So who's staying XPut?

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by goldilocks

I just got a new laptop with Win7. What a pain setting everything up!

1. Hooked up one of my portable drives and couldn't do anything with the files on it...had to "take ownership" of the files, then "grant administrator rights", and finally "reset permissions" for everyone through system 32? I have administrator rights so I don't understand why I had to go through all this mess just to view my own documents/files.

2. Then I tried to search for something on the portable drive and Win7 could not find it. (I do not like Wiin7 search mode). Hooked the drive up to my XP and it found the document right away.

3. I have Office 2010 and was able to paste web pages into a Word document and the pictures pasted fine on XP but not on the Wiin7. I compared all my settings in Word and made sure they were the same. Well for Win7 a website recommended disabling the Bluetooth add-in and the pictures would paste correctly-didn't happen for me. I still haven't figured out how to get the pictures to paste correctly.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant! I liked XP and I am sure there will be things I will like about Win7 but it reminds me of the old saying "Two steps forward and one step back."

I will keep my XP (it's just a little netbook) which I have had for five years and has served me well. Very few problems except is was kind of slow. It still holds my original Calibre libraries and all the books I have scanned (approx. 900). So I will use it for backup storage but will no longer connect it to the internet.

I'd personally recommend going straight to Windows 8. It's not perfect, and there's a bit of a learning curve, but the curve's not too steep, and in my opinion, the few downsides of Windows 8 are more than compensated by the upsides. It really is a nice system once you get the feel for it, and surely Microsoft will continue to support it longer than they will Windows 7, if only for the fact that it's the newer system.

[Glorfindel]

^yes, W7 support ends in 2020 and W8 in 2022

[Glorfindel]

don't know about Vista but it's probably around 2018 or something

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Currently it is at home and I am halfway across the country spending Passover with relatives. I'll tell you when I get back and find out.

Did you find out yet?

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

what are your reasons for keeping XP?

I have a variety of computers around the house and a stack of harddrives for use in the notebooks I have laying around.

During one of my assignments I was given an "unlimited lifetime" license for XP and Office 2003 and so there's no reason NOT to keep at least one system around running XP. I just recently installed XP on a Gateway NV57 notebook. Although it shipped with Win7 (just 2 months before Win 8 was released) I was able to track down drivers for all the hardware.

XP runs like greased lightning on this notebook. And because it is 32-bit it supports older 16-bit Windows apps. (I have a ton of old Microsoft Home titles that are still fun to fire up once and a while)

I have a custom theme that I use (simpleXP) that is 10 years old but still looks clean and modern. Because XP has been around so long there is a ton of excellent software that still runs great. This system won't be my main every day system, but I'll certainly use it pretty often.

The dangers of staying with XP have been overstated by the tech media. Deliberately so. They don't want to be held accountable for anyone losing data if they were to say that it would be "ok" to stay with XP.

I've been in the industry for a long time and know how to keep a system safe and secure.

[Glorfindel]

Yeah, I have a few MS-DOS games I like to play, they don't work very well in DosBox unfortunately.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

The dangers of staying with XP have been overstated by the tech media. Deliberately so. They don't want to be held accountable for anyone losing data if they were to say that it would be "ok" to stay with XP.

No, they haven't. You can make a personal decision to stay with XP, I don't care. But don't tell people that XP is safe. When it was released, well over 10 years ago, it was a great OS that provided more security than any before it. But we live in a different world today, and XP is simply not up to the game.

[Glorfindel]

You may be able to keep it safe, but only if you keep it disconnected from the internet, there will be new vulnerabilities found as time goes on, never to be fixed.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

The dangers of staying with XP have been overstated by the tech media.

Originally Posted by CRussel

No, they haven't. You can make a personal decision to stay with XP, I don't care. But don't tell people that XP is safe. When it was released, well over 10 years ago, it was a great OS that provided more security than any before it. But we live in a different world today, and XP is simply not up to the game.

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

You may be able to keep it safe, but only if you keep it disconnected from the internet, there will be new vulnerabilities found as time goes on, never to be fixed.

Like the security flaw just discovered in Internet Explorer, for instance. From a Reuters news item dated yesterday:

Microsoft Corp is rushing to fix a bug in its widely used Internet Explorer web browser after a computer security firm disclosed the flaw over the weekend, saying hackers have already exploited it in attacks on some U.S. companies.

PCs running Windows XP will not receive any updates fixing that bug when they are released, however, because Microsoft stopped supporting the 13-year-old operating system earlier this month.

Full story here.

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by CRussel

No, they haven't. You can make a personal decision to stay with XP, I don't care. But don't tell people that XP is safe. When it was released, well over 10 years ago, it was a great OS that provided more security than any before it. But we live in a different world today, and XP is simply not up to the game.

Where did I say that XP is safe? What part of "The dangers of staying with XP have been overstated by the tech media" states or implies that XP is safe?

If you're going to take issue with something that I said, make sure that I actually said it.

[Billi]

I find it funny/ironic that all those media reports seemed to imply that XP has been safe(r) two months ago.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Billi

I find it funny/ironic that all those media reports seemed to imply that XP has been safe(r) two months ago.

Indeed. My mother's XP laptop has failed (repeatedly) to apply every Windows Update for the last 2 years.
She keeps safe by running as few MS components as I can convince her.

Anyone who is vulnerable to this bug is using IE, in which case not only do they deserve everything they get, they also have bigger problems, like IE.

It's not much of a bug if the only people who can be affected are the ones who are using an obsolete browser.
The bugfix involves downloading and installing Chrome/Firefox.

[soulfuldog]

Just bought my Mum a replacement PC and gifted her old XP one to someone who will use it as a network file server. Since she does her banking online it seemed daft not to upgrade... but she's not too impressed with W8 so far, she can't run one of her favourite games on it - Windows Best of Entertainment pack, released in 1995.

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

Just bought my Mum a replacement PC and gifted her old XP one to someone who will use it as a network file server. Since she does her banking online it seemed daft not to upgrade... but she's not too impressed with W8 so far, she can't run one of her favourite games on it - Windows Best of Entertainment pack, released in 1995.

That's a bummer. Microsoft discontinued support for 16-bit Windows apps in the 64-bit versions of Windows starting with Windows 7.

That's not a big deal to most people, but for some, like your mom, it can be an annoyance.

I have a ton of old 16-bit Windows apps that are still enjoyable to use.

For those who have old software like that, I encourage people to find a new system with a 32-bit version of Windows 7 or 8. They exist, but are not easy to find.

[Glorfindel]

I don't think it's even possible to run 16-bit programs on 64-bit PCs, regardless of it being supported in the 32-bit Ed. of the same OS.