[AT] OT - Windows XP

[Dick Day]

Here is an excerpt from an email I sent to one of my software clients.
 They were asking if their custom software program would run on Win8 and
how worried should they be about their XP computers.  I am the IT manager
for the county I live in. I also own a custom software development company
with clients in Nebraska and Wisconsin. This is just my opinion, I'm sure
others will not agree...

My preliminary testing, all 10 minutes worth, didn't see any immediate
problems, but all I did was install and run. However, it took some doing to
get to that point. That is not an endorsement of your custom software
running on Win8.

As far as the XP scare, remember Y2K? I anticipate even fewer problems.
 I am responsible for 5 servers and almost 175 PC's at the county.  I still
have a dozen or so XP boxes running and I have no intention of doing
anything with them until they physically break.  Like you, our ISP
(Internet Service Provider) has us hidden behind their firewall.  We have
up-to-date AV running on all systems.  We also have Barracuda WebFilter
covering us. Forgetting about the XP issue, you really should talk to your
hardware provider about some sort of web filtering.

Many XP users have not installed Windows updates in ages. The fact the M$
won't offer support for XP is not all that important, at least to us.  They
simply won't answer your support questions when you call.  And, the last
time you spoke with Microsoft about XP was when?  :)

The AV companies are providing AV for XP.  Why wouldn't they?  Now XP users
have a real reason to buy & keep their AV up-to-date.

Until they get Win8 in a usable format for the business community, we'll
stick with Win7.  All of the PC's I buy are Windows 7 Pro-64/Win8
downgrades. That means that the PC is loaded with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.
They also come with Win8 CD'ds. You own a license for both.  Once 8 is
usable, you'll need to follow the Win8 upgrade procedure.




On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 5:14 PM, charlie hill <charliehill at embarqmail.com>wrote:

> If it was me I'd make sure I updated XP with all the latest updates,
> patches
> and drivers now and then run it until it won't run any more.   They aren't
> going
> to somehow cut it off or block it.  They just won't help you with your
> problems
> any longer and the drivers and updates won't be available most likely.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Howard Weeks
> Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2014 5:19 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] OT - Windows XP
>
> It is more hype than substance!  You should always keep a good virus
> software package installed and updated.
>
> I run several machines with XP and I have never allowed MS to update
> anything on them since since new.  Never had a problem either!  I trust
> MS less than the virus guys.
>
> If the virus software producers drop support for XP, that would be a
> bigger problem. By the time that happens, the hacks will have moved on
> to whatever the MS followers are running.
>
> I will still be running XP in parallel with Linux.
>
> Howard in GA
> On 3/20/2014 11:53 AM, Mike wrote:
> > Hi guys, sorry for the OT post, but I know there are a few guys on here
> > that are up on the latest IT stuff. Long story short, my Dad read an
> > article by Kim Komando in last Sundays paper regarding the end of
> > Microsoft's support for Windows XP on April 14th. The article basically
> > stated that if you haven't already, you should drop XP like a hot potato
> > and migrate to Windows 7 or 8 because it will become very vulnerable to
> > attack.  His machine is an older Dell that won't support Windows 7, so
> > the only option is a new computer. Are these security concerns more hype
> > than substance, or are they legitimate concerns? Thanks for any advice
> > offered.
> >
> > Mike M
> >
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> > http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
> >
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