Users Who Think XP Is Good Enough Need to See Infection Rates

[Ci7]

In excess of 350 million licenses of Windows 7 were sold in the 18 months passed since the platform hit GA, the first 300 million of which by the end of January 2011, but despite being the second most used OS on the market, Windows Vista?s successor is doing a far superior job at protecting users compared to Windows XP.

According to operating system usage statistics from Net Applications there are largely two XP users for each customer running Windows 7.

Yet, according to the recently launched Security Intelligence Report volume 10 from Microsoft, the infection rates for Windows 7 are dwarfed by those of the decade old operating system launched in 2001.

?Infection rates for more recently released operating systems and service packs are consistently lower than earlier ones, for both client and server platforms. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the most recently released Windows client and server versions, respectively, have the lowest infection rates,? the software giant stated.

Previous releases of SIR provided the same conclusions, but smaller market share could have been seen as contributing to lower Windows 7 infection rates.

But fact is that the uptake explosion for Windows 7 was not correlated with a similar increase in the volume of compromised computers.

The infection rate that Microsoft associates to Windows 7 in SIRv10 has been somewhat constant and remained under 4.0 since the end of 2009.

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[Charisma Veteran]

It's new, of course it's not going to be as "figured out" yet.

Or you could argue that Win 7 is just better at protecting dumb users from themselves.

Nice try, but I'm still fine, thanks ;)

Edit, before the bashing starts: I'm no XP-fanatic or 7-hater, I just don't see a reason to pay to upgrade now. This does what I need, and I haven't had a virus/malware/etc infection in as long as I can remember.

[Samurizer]

Or you could argue that Win 7 is just better at protecting dumb users from themselves.

It is.

On the other hand, smart users know how to protect themselves and are doing just fine with XP, security-wise.

[Charisma Veteran]

It is.

On the other hand, smart users know how to protect themselves and are doing just fine with XP, security-wise.

Aye, exactly.

Plus, I wonder how well 7 will be doing in terms of security after it's been around as long as XP has.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Aye, exactly.

Plus, I wonder how well 7 will be doing in terms of security after it's been around as long as XP has.

By the time Windows 7 will have been around as long as XP its market share should be negligible. No one will even bother to try and write malware aimed at it.

[Charisma Veteran]

By the time Windows 7 will have been around as long as XP its market share should be negligible. No one will even bother to try and write malware aimed at it.

History clearly does not bear you out on that, though. =/

[Samurizer]

Plus, I wonder how well 7 will be doing in terms of security after it's been around as long as XP has.

It doesn't matter. Unless you really know what you're doing, you shouldn't be running Win7 9 years later.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

History clearly does not bear you out on that, though. =/

Come on, you know as well as I do why XP survived for as long as it did. MS learnt from the Longhorn/Vista debacle and isn't going to let anything like it happen again.

What we don't know is whether Windows will still be controlling 90% of the market by 2019.

[alexalex]

XP is as secure a Win7 using the right tools. In 10 years using the same laptop and XP I haven't got a single exploit nor did I had to reformat/re-install XP.

[blade1269]

XP is as secure a Win7 using the right tools. In 10 years using the same laptop and XP I haven't got a single exploit nor did I had to reformat/re-install XP.

Man your machine must be so slow.

[grik]

For an advance user its true XP is secure but for most, they dont imagine their computer is "as we speak" full of virus and they swear that XP is better. Of course when they start saying that they use an AV thats actually and undercover virus lol i start to explain things.

Most of them are smart enought migrate to win7 home premium, and the wonder of this is that they call me saying that they are in love, best buy even for their old machine, way faster than xp. Of course it is, their XP was full of spyware.

In most cases i advise to buy a new machine low cost 300dollar desktop because the win7 license is OEM and cheaper.

[LiquidSolstice]

XP is as secure a Win7 using the right tools. In 10 years using the same laptop and XP I haven't got a single exploit nor did I had to reformat/re-install XP.

That is the single-most full of s*** comment I've ever heard.

Get real.

[ILikeTobacco]

Come on, you know as well as I do why XP survived for as long as it did. MS learnt from the Longhorn/Vista debacle and isn't going to let anything like it happen again.

What we don't know is whether Windows will still be controlling 90% of the market by 2019.

Doubt they learned anything. Was just another bad OS just like ME was. No company can have a perfect track record after decades of business. They didn't learn then and won't now. The only reason we won't see the same mistakes again is because they no longer use the full waterfall methodology to make their OS. Mistakes will be smaller and fixed within months instead of years.

[+Warwagon MVC]

That is the single-most full of s*** comment I've ever heard.

Get real.

Why is the post ****? I agree with alexalex. Sure you run as admin by default. Which means if the USER voluntarily runs a nasty piece of malware it will run as Admin without any warning, but guess what? On windows 7 when UAC prompts the user, they usually always click continue anyway when prompted. If you keep your system up to date as well as all 3rd party tools and aren't a complete moron, then XP is just fine. Personally I sandbox both my Windows 7 and XP machines. XP will be be a usable up until the day Microsoft stops releasing updates for it, until then I see no issue.

[alexalex]

Man your machine must be so slow.

Fast as new

That is the single-most full of s*** comment I've ever heard.

Get real.

You get real.

[LiquidSolstice]

Why is the post ****? I agree with his point. Sure you run as admin by default. Which means if the USER does run a nasty piece of malware it will run as Admin without any warning, but guess what? On windows 7 when UAC prompts the user, they usually always let continue anyway. If you keep your system up to date as well as all 3rd party tools and aren't a complete moron, then XP is just fine. XP will be be a usable up until the day Microsoft stops releasing updates for it, until then I see no issue.

