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

[LiquidSolstice]

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).

That's wonderful. I'm sure that post took a lot of pride and self-importance to write, but that's not what I asked for.

Thanks for first saying that I don't know you, and then deciding that you know you're older than me. That's totally not hypocritical at all.

[alexalex]

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

Posted above.

[+dave164 Subscriber¹]

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).

I have Windows 7 and I was installed in 2002 to.

Incorrect BIOS clocks on first install are a great thing ;)

[AnotherITguy]

XP actually is keeping IT guys and gals busy, shoot 99.9% of my clientele still runs XP PRO.

[tomjol]

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.

Where do you people get off being so high and ****ing mighty?

My work laptop has been running XP for two years, I can't say there's any noticeable slowdown compared to when it was new, indeed the only thing which ever makes it chug is Outlook and we all know what a steaming heap of turd that can be. My parents ran XP until last year, the install was over five years old and had never had any infection, neither did it exhibit any sluggishness.

Get this into your head - your experience is not representative of everyone else's. Quite how you can be so unbelievably arrogant as to think that it is, I'm unsure.

[Miuku.]

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

Well naturally I'm not him but;

(Taken via RDP to the box by the way, if you're wondering about the resolution + fonts)

[AnotherITguy]

While there is nothing wrong with XP, the fact is. If you really still want to use XP, why not move along to a better kernel 5.2.3790 in XP PRO X64?

[NEVER85]

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.

When you say 7 years, does that mean 7 years from today? That would put it in line with the Sasser breakout. So when you installed XP fresh, you weren't hit with Sasser 10 seconds after connecting to the internet? That's definitely something. :blink:

For the record, I'm not being sarcastic nor am I mocking you, it's just that I didn't hear of anybody that wasn't slammed with Sasser (or Blaster) after installing a fresh copy of XP back in early-mid 2004.

While there is nothing wrong with XP, the fact is. If you really still want to use XP, why not move along to a better kernel 5.2.3790 in XP PRO X64?

It's technically not XP. It's Server 2003 with an XP interface.

[Farstrider]

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.

10 years is long, but I can take you word for it as I have two pc's that have XP on them, one a little over 5 years and one that I still use regularly, that I did my last install on in 2007.

I just flat out never have anything ever go wrong with my XP boxes as regards exploits and viruses, or my Linux Box either for that matter!

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

Get real.

Once again comments like this typify the childish attitude of a LARGE portion of the community!

This is my AMD Athlone that I still regularly use in my Office and workshop!

[AnotherITguy]

When you say 7 years, does that mean 7 years from today? That would put it in line with the Sasser breakout. So when you installed XP fresh, you weren't hit with Sasser 10 seconds after connecting to the internet? That's definitely something. :blink:

For the record, I'm not being sarcastic nor am I mocking you, it's just that I didn't hear of anybody that wasn't slammed with Sasser (or Blaster) after installing a fresh copy of XP back in early-mid 2004.

It's technically not XP. It's Server 2003 with an XP interface.

it has all of the same features save for 16 Bit support, the only diffrence between xp and server 2003 is a simple one, TRUSTWORTHY COMPUTING INITIATIVE, which stopped cold the development of Server 2003 and had them go through it with a fine tooth comb and each dev sign off their code. So, no, its not technically SERVER 2003, its Windows XP

[briangw]

While there is nothing wrong with XP, the fact is. If you really still want to use XP, why not move along to a better kernel 5.2.3790 in XP PRO X64?

Lack of driver support would be my guess.....

[AnotherITguy]

i doubt that, most printers today have support for it, its taken them about 4 years but if you look you'll find the drivers.

printers et other devices i meant to say

[Flawed]

Wait, so Microsoft's own numbers disprove security in obscurity. Hehe. That explains why neither OS X nor GNU/Linux are seeing increasing malware, despite their year on year growing marketshare.

The fact is though, if you set yourself up as a normal user as opposed to the default root account you get, then XP's security is on par with Windows 7. If anything, XP is actually safer given the fact that (AFAIK) you have to log out and back in as admin to install anything, because it doesn't have the UAC, which allows the user to switch to root privileges at the click of a button, otherwise known as non-authenticated privilege escalation.

[Flawed]

10 years is long, but I can take you word for it as I have two pc's that have XP on them, one a little over 5 years and one that I still use regularly, that I did my last install on in 2007.

