and people look for value in their purchase. Will upgrading from windows XP give the basic user the same type of upgrade feel as moving from a basic bar phone, to a smartphone?

(Many of the customers I get, have no idea what OS their computer is running all they care about is if they can use the applications that they like to use, and now a virus or something is preventing them from doing that. The OS is not a concert until they try to do something that it doesn't support or allow)

 

[g00fysmiley]

all these people shoudl switch to ubuntu for free (thogh nice to donate to the cause, i usually say throw em a finskey ($10) you get a mroe secure operating system and for most people they don't need windows, comes with free office programs and firefox installed so there is nto really a compelling reason beyond gaming to stick with windows. if DirectX worked on linux i would never spend another dime on m$ again instead i keep a gaming pc and a pc for actual use with a good OS

 

[g00fysmiley]

all these people shoudl switch to ubuntu for free (thogh nice to donate to the cause, i usually say throw em a finskey ($10) you get a mroe secure operating system and for most people they don't need windows, comes with free office programs and firefox installed so there is nto really a compelling reason beyond gaming to stick with windows. if DirectX worked on linux i would never spend another dime on m$ again instead i keep a gaming pc and a pc for actual use with a good OS

 

[bryonhowley]

Any one that wanted Windows 8 had there chance to get it at $40 and then upgrade to 8.1 for free. If you did not jump on that deal then it was your loss really. As for Apple well they make there money back by selling there very very over priced hardware. I love OS X and run it on my Hackintosh running OS X 10.9 Mavericks now but would never buy there hardware can build one better and cheaper.

Microsoft makes there money on the OS not hardware like Apple. The only mistake Microsoft did with Windows 8.1 was adding the damn start menu back it should have staid gone for good.

 

[dgingeri]

Have some fun, try this experiment: make a Windows XP VM (using VMWare Player or Virtual PC, which are both free) and connect it directly to the internet instead of through a router. Do not do anything with it. Do not surf with it, or run any software. Record how long it takes be turned into a spam bot. My try was under 15 minutes, and that was with SP2 preinstalled, SP3 installed after installation, and all current updates installed before it was connected to the internet. My test without any updates and only SP2 installed too about ten minutes to be compromised, but that one was turned into a DDoS bot before I killed it.

 

[nforce4max]

Almost anything can run windows 7 however performance will suffer and there are a lot of apps that are not compatible with anything newer than xp. A fully upgraded P3 or P4 machine can run 7 but only just, a Pentium mobile or equal performing athlon will work better (talking 2005 and older systems) but 2gb of ram is non negotiable.

Anything newer than a Core Duo/AM1 Athlon X2 should be running at least Vista/7 if running windows at all.

 

[jimmysmitty]

This is a funny article coming from Microsoft the person that wants to make more money on their very poor offering, IE Windows 8.

Actually they are pushin 7 as a minimum as they still support 7. XP is a very bad OS by todays standards. It is insecure and lacks features that 7/8 offer in terms of security. One is 64bit. Yes there was XP 64 but it sucked and has little to nor driver support. 7/8 have great 64bit which alone is more secure than 32bit.

Then there is the kernel. The XP kernel is older , slower and has more holes.

People need to wake up and move from XP to 7.

And 8 is not a poor offering. Its actually a great OS people just focus on one part they don't like and assume the whole thing is bad. 8 overall is fast, more stable and more secure than 7. Its a pretty nice benefit for those willing to move forward.

bryonhowley ,

8.1 does not have a Start Menu. They just added the Start Button back, which I like as the hidden one was annoying. I don't miss the menu but I like the button being there.

 

[jeffredo]

I have several family members of very modest means who run PCs with XP. I know one of them well - it was an Athlon X2 5200+ rig I assembled for them from old parts about three years ago. They simply cannot afford $100 for a Win 7 CD. That would force a choice between paying the electric bill or not that month. What's so irritating is that the PC does everything they need it to - browsing, word processing, older games, etc... To pull the plug on support for XP next April really puts poor people in a bind.

 

[Fredrik Aldhagen]

Anyone complaining about Microsoft "abandoning" XP, realize it was released in 2001. At that time, Ubuntu didn't exist, OS X had just been released and Macs still used PowerPC CPUs. Windows XP was great at it's time, but we're long past that now, just let it die.

And if you don't want to pay Microsoft for a new version of Windows, then download any of the countless free Linux distributions.

 

[lp231]

Had to install XP one day on someone's computer and even Windows Update isn't working correctly. Had to do some tinkering to get it working, but XP is way too old.
Time to move forward.

 

[S Brideau]

Reading the comments I see people think that MS is just money hungry, but you can't deny it, XP is an outdated OS and you HAVE to upgrade. How many other OSes are this old? Apple OSes and Linux OSes are all on recent versions (Except when Apple tries to force you to upgrade computers or phone by not providing the upgrade for that model even when it can run (alhtough a little slower). This just means that XP was a very good OS, but now it has so many patches that it's very slow. It is time to upgrade, you don't need to upgrade to Win 7 or 8 if you don't want to give MS any money, Linux OSes like Ubuntu or Mint or Red Hat (I could name any) are all on recent versions and they don't cost a thing as they are open source.

 

[S Brideau]

Reading the comments I see people think that MS is just money hungry, but you can't deny it, XP is an outdated OS and you HAVE to upgrade. How many other OSes are this old? Apple OSes and Linux OSes are all on recent versions (Except when Apple tries to force you to upgrade computers or phone by not providing the upgrade for that model even when it can run (alhtough a little slower). This just means that XP was a very good OS, but now it has so many patches that it's very slow. It is time to upgrade, you don't need to upgrade to Win 7 or 8 if you don't want to give MS any money, Linux OSes like Ubuntu or Mint or Red Hat (I could name any) are all on recent versions and they don't cost a thing as they are open source.