What is going to happen to Windows XP after April 8th. What you need to know.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I wrote the following for my Facebook page and also turned it into a PDF for my customers who ask about it. You can find a PDF at the bottom of the page that you can distribute if you wish.

 

What is going to happen to Windows XP after April 8th. What you need to know.

By now, a lot of you have heard that after April 8th 2014, Microsoft is no longer going to support XP. If you are still running XP you are probably wondering what does this mean for me?

Let me start by answering some questions that many of you might have about this looming deadline.

After April 8th 2014, will..

My Computer still turn on and boot : yes
Will Windows XP work just like it did before April 8th : Yes

Every month on the 2nd Tuesday Microsoft release updates for all of their still supported products. After April 8th Windows XP will no longer be getting those updates.

So let me talk about how this might effects you.

Every version of Windows has ?bugs?. One type of ?bug? is called a ?Security Vulnerability?. These types of? bugs? may allow your computer to become infected with a virus with little or no user interaction.

EXAMPLE: You go to a website. The website scans your system looking to see if your system or browser has any of these ?bugs?. If your machine has a vulnerability, the virus could potentially crawl into your machine and infect it.

Typically machines become infected, not directly thru Windows per se, but via ?bugs? in the web browser, Internet Explorer, which is built into Windows. Other software that commonly has vulnerabilities is 3rd party applications.

These applications include Adobe Reader, Flash, Java. There is a free program called Patchmypc http://www.patchmypc.net that you can run on your system (Assuming you have the Dotnet framework installed) that will tell you if any of those applications are out of date and, with one click, will update them all for you.

Windows XP only supports Internet Explorer 8. The current version of Internet Explorer is Version 11 . You cannot install it on XP. With that in mind, using Internet Explorer on Windows XP is not a very good idea.

It?s updates will ALWAYS be out of date and therefore vulnerable to attack. It is recommended that you download a 3rd party browser such as Firefox http://www.firefox.com.
 
It?s much safer and still receiving updates.

Now let?s talk about something called ?Zero day vulnerabilities?. A ?Zero day vulnerability? is a ?bug? in Windows and Internet Explorer that the bad guys know about but Microsoft does not. The bad guys put bad stuff onto websites which looks for systems that have this ?Bug? (Zero day vulnerability) The user will not be safe until Microsoft releases an update to fix it.

After April 8th, any ?Zero day vulnerabilities? released onto the internet will NEVER be fixed in Windows XP. Some believe that the bad guys are waiting until after April 8th before they put much of this stuff on the internet. That way they know that they will NEVER get fixed.

As stated above, a lot of these bugs get in via Internet Explorer, which has never been a very secure web browser. So just using something like Firefox will help protect you.

It is also recommended that you use an antivirus. Just remember that no antivirus will protect you 100% of the time. You should still be vigilant. One free antivirus software that I use and recommend is Avast http://www.avast.com
 
So what can you do? Well ideally it would be best to use a different version of Windows after April 8th. Not Windows XP.

The best way to do that is via a new computer. You can install newer versions of Windows (Windows 7, Windows 8) on XP machines but it can be expensive.

Most of the older machines that came with XP were not built to run the newer Windows. You would probably need other system upgrades on top of the money you have to outlay for the Windows program, i.e. more RAM.

As far as which version of Windows to purchase, if you buy a computer in a store you will most likely be getting Windows 8.

If you buy a computer online from places like Dell or HP you often get the option to substitute Windows 7.

 

What is going to happen to Windows XP after April 8th.pdf

[Pam14160]

Thanks War Wagon, a nice aricle, and well put. . . :)

[Darrian]

Great FAQ.  Only thing I would pick on is the opinion that you should buy a new computer instead of just upgrade Windows.  A Windows 7 or 8 upgrade install is most certainly not going to be more costly than a new computer.  The only stipulation of course is that you meet the minimum system requirements; most people probably have 1GB of RAM or more and 16GB of free HDD space, but of course there will be some that don't.  The only place owners of old XP machines are likely to have issues upgrading is probably their old, crappy integrated graphics cards, which probably won't have drivers that support the "special effects" of 7 so they might not be able to run Aero glass, but the Aero basic theme is still loads better than Luna IMO.  NIC drivers are also a common problem.  Even so, 1 GB of RAM, a bigger drive and a budget graphics card will still probably only run around $150, if that, so it's still not going to cost nearly as much as a new PC.  That said, I too would encourage people to buy a new PC, because I can't tolerate old, sluggish hardware very well.  Some people really don't care if it takes 5 min for their PC to boot, though.

[seta-san]

The upgrade from XP to 7 or 8 is steep. I think too steep to be practical. Also waiting for an install disc with all patches slip streamed

[Darrian]

How is it steep?  It's like $99-$140 depending on which edition you choose.  Of course, if you'd jumped on the offer when Windows 8 first came out you could've gotten it for $15.

[McKay]

The upgrade from XP to 7 or 8 is steep. I think too steep to be practical. Also waiting for an install disc with all patches slip streamed

 

Yea they've only had since November 2006 when Vista launched to save up. Its not like Windows 8 was ridiculously cheap at launch. 

 

/s

[seta-san]

How is it steep?  It's like $99-$140 depending on which edition you choose.  Of course, if you'd jumped on the offer when Windows 8 first came out you could've gotten it for $15.

 

not talking about money. talking about system specs.

 

Windows XP. Yes, a Pentium 2 fits in the requirements.

• Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
• At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
• At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk
• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
• Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device
• Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600)or higher resolution
• Sound card
• Speakers or headphones

Make it die, with fire.