...that's great, but no, I don't believe that in 10 years he's never had a SINGLE exploit run on his computer. I can MAYBE possibly believe that he's been running the same installation for 10 years, but even that is unlikely.

Every user is careful, but you can't 100% be sure that your computer is clean. You may want to believe so, but it's not likely that you are a human firewall who knows exactly what's going on with your PC at any given time.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Fast as new

I'd hesitate to call a 10-year-old machine 'fast'. Not unless you stick to running apps from 2001 as well - I can't imagine a modern web browser like Firefox 4 or Chrome running very well on a PC built in 2001.

[azure.sapphire]

XP is as secure a Win7 using the right tools. In 10 years using the same laptop and XP I haven't got a single exploit nor did I had to reformat/re-install XP.

No.

[LiquidSolstice]

Fast as new

You get real.

No. Not a single chance. Please stop lying, if you really wanted to bluff, you could have at least said something a bit more believable like 5 years.

The disk/registry fragmentation and corruption would be insane on such an old system. I know this because I had a laptop (old old Dell Inspiron) which I put a clean install of Windows XP SP3 on and had it in the kitchen to do super light web browsing from time to time for weather and news. After 2 years, with no new programs installed (seriously, just a Firefox/Windows Media Player Machine, no FLash installed even) the computer was irritatingly slow and there was a ton of hard drive grinding.

I don't believe you for one second.

Actually, alexalex, I'd like you to try this for me, so I can at least try to believe your 10 year claim, if not your "never any malware exploit" claim.

Run this from the "Run" box.

cmd /k systeminfo | @find "Original Install Date:"

Screenshot the output including the command line. Don't just paste the text into a post.

[still1]

XP is as secure a Win7 using the right tools. In 10 years using the same laptop and XP I haven't got a single exploit nor did I had to reformat/re-install XP.

Man your machine must be so slow.

haha 10 year old PC.... Virus by itself will run slow on it :laugh:

I have a 15 year old PC which runs faster than the i7 quad core 8 gb ram modern PC..... Oh wait.... :whistle:

[Udedenkz]

No.

It is not difficult to keep XP secure.

It is difficult, if not impossible, at the hands of an average user.

And to emphasize what an average user is,

an average user has asked me to help her install Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer.

[+Warwagon MVC]

...that's great, but no, I don't believe that in 10 years he's never had a SINGLE exploit run on his computer. I can MAYBE possibly believe that he's been running the same installation for 10 years, but even that is unlikely.

Every user is careful, but you can't 100% be sure that your computer is clean. You may want to believe so, but it's not likely that you are a human firewall who knows exactly what's going on with your PC at any given time.

Why is that so hard to believe? You think just because he is runing windows XP he will be hit with an exploit? Every OS has exploits.

I can also say in the 7 years I ran XP I never had a SINGLE exploit run on my computer. I Have 2 Machines in my home running XP and they have never had a SINGLE exploit run.

[LiquidSolstice]

Why is that so hard to believe? You think just because you run windows XP you will be hit with an exploit? Every OS has exploits.

I can also say the the 7 years I ran XP I NEVER had an exploit. I Have 2 Machines in my home running XP and they have never had an exploit either.

Perhaps I'm putting the emphasis on the wrong thing here. I agree with the idea the a very experienced user would still find it difficult to keep a computer clean that long, but I still find it highly unlikely.

What I find even more unlikely is the claim that his computer runs "as fast as new", and htat he's never reformatted. Which is why I'm asking for proof in the form of a screenshot of the output:

cmd /k systeminfo | @find "Original Install Date:"

This will work on both XP and 7. for XP, paste it in the Run box, for 7, paste it in the start menu search and press enter.

[alexalex]

No. Not a single chance. Please stop lying, if you really wanted to bluff, you could have at least said something a bit more believable like 5 years.

The disk/registry fragmentation and corruption would be insane on such an old system. I know this because I had a laptop (old old Dell Inspiron) which I put a clean install of Windows XP SP3 on and had it in the kitchen to do super light web browsing from time to time for weather and news. After 2 years, with no new programs installed (seriously, just a Firefox/Windows Media Player Machine, no FLash installed even) the computer was irritatingly slow and there was a ton of hard drive grinding.

I don't believe you for one second.

Actually, alexalex, I'd like you to try this for me, so I can at least try to believe your 10 year claim, if not your "never any malware exploit" claim.

Run this from the "Run" box.

cmd /k systeminfo | @find "Original Install Date:"

Screenshot the output including the command line. Don't just paste the text into a post.

You don't know me so don't call me a liar. Never had a virus, never re-foramted/re-installed. In 10 years witched Hard-disks twice ,one failed, one updraded to a bigger 80GB ( the max size). In both cases restored from image.

The laptop is on 24/7.

I am sure I started with computers and computers security way before you , and many others on Neowin, were born, as I am a computer professional for 43 years (1968).

[+Warwagon MVC]

You don't know me so don't call me a liar. Never had a virus, never re-foramted/re-installed. In 10 years witched Hard-disks twice ,one failed, one updraded to a bigger 80GB ( the max size). In both cases restored from image.

The laptop is on 24/7.

I am sure I started with computers and computers security way before you , and many others on Neowin, were born, as I am a computer professional for 43 years (1968).

If you could post a screenshot of your CMD box after running that command that would be awesome.

i was going to post one, but I don't have any XP machines with installs THAT old. The oldest install I Have is only 2 years old