Poll: April 8 is D-Day For Windows XP, What Will You Do?

[ERD50]

Update on the Linux adventure.

.... Successfully found the printer on the network. Actually was easier than on win7. The system associated the driver with the printer. Sent a test page. Success! ...

When I first started with Linux, I was expecting everything to be harder, and was not sure I'd stick with it. My experience has generally been the opposite - I find things easier to get set up on Linux, and I'm still pretty much all thumbs in the terminal.

Now when I troubleshoot on DW's MacBook Pro, I end up cursing at all the rocks that get thrown in my way. Do a search for a file that I know is there, and nothing is returned. What the heck? Oh, the default is to hide system files from searches - great, takes about 6 clicks multi-levels deep to include system files in the search, and it won't remember that, so do it every time.

And then the Mac won't show hidden files - turns out you need to go into the terminal and send a magic command to enable that, and then kill/restart the finder to switch back-forth. In Linux, just hit CNTRL+H to toggle that.

I think the Mac just got tabbed browsing, been using that for for the past 3+ years on Linux.

If I get ambitious will get the .deb file for the scanner feature. In two years have yet to scan anything to PC, so may not actually happen unless curiosity gets the better of me.

I've got a very old scanner, and my Linux system is the only one that works with it. Drivers for the Mac and Windows have not been supported for many years, the current Linux drivers work just fine.

-ERD50

 

[nvestysly]

I originally replied to this thread knowing that I was purchasing a new computer and it would be running Windows 7 OS so I wasn't too concerned about the demise of XP. What I failed to realize is the April 8th date also applies to Microsoft Office 2003 products.

Yikes! I despise Office 2007, 2010 and 365 for many reasons and I am not happy to give up my Office 2003 software suite.

I don't mind using the latest version of Internet Explorer and using Windows 7 as the OS but I'd like to continue using Office 2003. Do I need to be concerned that Microsoft will not be supporting 2003? How quickly do I need to update to newer software?

I guess at some point 2003 will stop opening the newer files - I've noticed that happens sometimes already - there are some docx files Word 2003 will not open. I suspect that problem will get worse with time.

I guess I'm going to update to 2007 but I'll be kicking and screaming all the way!

 

[meierlde]

I originally replied to this thread knowing that I was purchasing a new computer and it would be running Windows 7 OS so I wasn't too concerned about the demise of XP. What I failed to realize is the April 8th date also applies to Microsoft Office 2003 products.

Yikes! I despise Office 2007, 2010 and 365 for many reasons and I am not happy to give up my Office 2003 software suite.

I don't mind using the latest version of Internet Explorer and using Windows 7 as the OS but I'd like to continue using Office 2003. Do I need to be concerned that Microsoft will not be supporting 2003? How quickly do I need to update to newer software?

I guess at some point 2003 will stop opening the newer files - I've noticed that happens sometimes already - there are some docx files Word 2003 will not open. I suspect that problem will get worse with time.

I guess I'm going to update to 2007 but I'll be kicking and screaming all the way!

Note if you only want to look at newer files you can just download the viewers for word and excel. Now if you need to modify them then ...
If you only use the office products locally (for files you generate) , it will continue to work as long as the apps load and run. The big problem with office is that it opens files with malicious contents that do bad things, if you never open files from others then its not a problem. (Or you just open them in the viewers)

 

[easysurfer]

I went with Windows 7 OS as just didn't want to take the chance with XP. Overall, the transition went smoothly but there are a few programs which I used under XP that don't work at all or not well wtih my Windows 7 machine.

I might keep a Win XP machine in storage to pull out and use (just locally, not connected online) until I find a better solution.

 

[rbmrtn]

I guess at some point 2003 will stop opening the newer files - I've noticed that happens sometimes already - there are some docx files Word 2003 will not open. I suspect that problem will get worse with time.

I guess I'm going to update to 2007 but I'll be kicking and screaming all the way!

You can install the compatibility pack for office 2003 to open newer versions.
Download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats from Official Microsoft Download Center

Or switch to openoffice, Libreoffice

XP isn't going to stop working, M$ just won't officially patch it. As long as you are behind a firewall, don't run with administrator rights, it's no big deal.

 

[bUU]

As long as you are behind a firewall, don't run with administrator rights, it's no big deal.

That's not the case. In order for it to be "no big deal" you need to also disconnect the computer from the Internet permanently.

The very first month that Microsoft releases security updates for supported versions of Windows, attackers will reverse engineer those updates, find the vulnerabilities and test Windows XP to see if it shares those vulnerabilities. If it does, attackers will attempt to develop exploit code that can take advantage of those vulnerabilities on Windows XP. Since a security update will never become available for Windows XP to address these vulnerabilities, Windows XP will essentially have a “zero day” vulnerability forever. How often could this scenario occur? Between July 2012 and July 2013 Windows XP was an affected product in 45 Microsoft security bulletins, of which 30 also affected Windows 7 and Windows 8.

The Risk of Running Windows XP After Support Ends April 2014 - Microsoft Security Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

So two out of every three security patches for Windows 7 will provide the means for creating zero day exploits of Windows XP.

 

[Chuckanut]

At the very least, XP users should make sure their security software is updated. And it would not hurt to run Gibson's Shields Up test.

https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2