XP No support after 8/4/14. What are the options?

Official support for XP stops on the 8th of April 2014, yet according to this ZDNet Article, up to 40% of businesses still use XP and 20% plan to keep using XP after April 8th. Given that criminals will be queuing up to use new zero day exploits, this is surely a huge threat to both industry and those who won't even know about it?

So the question is: Other than paying £many to Microsoft for Win8, what alternatives are there? As I see it you can:

1) Pay up, buy windows 8 but with little confidence that all your existing legacy software will run reliably without further time penalty. This could hit business hard.

2) Move to a new Operating System such as Linux with an even greater time penalty and no guarantees your software will run at all.

3) Run XP within a Sandbox

4) Run VM (Virtual Machine)

5) Run as normal with no internet connection (ever). Ethernet port blocked up and radio disabled. Good solution but no access to your home network.

6) Run XP as normal but with ports to external machines blocked.

What would be the safest / most practical option for an XP machine on a small home/office network? In option 6, how do you block ALL traffic including ports used by programs to request automatic updates?

Why don't you go to Win 7? More drivers, more compatible software, familiarity, solid OS perfect replacement for the ageing XP.

Why don't you go to Win 7? More drivers, more compatible software, familiarity, solid OS perfect replacement for the ageing XP.

what he said.

Its hardly the end of the world and its not as though businesses havent been warned. It should have been planned for by the business.

If you REALLY don't like Windows 8, then 7 would be the best choice... you can make it look like XP and most (not all) legacy software will work... theres evem "XP Mode" for Pro users...

Maybe the question you should be asking is: 'With Xp end-of-support only 4 months away, How long should I continue

using my outdated computer hardware and software before updating to a new system?'

A supplementary question could be: 'Will third-party software providers continue to provide updates for software

running on Xp machines?

Hardly a month goes by without Adobe Reader or Flash Player requiring updates to block some form of exploit.

I do know of some scientific equipment running Windows98 and some other stuff running Windows-2000, but the

machines are not connected to any network and data transfer is done using 256MB memory sticks (which are now

quite rare)

Maybe the question you should be asking is: 'With Xp end-of-support only 4 months away, How long should I continue

using my outdated computer hardware and software before updating to a new system?'

... Windows 7 again..

a single core 2.0Ghz with 2GB RAM is plenty for Windows 7, anything lower specification than that either needs replacing any way, or is on, or not far from being on it's last legs any ways!!!

People have known about the end of line of XP for many years, particularly the big businesses that still use it and Microsoft have been quite good in supporting them. It's nearly 13 years old.

As others have said Win 7. I think paying for an OS every 13 years is pretty good so I don't know why you're moaning about spending money.

All these warnings about doom and gloom for XP users sounds exactly like a rerun of the Millennium bug con to me.

My prediction is that nothing untoward will happen and everyone still using XP will still use XP without any issues.

I'd agree with this

All these warnings about doom and gloom for XP users sounds exactly like a rerun of the Millennium bug con to me.

 

My prediction is that nothing untoward will happen and everyone still using XP will still use XP without any issues.

But..

Do you use specific software that's XP only? and is it network reliant? If not then i'd look at putting together a small ITX box running XP, use a KVM switch and buy a newer system for network use.

Eg. have your accounting, database software on the XP machine, totally secure as it's not on the network. And your e-mail, internet on the newer (And i'd agree Windows7 PC) secure PC.

My prediction is that nothing untoward will happen and everyone still using XP will still use XP without any issues.

You are quite right, the only issue will be when another "hole" in XPs armour is uncovered and Microsoft do nothing about it and the PC becomes another bot-net slave without the owner knowledge.

The only thing that's happening, its not going to spontaneously combust or anything, is Microsoft are no longer going to patch the colander that is XP security issues...

Exploiting software vulnerabilities is currently the number one way to get malware installed on a machine.

http://www.welivesecurity.com/2013/10/30/windows-xp-users-already-facing-malware-invasion-before-microsoft-pulls-plug/

Companies and individuals have certainly had their moneys worth from their XP license; according to that article it has been around for almost 12 years. It owes them nothing and yet people are still reluctant to pay for an upgrade.

My friend's XP desktop (running MS Security Essentials) has already recently been affected by spyware which I have cleaned up. She is an extremely light user and certainly does not visit risky websites or open dodgy emails. She has not previously had problems with it. I've advised her not to use it on the Internet for anything of a personal nature.

IMHO any business that is now running XP and retaining a database of personal information on it is negligent and they should upgrade immediately. Linux, although perfectly satisfactory, is not a viable alternative for the majority of companies and individuals.