Help! I am unable to download iTunes bc Windows XP support has ended!

[TH55]

Yes, and we've known for several years that a specific date would come that Microsoft would stop supporting this operating system with patches. that date has now passed.




While I can understand such a point, I think in this case it's not consumerism that's driving the march ahead. It has been well know for a long time now that there are inherent limitations and flaws in the Windows XP architecture. For several years now, the resolution to those flaws has been to use a newer operating system that has those issues mitigated.

You're right that "old" doesn't necessarily mean "bad." But in Windows XP's case, it was "bad" long before it was "old." And there is a limit to how long a vendor can reasonably continue to patch holes in a bad architecture. We're past that limit now. It's time to move on.




I would chalk that up to Microsoft doing a very poor job of offering and promoting better alternatives, and because users are fearful of switching to different, more modern platforms... NOT because XP is such a good architecture given the current computing climate.



Welp, I can tell you with certainty that you will see more issues crop up over time. Bellyaching over why you should be allowed to continue to use such a "good" OS well pat its prime, is only going to fall on deaf ears. The decision has been made by Microsoft. You can acknowledge that now, or have a really hard time of it later. The choice is entirely yours.

So by your estimation should I absolutely not have this computer connected to the internet? It is a Dell from 2005, it was top of the line when I bought and still runs perfectly fine for my needs. It's by no means fast but I never use my desktop anymore, only to download/sync/backup and for school/printing so I haven't upgraded. I browse almost exclusively on my iPhone. In fact, my next computer purchase will be a MacBook.

 

[scaredpoet]

So by your estimation should I absolutely not have this computer connected to the internet?

I won't tell you how to use your computer. But going forward, the longer you run a Windows XP computer and keep it connected to an internet connection, the riskier it will get over time.

I will tell you that where I work, our policy is that we're upgrading all the XP computers to Windows 7 (unless a user would like to try linux or switch to a Mac instead), and if a workstation can't handle the upgrade, it gets replaced with one that can. I know of two pieces of very old software that we use, and will only run on XP, and we're working on getting those replaced. In the meantime, those programs live on a Windows XP virtual Machine, on a Mac, and it is not given internet access.

It is a Dell from 2005, it was top of the line when I bought and still runs perfectly fine for my needs. It's by no means fast but I never use my desktop anymore, only to download/sync/backup and for school/printing so I haven't upgraded. I browse almost exclusively on my iPhone. In fact, my next computer purchase will be a MacBook.

I would suggest looking at installing linux on it. Ubuntu is a good choice.

 

[C DM]

So by your estimation should I absolutely not have this computer connected to the internet? It is a Dell from 2005, it was top of the line when I bought and still runs perfectly fine for my needs. It's by no means fast but I never use my desktop anymore, only to download/sync/backup and for school/printing so I haven't upgraded. I browse almost exclusively on my iPhone. In fact, my next computer purchase will be a MacBook.

Considering it's been at least 6+ years behind on updates already, it's likely too late to be thinking about all of that anyway.