OT?? Maybe not, Any Windows XP users out there, besides me?
spinaker2000
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Looks like it's gonna be time to upgrade from Windows XP. Yep, I'm a dinosaur. No more security updates or support from Microsoft after Apr 8th. What do you guys recommend?
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and before anyone comments saying get a mac they are way overpriced unless your into Photoshop and Adobe products its pointless buying one
JMO
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If you're stuck on XP for awhile, there's great advice here (page 13).
Make sure your antivirus is up to date, don't use Internet Explorer, etc. I'd also add installing Secunia PSI.
<< <i>and before anyone comments saying get a mac they are way overpriced unless your into Photoshop and Adobe products its pointless buying one
JMO >>
Get a mac. You'll never regret it. I pay more for better quality coins too.
Lance.
<< <i>Looks like it's gonna be time to upgrade from Windows XP. Yep, I'm a dinosaur. No more security updates or support from Microsoft after Apr 8th. What do you guys recommend? >>
As long as you have all the security patches and service packs available as of Apr 8 I see no reason to upgrade for a while. If you believe that any operating system is secure, you are being unwise. I will continue to use XP as long as I can, which is pretty much as long as my existing computers that have XP (6 of them in the house) continue operating. I'll eventually be forced due to hardware or application constraints, but that day is some time off. Til then, my software suite is going to be pretty much set in stone.
I did purchase a laptop for taking to coin club meetings and taking pics for the members, tethering to my Canon camera, and it has Windows 8 on it. It works, but is quite a different experience vs XP. I'm not a Luddite, but I really hate Windows 8. The visual interface designed to compete with Apple works fine on Tablets but is a nightmare for anything else. My work Laptop is a small touchscreen Sony, and I find the visual/touchscreen interface extremely cumbersome to use in a work environment, so have an external mouse and use the physical keyboard. I made the mistake of "upgrading" the work laptop to 8.1, and it is now far more unstable. The hardware and firmware were certified with Win8, and the whole mess is now quite buggy with 8.1.
I would love to say "they can have my WinXPSP3 when they pry it out of my cold, dead hands" but I'm afraid MS will take me literally...
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<< <i>
<< <i>and before anyone comments saying get a mac they are way overpriced unless your into Photoshop and Adobe products its pointless buying one
JMO >>
Get a mac. You'll never regret it. I pay more for better quality coins too.
Lance. >>
I agree with Lance.
Mine is fully integrated with all my iPod music. My iMac is also wirelessly integrated with my iPhone and iPad. They all share the same music library, address books, photos, calander events etc. With the now $89 Apple TV minibox I can view all my photos, videos etc right on my big flatscreen TV as well as seperately access TV shows and new movies(as opposed to Netflix with its only old movie library).
I do not even ever use Photoshop or Adobe yet find my iMac indespensible for the above convience, integration and intuitive user interfaces.
My kids grade school has all 6-8th graders get Apple laptops for all school work.
Our family will never go back to a Windows system ever again.
Plus, the Apple OS is much less likely to be hacked and is much more secure than Windows.
Apple remains way ahead of all others in these areas, even without Steve at the helm.
I am in the same boat on my only windows machine. If I can't find a cheapo version of 7 to put on, I will just upgrade the OS to Linux and be done with it.
the newer versions need more hardware power and you will be running very slowly unless you have a fast system already
perhaps get a new computer instead??
I'm a happy camper now!
bob
PS: I don't have a smart phone, etc, so the windows 8 screen was totally greek to me. My kids could
probably deal with it but I was lost. I deleted stuff I didn't want and that affected other stuff that had
me going in circles. Had it about two weeks and never could cope.
I understand that now windows 8.x has a way to make it look more user and PC friendly. A way to switch
the look on the screen so that it looks like a normal windows screen and not a touch/phone screen.
bob
FWIW my buddy loves 8.1
Windows 8.1 review
Keep an open mind, or get financially repressed -Zoltan Pozsar
<< <i>Given the computer is fine, and it is the OS that is out of date, saying "get a Mac" makes absolutely no sense. If that was the thought, you could also just get a new PC. Neither solves the actual issue.
I am in the same boat on my only windows machine. If I can't find a cheapo version of 7 to put on, I will just upgrade the OS to Linux and be done with it. >>
Why fiddle around with installing a better OS on a unit that is likely ill equipped to handle it? You can buy a refurbished unit with Windows7 already on it for under $200 at WalMart
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<< <i>
<< <i>Given the computer is fine, and it is the OS that is out of date, saying "get a Mac" makes absolutely no sense. If that was the thought, you could also just get a new PC. Neither solves the actual issue.
I am in the same boat on my only windows machine. If I can't find a cheapo version of 7 to put on, I will just upgrade the OS to Linux and be done with it. >>
Why fiddle around with installing a better OS on a unit that is likely ill equipped to handle it? You can buy a refurbished unit with Windows7 already on it for under $200 at WalMart >>
For me, it is a centrino powered laptop. It will run linux without any issues.