I just flat out never have anything ever go wrong with my XP boxes as regards exploits and viruses, or my Linux Box either for that matter!

Even though I don't particularly like Windows in general, It has to be said, XP is Microsoft's best, and most stable (is 'stablest' a valid superlative?) OS to date. If I was forced to use Windows, I'd choose XP in a second, even on the most powerful hardware. It's performance, efficiency, and compatibility, both in software and hardware, clinches it for me.

[AnotherITguy]

What do you mean by stable?

Ok, in XP if your video card driver crashed, guess what...you rebooted, not in 7

Windows XP has no sandboxing mechanisms for IE 8, 7 Does

Windows XP does not have TRIM support for SSD drives, 7 does.

Are you spotting a trend yet?

[Riggers]

Even though I don't particularly like Windows in general, It has to be said, XP is Microsoft's best, and most stable (is 'stablest' a valid superlative?) OS to date. If I was forced to use Windows, I'd choose XP in a second, even on the most powerful hardware. It's performance, efficiency, and compatibility, both in software and hardware, clinches it for me.

I think anyone who`s ever looked at the forums/news even for just a few days would know this :)

XP wasn`t super stable when it first came out, hence BSOD is a common expression! Later service packs helped in that regard as well as in security.

Where`s Frylock when you need him?

[tomjol]

What do you mean by stable?

Ok, in XP if your video card driver crashed, guess what...you rebooted, not in 7

Windows XP has no sandboxing mechanisms for IE 8, 7 Does

Windows XP does not have TRIM support for SSD drives, 7 does.

Are you spotting a trend yet?

What precisely do sandboxing of IE and TRIM have to do with stability, pray tell?

For the record, I don't agree with the guy, but your point is a bit contrived ;)

[Flawed]

What do you mean by stable?

Ok, in XP if your video card driver crashed, guess what...you rebooted, not in 7

Wait, you are saying that if a driver crashes, such as a video driver, you don't get a BSOD, nor do you have an unstable desktop environment? By stable, I'm referring to the maturity of the code base, and thus, the smaller number of bugs, and better software (including drivers) compatibility.

Windows XP has no sandboxing mechanisms for IE 8, 7 Does

I don't use IE. I use Firefox, and every machine That I have ever installed XP on, or fixed, I have installed Firefox. Only IE users need worry about drive by malware infections.

Windows XP does not have TRIM support for SSD drives, 7 does.

Neither does Vista out of the box. However, there is an intel tool to provide that. Although given that SDD's still aren't used in most desktop PC's yet, I question the usefulness of it.

Are you spotting a trend yet?

The only trend I see here is your distaste for XP. The fact is, there are many reasons to continue using XP on new and existing hardware as per my eariler assertions, but I wont belabour the subject.

[Depicus]

Funny thread, I have a server running 2000 at one client and has been since mid 2002. :)

I am also building a dev machine and installed XP on it just today so I can do some dotnet stuff.

[+Warwagon MVC]

When you say 7 years, does that mean 7 years from today? That would put it in line with the Sasser breakout. So when you installed XP fresh, you weren't hit with Sasser 10 seconds after connecting to the internet? That's definitely something. :blink:

For the record, I'm not being sarcastic nor am I mocking you, it's just that I didn't hear of anybody that wasn't slammed with Sasser (or Blaster) after installing a fresh copy of XP back in early-mid 2004.

It's technically not XP. It's Server 2003 with an XP interface.

My mom got blaster back in the day, but I either had the firewall in windows manually turned on or I was behind a WRT54G router. Either way I never got blaster or sasser.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

If infection rates are the be-all and end-all of OSes then what is the infection rates of the Chromebooks?

Edit:

My point to that is that Microsoft shouldn't push infection rates as a big reason to use Microsoft Windows 7. Then again, Microsoft has a long history of demonizing their former products because old Microsoft products are often the biggest "competition" that prevents future sales.

[Quillz]

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).

You haven't had XP installed for 10 years... Not even 9 years yet...

[John.D]

Most probably have some kind of file sharing program on them too. And probably dont get updated at all. No wonder they get infected. And Win7 (in some countries) it's not exactly cheap

[Darrian]

It's technically not XP. It's Server 2003 with an XP interface.

Poor choice of words, maybe? LOL. You realize Server 2003 has a "XP interface" right?

[n_K]

Well the logs I've got of hacked rates show that networks on W7 don't seem to have a clue how to secure them and they were more secure before they updated from XP and server 03.