New updates and patches for Windows XP end next year. Will you make the switch to Windows 8? Windows 7, maybe?
April 9, 2013 57
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Windows XP debuted on October 25, 2001, roughly 11.5 years ago. Since then, XP has gained a large following with a good number of people continuing to use the decade-old operating system. In fact, some estimates suggest as much as 1/3 of Windows users are still on Windows XP with many of them showing no sign of upgrading. However, Microsoft is chugging forward with XP’s end-of-life: extended support for Windows XP will officially end on April 8, 2014, after which Windows XP will receive no updates from Microsoft… including security updates.
Aside from Windows XP, Office 2003 and Internet Explorer 6 will also stop being supported by Microsoft on April 8, 2014.
Seeing as XP is eleven years old and technology has advanced vastly since then, XP has, more or less, been kept secure (as secure as Windows is, anyway) thanks largely to continued updates and patches Microsoft has released for Windows XP. Come next April, these updates and patches will stop meaning there will be a boatload of people who will be left vulnerable to scumbags with no hope in sight — aside from upgrading to a newer version of Windows or switching to Linux/Mac.
So, that brings me to a question I ask of your Windows XP diehards. Will you upgrade to Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8? I doubt anyone would upgrade to Windows Vista and many people hate Windows 8, but Windows 7 is as highly praised as — and more secure than — Windows XP so that is a possibility. Assuming you can find it, of course. Or do you plan on switching to Linux — Ubuntu or Linux Mint, maybe — or Mac? Or do you simply plan on sticking to your delightful Windows XP? Let us know in the comments below! If we dotTechies can come up with a good list of alternative operating systems for Windows XP users to try, I may make an individual post about it.
[via ArsTechnica]
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[@Rob (Down Under)] well, office 2003 works in win7 with all kinds of compatibility settings UNTIL AND UNLESS you need to deal with something like a dissertation thesis of >200 pages with pictures, tables, charts, you name it. in virtual xp mode, navigation became smoother and everything seemed to work better including compatibility with the drawing software.
[@mukhi]
I help a few friends, and a few times they have contacted me, saying they had problems. They nearly all related to graphics (no doubt because of all the wanker excessive eye candy that MS has in Win 7)
I managed to get them all working, by experimenting with the Compatibility settings.
The first thing to do, is click ‘do this for all users’ (or whatever it is called, bottom left). That brings up an identical form. Then choose XP mode. Then experiment with the checkboxes in the middle of the form.
Rob
PS One of my friends problems, actually needed us to NOT tick ‘do this for all users’, (Probably due to MS’s excessive limiting of access to folders, and the ‘all users’ setting was then asking for access to somewhere that Win7 did not like)
@ mukhi
That’s an interesting observation — as you’ve probably read, Office 2003 is running straightforward under my Win 7 64 bit Home, and without any virtualisation (not included with Home version), nor any other VM Ware, or even running it in any form of compatibility mode, NOR ANY COMPATIBILITY SETTINGS AT ALL.
It just installed itself from the installation cd into the C/Program Files (x86) in Woindows, and right off the bat, without any adjustments, it worked on my laptop until now.
I’m a prof in Tax Law, and deal with some heavy files, and theses, be in Word, Excel, even PowerPoint lectures can be huge, so I’d like to check out what you said, regarding Office 2003 running better under virtualisation
— could you refer me to such a document that you’ve experienced that problem with Ofice 2003 without virtualisation, let me run it on my Office 2003 as is on my system, and if it seems not to handle it quite well, I’ll post that here ?
To answer a few of the previous comments:
I run Word 2002 in Windows 7 Pro x64 and everything works without any problems.
I have only found two programs I use regularly which will only work in XP Mode, they are Microsoft Private Folder and Outlook Express.
On the rare occasions I have found an installation problem I have usually been able to extract the main executable from the installer and run it as a portable program.
I am surprised that those who recommend trying Ubuntu have not mention Wubi: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/windows-installer. I have never used it myself but I have not read of any problems with it.
@Paul,
I notice the two programs that force you to use XP mode are MS.
Not sure what Private folder is, but you should ditch Outlook Express, and use Thunderbird. I did years ago, and never looked back.
. . .
Could you elaborate on how you make an installable into a portable ?
I could peep in an archive and grab the exe, but don’t you have to also get the dependencies (DLL’s etc), and do something with them ?
@Paul,
I don’t like MS forcing us to do things, especially as they continually do not use ‘KISS’
How about Axcrypt instead of ‘Private Folder’ (It appears to be free)
And if you try it, and like it, perhaps you could consider if it would be handy for us members that are into Copy DOT com (see Ashraf’s other thread)
Rob (Down Under)
I do not feel that I am forced to use XP Mode although to have it available was one of the reasons I got the Pro version of 7. The fact that it was XP Pro (and free) was another.
Over several years I tried three different versions of Thunderbird and never got any of them to work.
I use OE in XP and XP Mode, in 7 I use Opera Mail, as I had Opera installed already it did not require a separate installation.
I have looked at a lot of encryption software and although it is limited to XP MPF is as simple as any to use and as far as such a thing is possible, completely secure.
The only problem I am aware of is that if you forget the password you can forget any files you have encrypted with it, which is one reason why MS withdrew it.
To see if a program that is normally installed can be run as a portable I first use Universal Extractor to extract the files.
What you get from that depends on the program.
Some you get a single executable that can be run as is without any other files.
Some have additional files, DLL’s etc, that you simply leave in the same folder as the executable when you run it.
Some programs do not show an executable when you extract them so you find the largest file and rename it, I use the name of the program, and add .exe to the end of it, it usually works.
Not all programs can be run as portables and on rare occasions some that can do not carry settings across a reboot.
I cannot recall the last time that I tried a program where one or other of the above methods did not work provided I was able to extract the files, which depends on how the installer was compiled, it is not always possible.