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OK, OK, I get it! It’s not a ’57 Chevy. More likely a ’54. Five year old Leo remembered it wrong. :-) It was a long time ago. (And that it might be wrong has nothing to do with the point of this post.) |
Transcript
Back in 1957, the year I was born, my parents had a 1957 Chevy1. Apparently, it was a relatively new car at the time. Here’s a picture of it, by the way. This is actually on the day, in 1960, that my parents and I immigrated to the United States. Actually, I think we were waiting for the ferry to take us into Anacortes, Washington.
We had that car for a long time, at least certainly in the mind of the then small, “Little Leo” as I was known. The car held many memories for me. In fact, it’s one of the earliest things that I can remember. I can remember doing things like riding down the highway while laying on the back shelf behind the back seat.
Things that you would never, ever see or hear of today. In, I think 1962 or thereabouts, we traded that car in, and to be honest, I cried. Again, I was only maybe 4 or 5 years old, but that car was the only thing that I had known, the only vehicle that I had known since I was born. It’s the car that my parents brought me home in, and it’s interesting because looking back, if we were to take a look at that car today, there’s a very good chance it would be considered “unsafe”.
Among other things, it had a wonderfully, hard, metal dashboard. It had a steering wheel that if you were in an accident, it would probably impale you, and it just, it didn’t have any seat belts, and on top of that, it needed, like most cars of that era, leaded gas, something that you simply won’t find today.
Anybody that still has a car of that era is having to do something, either modifications to the engine or additives to the fuel, I suppose, so that it can run with today’s readily available unleaded gas. So, why am I telling you all about this old car? Well, some of you aren’t going to like this, but we need to talk.
We need to talk about Windows XP. It’s time to trade it in. Much like that car, its lifespan has come to an end. The last nail in the coffin, and the reason that I’m recording this today is that just recently, Google announced that it is dropping support, pulling support from Chrome, the Chrome web browser, for Windows XP. This isn’t a surprise; they actually announced it several months ago, but the next version, as of today, the next version of Google Chrome won’t support Windows XP.
It may or may not continue to work, but they aren’t going to update it for anything on Windows XP or anything that is XP specific. Like XP itself, what that means is that the browser is no longer going to get security updates, and if there are new features, they somehow aren’t going to work on Windows XP, well, they’re not going to work on Windows XP.
That’s one more browser you don’t have available to you on Windows XP. Internet Explorer stopped at version 8 on Windows XP, for example. Firefox is still working and will work for a while, but you know that the end is coming for that as well.
I think it’s important for those still running Windows XP to realize that you’ve used it well beyond any expected lifespan, and to my opinion, any reasonably expected lifespan. Be it a decade or 14 years or whatever it’s been now, that’s a really long time when it comes to operating systems.
It’s time to switch to something else and to be honest, I’m not even promoting it as a Microsoft thing. If you want to switch to Windows 10, go for it, but if you want to switch a Mac, if you want to switch to Linux, that’s fine. What I care about is that it is now time to switch to something more modern, something that will continue to be supported, something that will continue to be maintained, secure and safe; that’s what’s important here.
Even if you feel like you’re not really doing things that are, I’ll say, inviting a threat on Windows XP, what you’re going to find is that this scenario of Google Chrome going away is going to happen more and more. You’re going to run into more applications that either are going to stop supporting Windows XP; they’re going to start failing on Windows XP, and they will just tell you that’s too bad, or there are actually going to be sites and services that explicitly over time are just not going to support an operating system that is that old, and realistically, simply unsupported.
So, it’s time to move on and like I said, I don’t care what you move on to as long it’s something more modern, more supported and more secure. Yes, I get it’s change; it is change and there are definitely going to be some things about the replacements, whatever replacement you choose that you’re probably not going to like, or that you’re at least going to take some getting used to.
That’s the nature of the beast; that’s the nature of technology; that’s the nature of operating systems. And to be fair, and to be blunt, I think one of the things we all need to come to grips with is that ten years is beyond all expectations. That kind of a lifespan for an operating system is simply unrealistic. I won’t say that it’s unreasonable, but the practical matter is that it is unrealistic. Operating systems simply aren’t going to be supported for that long.
Windows XP was an exception. A normal lifespan for an operating system is on the order of about five years and in fact you’ll find that most Linux operating systems in what are called a long-term support path end up getting supported for about five years at which point updates stop. Some Linux releases actually are only supported for two years at which updates stop, and you must upgrade to a more recent version of either that distribution or something else if that’s what you’re liking.
So I think that one of the things that probably should change here is this expectation that an operating system on the computer can last for a decade. I don’t think that’s practical. I wish that it were true. I wish that you could; I honestly do because I think it would serve a lot of people a lot better, and I know that’s where a lot of the frustration comes from.
