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How much life does Windows XP have left?

Maybe about five years. It depends how much Microsoft choose to change the explorer interface. If the explorer interface remains stagnant in favour of the metro interface, chances are a lot of apps will still run on XP.

Remember that Microsoft are supporting Windows 7 until 2020 which also comes with an "XP mode" for older apps. As much as I've always disliked XP, it may have a while left in it... unofficially at least. Especially since the desktop interface is nearing the end of its evolution in favour of touch.
 
hallux said:
So, if one is willing to pay $200 per PC and find a way to be considered a "large customer", you can still get patches for XP. Absent that, support for XP is dropped in April 2014 and an unpatched installation will become vulnerable within a short period of time.
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Yeah, you are right! 🙂
 
All those fearing the lack of support for XP are actually spreading FUD. I've been running SP2 in Fusion for more than a year with modern antimalware protection, and just because it's unsupported doesn't mean it's getting viruses and spyware galore. Quite the opposite, in fact, I've actually gotten zero... modern browser, modern antimalware. That's all you need to keep XP running. Besides, with SP3 having 35% marketshare STILL after 5 years since the last service pack and a groundbreaking TWELVE years since release, I'm pretty sure Micro$oft will rethink its decision to drop consumer support so quickly.

Or maybe not, seeing how they've managed to screw up everything they've done since 2010. Skype, Windows Phone, Windows 8, and now the purchase of Nokia... all complete and utter failures, I'm afraid. Maybe with Ballmer on retirement watch, some more sensible individuals will have sense to put Microsoft back into relevance.

Note how I said "relevance," not "profit." It was clear under Ballmer that he never cared about making excellent software that people loved. It was clear that he cared about making excellent profits that shareholders loved.

It's how Apple started sinking ship in the mid-90s. Copland, anyone?
 
chrfr said:
Microsoft already has. This is the postponed end of support.
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Exactly. I think the original date was in 2012 but because of the poor acceptance of Vista, especially in the business world, they extended support 2 years so enterprises could get all their apps migrated to support Windows 7 which has gained a MUCH higher level of acceptance all over.

People need to consider that continuing support for a TWELVE YEAR OLD product costs Microsoft considerable money in manpower to build security patches. Keeping support going for XP means that they will then be supporting FOUR OSes. How many applications do you (not necessarily the poster I quoted) use where the developer still supports and updates as old as four major revisions back? I bet it's not many. They made a decision, financially, to put those resources to work to support a more recent product.
 
Frisco said:
But my computer is very old and runs perfectly fine on XP--so why force me to upgrade. Yeah I know the $$$.
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That doesn't mean come next year your XP installation will automatically self destruct. Keep your browser and anti-virus up to date and you'll probably be fine. There are probably people out there still using Windows 2000 because they have no need to upgrade. My wife's computer at work still has Windows 98 on it, lol 🙂 (non-profit with virtually no IT budget).
 
mslide said:
That doesn't mean come next year your XP installation will automatically self destruct. Keep your browser and anti-virus up to date and you'll probably be fine. There are probably people out there still using Windows 2000 because they have no need to upgrade. My wife's computer at work still has Windows 98 on it, lol 🙂 (non-profit with virtually no IT budget).
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The problem is that maybe a year or so after XP support ends, hardware and software manufacturers will probably drop support for the OS. So, if you buy the Newfangled LaserJetInk5400Pro Photo Ultra Professional Business Thingamajig All-in-one printer, chances are it won't have drivers for XP. Similarly, Mozilla and others will stop releasing software slowly for XP a couple of years after April 2014. Office 2013 is likely the last Office you can run on XP, and Microsoft has already shown that they're neglecting the system by keeping it bolted to IE8 when the browser is so awfully out of date.

I'd say you still get nearly 2 years' worth of good use out of it, though, if not more with proper care. However, when your XP machine dies, XP is dead and since the activation servers have all been shut down, you pretty much have to upgrade to Windows 7.

7 is an excellent OS, though, so it should be absolutely no problem to upgrade. Unlike Windows 8, it's instantly familiar and you can turn off the visual effects if you don't like the eyecandy (which is one thing I love about Microsoft and not Apple: you aren't forced to adopt new settings immediately).
 
Tell me about your Windows ME experience.

I will miss XP and also now miss Windows 2000. Those were some amazing Operating Systems. Right before XP came out I bought my first laptop (Sony Vaio), but before I bought it I asked the rep at CompUSA if I can get it with Win 2000--he said "nope." But I still purchased.

It was horrible everything crashing, etc. Of course tech support from Sony blamed MS and MS techs blamed Sony.

Windows XP was soon released so I bought an upgrade copy at Staples. I was amazed with how good XP was--yeah it had it's early hiccups, but in the end I was glad I upgraded. ME was almost unusable.

So in the end it wasn't Sony's fault.
 
If XP supported more than 4 GB of Ram, it would still be my primary OS. 7's great an all, but for what little I do, it doesn't really offer me anything XP doesn't. I feel like a lot of people feel the same and it's going to be IE 6 all over again.

I run Windows 2000 daily which obviously gets no support but never run into any viruses or "hacking". It does what I need it to do and it does it well.

Avoid dodgy sites, install a good firewall, and use a secure browser.
 
Dustman said:
If XP supported more than 4 GB of Ram, it would still be my primary OS. 7's great an all, but for what little I do, it doesn't really offer me anything XP doesn't. I feel like a lot of people feel the same and it's going to be IE 6 all over again.

I run Windows 2000 daily which obviously gets no support but never run into any viruses or "hacking". It does what I need it to do and it does it well.

Avoid dodgy sites, install a good firewall, and use a secure browser.
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Thanks. What's the best browser for XP? I use Firefox and occasionally when I have to IE. Haven't really given the other browsers much of a chance since they were first released (Safari, Chrome).
 
Frisco said:
Thanks. What's the best browser for XP? I use Firefox and occasionally when I have to IE. Haven't really given the other browsers much of a chance since they were first released (Safari, Chrome).
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Chrome is my go-to. Speedy, flash seems to run a bit smoother, and it's arguably a bit better in my eyes at managing a large amount of open tabs without memory leaking to no where (though it still happens, as it does on every browser). I've always had an issue with Firefox on both PCs and even Android where it performs great, but randomly hangs at times when clicking a link on a website. It happens enough to keep me off of it and doesn't happen with Chrome.
 
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