XP Die Hards who refuse to upgrade

[Dot Matrix]

Not always. If the .exe file is a new / unknown one, quite a few users can get infected until information about the file is sent by SS to Microsoft, gets analysed there, definitions are created, and those are propagated to the users. To make things worse, if the users for some reason do not have SS running or have blocked it from reporting unknown .exe files to Microsoft, it could be even harder to create a knowledge base for those files.

Right, but Windows 8 is still very much supported. XP - isn't.

[_neutrino Veteran]

even though Microsoft no longer supports it i do not have a problem with people still using Windows XP, its still a very nice OS however, being that the x64 version never picked up and has very low Driver support There arent any power machines that are running it. Also as of yesterday anyone that has a windows xp computer that requests support is going to be charged extra for support of a Legacy OS.

 

on a side note I have been offering to upgrade people to Windows 7 if their computers would support it and i try to urge them to do so. the license fee is not really that outrageous to do so.

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

XP is broken, and has been for quite a few years now. ;)

I should first add that I do not run XP on my main machine, but what is "broken" about it, asides from being outdated?  It's still well supported outside of Microsoft's ceased updates.

[Guest]

Right, but Windows 8 is still very much supported. XP - isn't.

 

Of course.

[Joe User]

I would guess IE8 would be a much larger audience on XP to exploit. Which is why I think firefox would be safer.

 

Wouldn't Chrome or Opera be safer? 

Those are Zero day's In firefox which would also effect other versions of windows. I'm talking about  windows XP specific vulnerability which can be exploited via firefox.

 

You would need an exploit in any browser to exploit the OS. Why use the one that has the most known exploits? 

[Praetor]

And...there were plenty of Windows 98 die hards when EOL happened. If they haven't upgraded by now, they probably still won't now

 

To this day i know a few enterprises that still have some 98SE, XP pro and 2000 pro boxes and a couple of NT and 2000 servers. They are all tight up and work well (completely stripped of useless crap and services) and the amount of money saved went into other urgent and more expensive projects. Those were the best conscious excuses I've seen for not migrating the OS, hardware and the applications / frameworks into a more modern and secure scenario; doesn't mean they are gonna be like that forever, but sometimes the necessary money for migrating the OS, the hardware, all the proprietary/open applications and the amount of testing, planning and evaluating new systems is enormous and cost ineffective (since it doesn't bring a direct form of revenue).

 

Having said that it puzzles me to see the opposite in some places; recently i went into a clinic (as a patient, not work related) and saw their rack, servers and the desktops... it amazes me how innocent some IT folks are when they leave something so import as data and in this case, patient data, in a rack near the entrance of the clinic were people like me can go there and fizzle with it.. so that clinic not only was running Windows XP on the desktops (with two AV solutions, for extra security lol) but windows 2000 server for holding patient data; it was easy to see some stuff in few minutes (some databases were in a shared folder and they contained very sensitive information) but the server was directly connected to the Internet without a firewall (directly connected to the router, relying on the router's NAT and firewall). i talked with my doctor about that and he said that they didn't had an IT for like 10 years or so, so they were basically free cruising.. :o

[+Warwagon MVC]

Wouldn't Chrome or Opera be safer? 

 

You would need an exploit in any browser to exploit the OS. Why use the one that has the most known exploits? 

 

Anything other than IE8

[Joe User]

Anything other than IE8

 

Fair enough.

[Dot Matrix]

I should first add that I do not run XP on my main machine, but what is "broken" about it, asides from being outdated? It's still well supported outside of Microsoft's ceased updates.

For starters, security is HORRIBLE. Don't get me started on technical capabilities with newer hardware.

[Nashy]

i hate to compare computers to cars, but there are always people that refuse to buy a new car b/c their 12yr old car "works just fine"

 

you know youre probably driving a ticking time bomb, but it works just fine right now so who cares to upgrade?

 

Not at all the same.  Not even close.  So far away from being comparable.

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

For starters, security is HORRIBLE. Don't get me started on technical capabilities with newer hardware.

 

Well, nobody was discussing installing XP on new hardware.  I figured this was more-or-less about old machines which already have XP and people refusing to upgrade.

Please describe to me how security is HORRIBLE.

[(Account no longer active)]

With good AV software installed, I don't think there's much risk with continuing to use XP. No issues on my end so far...

[Dot Matrix]

Well, nobody was discussing installing XP on new hardware.  I figured this was more-or-less about old machines which already have XP and people refusing to upgrade.

Please describe to me how security is HORRIBLE.

I don't believe I need to list how horrible XP's security is. We've had 13 years of first hand experience with that.

[AltecXP]

Or the hard drive has failed, and they can't find an ATA drive to replace and reload it with.

You do know a lot of XP machines also sold with SATA right?

[Hum]

Or the hard drive has failed, and they can't find an ATA drive to replace and reload it with.

Hah -- I've had SATA drives in my XP machine for years. :laugh:

[+Warwagon MVC]

For starters, security is HORRIBLE. Don't get me started on technical capabilities with newer hardware.

 

Yes, because everyone needs an i3 and 8GB of ram to do email, facebook and write a document.

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

I don't believe I need to list how horrible XP's security is. We've had 13 years of first hand experience with that.

Since you cannot prove anything to me, I'll assume you have no rebuttal then.

[adrynalyne]

There is no risk if you prepare a XP cloned drive. ;)

Because cloned drives keep data safe.

[PGHammer]

You do know a lot of XP machines also sold with SATA right?

WIth the Intel 865PE and 875P chipsets - these are P4 chipsets from the days of (don't faint) Socket 478 and AGP graphics.

THe ICH5R southbridge (optional with these two chipsets) supported SATA and RAID - it was, in fact, the only Intel southbridge that supported either natively in XP sans service packs

The 875P was actually more of a workstation chipset (especially with ICH5R); and the motherboard I had bought with it was far from cheap - ASUS' P4C800-E Deluxe.

In addition to Intel SATA and/or RAID as options, the E Deluxe also had onboard Intel gigabit Ethernet - specifically, the Intel PRO1000CT (via the Communications Streaming Architecture - CSA).  (Not exactly cheap networking.)

But then, how many motherboards of that era (outside of workstation and enterprise buys) were that feature-packed, even, if not especially, in 2004/2005 (the era of Windows XP Service Pack 2, and the rewrite of Longhorn that eventually begat Vista)?  Have we forgotten the Dell Dimension 2400?  Dell sold a LOT of Dimenstion 2400s - mostly with either original Northwoods or the Northwood-C derived early Celeron CPUs; worse, most of these came with both awful onboard Intel graphics and NO option for replacement except PCI?  (It was likely these same Dell Dimensions that first damaged the reputation of Intel, and later Microsoft, with regards to Vista, before eventually nearly wrecking the reputation of Dell itself.)  I am STILL seeing these Dimension 2400s coming through - remember, I mentioned a ton of sales to business and government - refurbished and used as second-and-third-tier home PCs, and mostly still running XP.  (I have two by my right elbow right now - one waiting to be picked up by the owner, and another that is waiting for me to find a new purpose for it; I can assure you, it won't be running XP.)