zdnet: How to extend XP forever and stay secure


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This article targets business, or advanced computer tech / enthusiasts.

It relies on a non-free server you have to set up, something parents / grandparents can't be easily set on.

 

Microsoft had (discounted) software that un-does any hard drive changes (less explicitly allowed, such as AV, and document folders, desktop, etc) after reboot you could use.

Trying to remember the name, it supported XP, and Vista (32bit only). This is going to drive me crazy until I remember the name of the program. 

 

(Edit)

 

Bingo - Windows SteadyState

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SteadyState

Download should still be floating around somewhere.

 

SteadyState Handbook - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4310

 

Microsoft killed installer (free) the download years ago, but it's still floating around the web. 

Edited by Jason Stillion
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The modern day amish...

 

Someone get on the phone to Weird Al, theres a contemporary Amish Paradise parody here somewhere

 

??...

We been spending most our lives

Living in an XP paradise

I've tried upgrading once or twice

But can't beat the XP paradise ... 

??

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It has been nearly a month since support has ended.

Where are all these XP disaster stories ?

The hysteria reminds me of the Y2K bug.

Probably a ploy to boost Microsoft sales of a unwanted product ...

 

Well the first potentially major one was CVE-2014-1776, but the fix deployed by Microsoft happened to cover Windows XP as well. That's not a guarantee for other security advisories though, so XP users are at a much higher risk of succumbing to malicious exploits than users of other OS's that are supported by their manufacturer, whether that be Microsoft, Apple, Redhat, Canonical, and so on.

 

Bear in mind that while the hysteria might remind you of Y2K, it's also not the same. While it's true that the XP vulnerability has been highly sensationalised, Y2K was also avoided in a lot of places by a lot of hard work by programmers upgrading legacy systems. A lot of people don't appreciate the fact that a lot of COBOL programmers could afford Porsches in 2000 because of their specific skillset, and how essential they were to avoiding a lot of issues posed by the Y2K rollover.

 

General XP users on the other hand are not going to receive any such special treatment that Y2K did. While specific organisations have paid vast sums of money to Microsoft to extend support for themselves only, these hotfixes are not guaranteed to make it to the masses, and to that extent, securities issues with XP are only going to get worse long term. For all we know, it may turn out to be nothing long term, but people choosing to assume that are exposing themselves to the risk that it might actually be a problem. It's akin to assuming that "pulling out" is an effective method of contraception.

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