Linux has it's own vulnerabilities, the biggest being a false sense of total security by its users.
Keep an open mind, or get financially repressed -Zoltan Pozsar
If you absolutely love your WinXP. Get a program called Deep Freeze. It'll cost you about 45 bucks or so, you install it, add a supervisor password and then have it "Freeze" your system and reboot in a frozen state.
Nothing you do or anyone else does to your PC will last pass a restart. Your PC is "Read-Only". You need to remember that EVERYTHING about the frozen PC is read only. If you want to save any data (photos, spreadsheets etc,) you'll need to put it on a network drive or perhaps get a thumb drive.
You have to remember this as when you actually want to add software, you have to un-freeze, restart, install, then re-freeze and restart.
The Mac is also a good solution, less stuff to remember, but if you're not a Mac person, there is a learning curve.
Win7 is good, but it's aging and will be in the same position as XP not far down the road (probably a few years).
Win8 even the .1 version doesn't seem to have too many people enamored with it.
M$ seems to hit their homeruns every other major release. Look for Win9.x to be the next one you wanna invest in.
<< <i>If you absolutely love your WinXP. Get a program called Deep Freeze. It'll cost you about 45 bucks or so, you install it, add a supervisor password and then have it "Freeze" your system and reboot in a frozen state.
Nothing you do or anyone else does to your PC will last pass a restart. Your PC is "Read-Only". You need to remember that EVERYTHING about the frozen PC is read only. If you want to save any data (photos, spreadsheets etc,) you'll need to put it on a network drive or perhaps get a thumb drive.
You have to remember this as when you actually want to add software, you have to un-freeze, restart, install, then re-freeze and restart.. >>
A slight word of caution: the need for security software is still present even with Faronics Deep Freeze. Many threats today exist in a transient space, not needing to persist themselves across reboots, but still causing damage. Keylogging, phishing, browser session hijacking, etc. can all take place immediately regardless of a limited user account, Deep Freeze, or other restrictions put in place.
Therefore, it's definitely worth still having security software on your XP machine, but ensure that it will be kept up to date by the vendor. As mentioned above, Webroot has committed to keeping support for many years (publicly, five years has been said, but practically, it won't ever lose compatibility). There will probably be vulnerabilities discovered shortly after the "death" of XP, and it will likely lie fully on the shoulders of the security vendors to patch or mitigate them, but this is a task that the security industry has been preparing for, considering the remaining size of the XP userbase.
However, if you are looking to upgrade, Windows 7 is a great OS, and one can get used to Windows 8.1 with time, but both will be slower on XP-class hardware than XP itself.
If you have any other questions, let me know: I lead the engineering team for an antivirus company.
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<< <i>Some of my computers are running XP and others are running 7. Frankly, I don't care what Microsoft does or doesn't do. I won't be "upgrading" any time soon. Windows 8 is such a disaster that TV advertizements refer to it as "the new Windows" instead of calling it 8. The pervasiveness of smart phones and tablets, which are largely outside the grasp of Microsoft, has put an end to much of Microsoft's constant upgrade gamesmanship. >>
all software is constantly upgraded. this is not a microsoft-only phenomenon.
JH
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<< <i>
<< <i>Some of my computers are running XP and others are running 7. Frankly, I don't care what Microsoft does or doesn't do. I won't be "upgrading" any time soon. Windows 8 is such a disaster that TV advertizements refer to it as "the new Windows" instead of calling it 8. The pervasiveness of smart phones and tablets, which are largely outside the grasp of Microsoft, has put an end to much of Microsoft's constant upgrade gamesmanship. >>
all software is constantly upgraded. this is not a microsoft-only phenomenon. >>
The issue isn't over whether or not software upgrades are inevitable. The OP mentioned that Microsoft is ending their support of XP and earlier versions of MS operating systems. It is a subtle way of Microsoft telling the consumer market that they have to spend more money on their product to maintain practical useability, because there is more money in selling "new and improved" rather than maintaining a reliable, existing system. We live in a societal culture presently ingrained in throw away consumer products. I bought a new desktop CPU last year, and much to my dismay, found that I have to literally throw away my XP based printer as obsolete, because no software manufacturer will provide a driver for the printer that is compatible with Windows 7. So there sits a useless piece of equipment that isn't even as functional as a rotary dial telephone.
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the same problem sooner as 8 is 18 months newer.
With 8.1, I find that you can run Windows almost the same as 7. The antivirus is better with 8.1 Windows Defender is better
than McAfee, Norton, or the other free ones that come with new computers.
Startup is much faster with 8.1.
Still, I hope it all gets better with Windows 9, hopefully sometime this year.
I was on Dell today and they still offer some Windows 7 machines.
Micro Center sells a lot of Windows 7 machines from top manufacturers.
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<< <i>Windows 7 the best O/S >>
and I find Webroot to be the best third party protection. Spent two hours on the phone with me once resolving an issue, the kind of service I like. I got the impression I was one of the first to encounter a new bug and not only did they take care of me, but I believe they used the data to protect everyone else.
