Windows XP

burlmart wrote:
If ANY tiny shred of info in the posts of this thread are valuable. would the most certain poster please reply as to what is the REAL threat.

Many of us use XP for our income and it IS important to us that MS security support will end. There is such a thing for those of us that use a PC to process credit cards and other sensitive info called PCI DSS compliance. We will not meet the compliance regulations after XP security support is over. To not comply we will run the risk of a fine and could lose the right to continue such transactions.

All I asked was who else is in the same boat because I knew there were many of us.

If ANY tiny shred of info in the posts of this thread are valuable. would the most certain poster please reply as to what is the REAL threat.

We're still running XP on 9 machines. The machines are mostly too old to run anything newer and not worth hardware upgrades based on their age. Plus 3 of them support printers with the old serial plug for receipt printing.

Frankly I dread the idea of Windows 8 on any work machines. So we'll probably have machines built locally and install Windows 7, assuming we can still get the OEM versions. Microsoft really missed the boat when designing a version of Windows for small business needs. I don't want fluff, I want ease of use and simplicity. Didn't they learn anything from the Office Ribbon? Nearly as universally hated as Microsoft Bob.

We have two laptops and a desktop that run just fine on Win XP and my wife's install of 7 needs XP mode to run much of her business software - and we don't really care about MS not supporting XP. The computers on XP do everything that we need them to do and work well.

Windows 8? MS has already seen the error of their ways. 8.1 they make to run more like 7. Just go with 7 if any upgrade is necessary. Win 7 is OK as long as you have a version with XP mode - since there is some software that does not play nice with 7 on its own.

My company (large software company) issued an edict that all computers running Windows XP would be upgraded to Windows 7 or retired by the end of 2013. My laptop running XP was upgraded to Win 7 several months ago. I still need to test our software using XP but we have VMs for that.

At home, I had 2 older computers still running XP that I gave away just today.

There's nothing I could do with XP that I can't also do with Win 7 or 8.

The only software I used with XP that I couldn't use with Win 7 was some backup software. The only software I used with Win 7 that I couldn't use with Win 8 was, again, backup software.

We have numerous PC's still running XP. MS seems to not see the importance of backwards compatibility. Reliability, stability, compatibility far outweigh new gadgetry and gizmos added. We have quite a bit of custom software that will not run on Windows 8. Some won't run on Windows 7/8 because of MS's dropping of MSJava when .NET was created. Rewriting all these applications in .NET would cost a fortune without any gains. Not a problem for our applications written decades ago for Unix. An easy recompile and they're up and running on modern hardware under Linux. Wish Windows was so easy and stable! Our Windows based servers tend to crash and require reboots a few times a year. Our Unix servers have been running for over 4 years without a single crash. Windows 8? Bahhhh!!

We also have several DOS PC's!! They are used to run a single custom program 24/7. They run, never crash, never need maintenance etc. Rock solid stable.

camperforlife wrote:
It will be interesting to see what 8.1 looks like.

You're probably better off upgrading your PCs to Windows 7. If you have at least 5 that need to be upgraded, then I believe you can qualify for volume licensing which should be significantly cheaper than buying Windows individually.

In any case, you may want to do some testing sooner than later. I don't believe Windows 7 Enterprise evaluation is available anymore, but you can download a free 90-day evaluation of Windows 8 Enterprise. Note that this version cannot be licensed or upgraded to full version. It's just for testing purposes, but will give you an accurate idea of how well it will work for your purposes.

10 yr old HP desktop and 7 yr laptop XPs.

I hear about firewalls and various free 3rd party virus protection apps. What avenues for malware will a home user need to be worried about, and how likely is it that a few weeks before the XP funeral we will see pcmag, zdnet, cnet, etc. articles on "all you need to know to keep safely running XP"?

mockturtle wrote:

rk911 wrote:

mockturtle wrote:
I only wish I were still running XP. My current computer came with Windows 8. :(

if it's the interface that you don't like there is a third-party overlay that makes it look and act like traditional windows. google search...make win8 look and act like win7. there are dozens of viable tools and hints on how to do this. some examples:

clicky 1

clicky 2

good luck.

I changed the interface early on. But some of my programs won't run on Win 8 and it obviously wants me to 'upgrade' to Microsoft Office and is only marginally compatible with Word.

have you looked at open office? when I saw the early reviews of Win8 I accelerated my upgrade from WinXP by purchasing a new Win7 Pro desktop and laptop.

rk911 wrote:

mockturtle wrote:
I only wish I were still running XP. My current computer came with Windows 8. :(

if it's the interface that you don't like there is a third-party overlay that makes it look and act like traditional windows. google search...make win8 look and act like win7. there are dozens of viable tools and hints on how to do this. some examples:

clicky 1

clicky 2

good luck.

I changed the interface early on. But some of my programs won't run on Win 8 and it obviously wants me to 'upgrade' to Microsoft Office and is only marginally compatible with Word.