[riahc3]

Every version of Windows has ?bugs?. One type of ?bug? is called a ?Security Vulnerability?. These types of? bugs? may allow your computer to become infected with a virus with little or no user interaction.

A security vulnerability is not a bug that allows a computer to be infected with a virus with little or no user interaction.

This is false.

[Darrian]

not talking about money. talking about system specs.

 

Windows XP. Yes, a Pentium 2 fits in the requirements.

• Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
• At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
• At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk
• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
• Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device
• Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600)or higher resolution
• Sound card
• Speakers or headphones

Make it die, with fire.

Ok, sure, I'll grant that a system that ###### needs to be replaced, but most PCs running XP are probably dual-core 1GHz or better and probably have 512 MB of RAM and probably at least a 32 GB HDD.  For those all it's gonna cost (besides the OS) is another stick of 512 MB ram or a replacement 1 GB stick, which probably runs in the vicinity of $20.  Or if the average Joe can get their resident computer geek to install it for them, there are actually ways to install Windows 7 with only 512MB of RAM and it'll still run fine.

[riahc3]

For those all it's gonna cost (besides the OS) is another stick of 512 MB ram or a replacement 1 GB stick, which probably runs in the vicinity of $20.

Decent older RAM is actually more expensive than newer RAM.

Of course, you can find cheaper older RAM on eBay or RAM without a name.

[Darrian]

It really just depends on how recent the system is.  A great many of the XP machines out there are probably pretty decent.  XP was around for a long time.  I was looking at DDR400 RAM.  But yeah, I helped a friend add more memory to his aging machine a couple years ago and we had to track it down on ebay, so I know it may not be so easy for everybody.

[Dot Matrix]

One critique... You should have used 'malware' instead of 'virus'.... A virus is just one type of malware that the users are now open to.

[winrez]

One other suggestion is if you have more than 5 XP PC's, I would call and get volume licensing with software assurance, this will give you access to Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's which you could use on your older XP PC's then when you replace the older PC's in the future you will have access to the newest Windows Enterprise Clients to install on your new PC's as you replace the old ones.

 

 

Personally I just go through Dell business to purchase volume licensing, they will not hassle you into buying hardware & will assign a consultant that will stay with your account (so say in 6 months and you need a new switch you can talk to the same person you were assigned)

[cork1958]

One critique... You should have used 'malware' instead of 'virus'.... A virus is just one type of malware that the users are now open to.

 

I was thinking along those same lines, but then again, most Joe Blows don't have a clue what malware, spyware, crapware, etc., is!!

 

Definitely doesn't sound like it was written for anyone who hangs out here at Neowin though. Please don't take that personal either. ;)

 

Does sound EXACTLY like something I need to send to my totally computer illiterate brothers and sister and a few other people!! :)

 

Thanks

[+Warwagon MVC]

One critique... You should have used 'malware' instead of 'virus'.... A virus is just one type of malware that the users are now open to.

 

True, but the average user thinks everything is a virus. :)

 

A security vulnerability is not a bug that allows a computer to be infected with a virus with little or no user interaction.

This is false.

 

Most people think that to get infected they have to run an infected file. When I said little or no user interaction, I meant that you can just be on a webpage and the virus will crawl into your machine. Here is a video to show you what I mean.

 

 

How is it steep?  It's like $99-$140 depending on which edition you choose.  Of course, if you'd jumped on the offer when Windows 8 first came out you could've gotten it for $15.

 

Yes, if you do it yourself not that expensive. The average user (which is most people) wouldn't have a clue how to install a new version version of Windows. Most users don't even know what version of Windows they are running.

 

When I install windows for someone I charged 88.28 (that includes tax) if they need more memory I charge $42 for a stick of 1 GB DDR. I charge a $20 markup on everything I sell. If they want it for cost they can buy it themselves. I am running a business after all. So if we add it all up

 

$99 Windows

$88.28 Installation and configuration

$42.00 1  stick of 1GB DDR

 

That would be around $229.28 for a Windows XP update, plus even after all that the computer will run, but not run great. It's also running on old hardware and something else may or may not soon die.

[DConnell Member]

Thanks for the article. I was thinking of putting a PSA up on Facebook, and this looks a lot better written than what I would have done. It'll probably go up tonight.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Thanks for the article. I was thinking of putting a PSA up on Facebook, and this looks a lot better written than what I would have done. It'll probably go up tonight.

 

Share it where ever you want! :D

 

Download, Print it off and give it a way :D

[Praetor]

Decent older RAM is actually more expensive than newer RAM.

Of course, you can find cheaper older RAM on eBay or RAM without a name.

 

this is very true; recently i had to told a costumer to ditch a awful server so old that new ECC for that server would cost more then buying a brand new Dell or HP server (costumer wanted to upgrade a server from 1GB to 8GB - those 8GB alone would cost almost 1k in my country, second hand it was less than 100 euros but since it's an enterprise they can't buy second had stuff).

[Praetor]

That would be around $229.28 for a Windows XP update, plus even after all that the computer will run, but not run great. It's also running on old hardware and something else may or may not soon die.

 

that's what I've been saying for years: upgrading a recent computer is good; upgrading a 10 year old computer that the upgrade alone would cost almost as a brand new (and that one comes with warranty, newer specs and newer modern OS) is incredible dumb, not to mention that the upgrade won't even proportionate the same performance as a brand new computer.

[+Warwagon MVC]

that's what I've been saying for years: upgrading a recent computer is good; upgrading a 10 year old computer that the upgrade alone would cost almost as a brand new (and that one comes with warranty, newer specs and newer modern OS) is incredible dumb, not to mention that the upgrade won't even proportionate the same performance as a brand new computer.

 

Ya.