Keep an open mind, or get financially repressed -Zoltan Pozsar
Upgrading a very old machine is not going to be worth the trouble.
Why pay for a retail copy of Win 7 when you can get a machine that comes with it?
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<< <i>IMO get windows 7...Vista is horrid and windows 8 its meh
and before anyone comments saying get a mac they are way overpriced unless your into Photoshop and Adobe products its pointless buying one
JMO >>
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<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>and before anyone comments saying get a mac they are way overpriced unless your into Photoshop and Adobe products its pointless buying one
JMO >>
Get a mac. You'll never regret it. I pay more for better quality coins too.
Lance. >>
Plus, the Apple OS is much less likely to be hacked and is much more secure than Windows.
>>
Thats pure BS. The recent gotofail debacle showed exactly how little maturity in patch development Apple has. Apples everywhere lifted their skirt for a dropoutjeep review of data from a man-in-the-middle exploit.
Behind Android (the swiss cheese of operating systems) Apple is number two....Yes, you read that right. I investigate hacks for a living. If you are on Apple your wide open and its a target rich envionment.
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as an avid windows pc user for nearly half my life going back to 3.1 which was on 3.5" (lol) i will say that win7 from a normal to heavy home user it is really quite versatile and user friendly and haven't ran into anything i couldn't do that i wanted to. if i had a pc like this back when....
never used a mac as an adult so can't say anything about them but will say that itunes, pod, pad etc have been wonderful++++++ my laziness prevented me from trying mac. my loss?
.
I just purchased 2 refurbished Dell computers with Windows 7 Pro and 4 GB of memory from Walmart.com for about $200 each.
I am so angry with MS -- I pledge to never buy anything else from them.
I was going to switch everything over to Apple, but I don't want the distraction of a learning curve right now. Rest assured though that MS has lost me as a future customer.
Planned obsolescence indeed.
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Keeping my perfectly functioning XP machine for photo management. Read :Microsoft Picture Manager
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registry hack enables continued updates for Windows XP
<< <i>registry hack enables continued updates for Windows XP >>
Don't remember the exact issue now, but there was a recent security breach where Microsoft did include an update for Windows XP too.
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<< <i>
<< <i>and before anyone comments saying get a mac they are way overpriced unless your into Photoshop and Adobe products its pointless buying one
JMO >>
Get a mac. You'll never regret it. I pay more for better quality coins too.
Lance. >>
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I agree,,,,,, get a MAC,,,,, I was on Windows XP until about a year ago when my son talked me into a MAC,,,,, there was a learning curve at first but now I really like it
GrandAm
At first, did try buying a full computer from Best Buy but the thing crashed on day one, it was a IBM. They said we'll order the parts and a tech will install it for you. I replied, will I still be able to return the computer if I don't like it because by the time the parts and tech arrives, my two week return policy will have expired. They said no, I could not return it. I returned it that day. Two weeks later the doorbell rings and there's the freaking tech with my parts.
The best way to build a fast computer, keep track of the tech that comes out, what's number one, what has the greatest reviews and has been tested the most. Then wait 5-6 months and buy it cheap and upgrade. Every so often, you need to upgrade the motherboard and monitor to keep up with the upgrades but it's worth it. The speed, that is. Anymore, I just wait till my son upgrades and take his old computer which he races Nascar on. It's faster than anything I need. Now if I can find a way to upgrade my OS cheap, I'll be set for awhile.
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<< <i>Linux has it's own vulnerabilities, the biggest being a false sense of total security by its users. >>
A quote from the linked article: "But in terms of overall security it is still far superior to Windows."
Some things to ponder:
About Windows:
If your computer lacks more than 1.5gb of RAM, and / or a multi-core processor, WIN 7 will be SLOOOOOW if not practically unusable.
Win 7 is a fresh install, and not an "upgrade" from XP.
Unless you are using proprietary software that only runs within Windows, ask yourself, "why do I need a Windows based OS?"
About Linux:
Distributions like Linux Mint, Ubuntu, etc. are FREE. Linux is widely used around the world to drive servers, and business office computers alike. You will not be alone.
If security is an issue for anyone using any of the popular Linux distributions, there's free AV available.
Linux Mint, or LBuntu (for really old machines) will run well on older machines with limited RAM, and older processors.
The Linux library of 100s of mostly FREE SOFTWARE covers nearly every mundane do-at-home task you can think of including Gimp for photo editing like Photoshop, and GNU Cash for money management like MS Money, or Quicken. The library also includes some heavy duty software for building stable networks. Linux is no orphan!
Linux Distributions are generally easier to learn and maintain due to their inherent intuitiveness.
Try Linux. You have nothing to lose. Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and a host of other distributions of Linux can be downloaded for FREE. It can be run right from a CD/DVD without installing on your computer hard drive to see if you like using it. Providing enough HD space, it can installed on the HD along side XP and run by selecting it at start-up, or even run within Windows.