People feel that they’re being forced to upgrade from something that’s been serving them well, but in terms of being pragmatic about it, in terms of setting expectations, I think that it’s important that you set your expectations to something a little bit more reasonable, something, again, I don’t even really want to say that’s unreasonable to expect more than five years but pragmatically, it’s going to be about 5 years and if you prepare yourself for that now, you’ll be better off five years from now when we find ourselves in this situation again.
And, yeah, the worst-case scenario, of course is that it might even mean you’ll need a new machine. I’m sorry about that. One of things you can do if you find yourself in that situation is that you might find yourself needing to look into a Linux distribution which has lower system requirements than current versions of either the Windows operating system or getting a completely new machine as would be required to switch to a Mac.
There are definitely Linux distributions specifically tailored for lower capacity, lower powered machines that would be potentially ideal to at least recover the horsepower that you have in whatever machine that you’re currently running Windows XP.
It does mean change; it does mean that things are going to be different, and it does mean some things aren’t going to work but you’ll be in a situation where you’ve got a supported operating system and the things that do run on it will continue to be supported.
You know, back then, again 1962; we traded that Chevy for actually a Dodge Dart, which also ended up serving us for many good years at which point it too was traded in for something else. The point is that this happens. We accept it readily in other parts of our lives. And I think that it’s important that we need to come to grips with the fact that sometimes it’s just time to change, and with respect to Windows XP, that time is probably now.
As always, I know that not everybody is going to agree with me on this, but as always, I’d love to hear what you think. Here’s the link for this video on askleo.com if you are watching me anywhere but on askleo.com come visit me there. That’s where I’ll have the moderated comments, as always. I read them all. I’d love to hear what you think.
Until next, week, I’m Leo Notenboom for askleo.com. Remember have fun, stay safe, and don’t forget to back up. Take care.
In addition to it just being “time” to update from XP, it’s also necessary simply because it’s DANGEROUS to continue using it. Like the Chevy with no seatbelts, there is true risk to keeping XP going. What Google is saying by pulling XP support from Chrome is, they CANNOT PROTECT YOU from a constantly evolving online threat environment. It’s not XP’s “fault” any more than it’s Apple’s “fault” that it can’t keep Quicktime safe anymore. Its time has simply passed, and it’s DANGEROUS to keep using it. And it’s not just Chrome on XP: Internet Explorer isn’t being updated anymore either for XP.
What sort of dangers are there online? Turning your computer into a spambot or other attack machine (happens all the time). An exploit that allows it to see your password when you log into your bank, or your email provider, or other important place. And will your local police be able to chase down the criminals in Thirdworldistan? Nope. Will you get your stolen money back? Probably not. It’s time to upgrade to something that IS being supported.
I agree with your points. One thing that has me irritated today however, is the behavior of Apple in ending their support of QuickTime for Windows. Doing so is certainly their right, but to announce it solely to Trend is irresponsible. Fortunately, Trend made US-CERT (Homeland Security) aware of this, who in turn put out a bulletin a few days ago. Apple owed it to users of their software to put this change out in the press. It’s not the first time Apple has quietly slunk away under cover of darkness from their responsibilities. Which is the sole reason why I don’t own any of their stuff.
“One thing that has me irritated today however, is the behavior of Apple in ending their support of QuickTime for Windows.” – Apple confirmed that QuickTime had been deprecated back in January.
1953 Chevy
I recall it as a ’57, but then … it was a long time ago. :-)
It was a 52 or maybe 53 in the photo. We had a 52 when I was a kid. A 57 Chevy is worth a lot today.
Sorry, but that is a /54 chev. Certainly not a .57 There wasn’t too much difference in the looks of the /53 and the /54 though. But this is a /54.
You can install belts in a ’53, and since I like and own antique bikes, vintage stereos and video gear, tube radios and repair them whenever I can, the Chevy analogy isn’t stopping me.
Besides that, my late dad drove one when I was born!
Now, ’57 Chevys…my late grandparents had a Nomad wagon and ran the engine into the ground :)
I think it’s a ’52. I think the ’53 model had fewer grill teeth. My parents had a ’57 Chevy. I learned to drive in it. In any case it’s a good story and a good analogy. I’m going to go uninstall Quick Time Player now.
This is a ’53 Chevy. An easy way to tell is that you can see the creased metal line that goes down the front fender from the headlight back to the front door. The ’52 did not have this line.
I’m 72 and I have found switching from one OS to another OS has been quite simple. I have gone from DOS 5.0 to Windows 10 and most all of the Windows OSes between. I have even tried different Linuxes. I think Windows 10 was the easiest switch I have made. I don’t use the default tiles much, but several I have installed as shortcuts and they get used quite often. One is Paint and the other is the Calculator. They were simple to add as tiles. Oh yes, I do use the Weather tile and the tile for Skype Video.
I have been subscribed to Leo for a number of years and I have found his advice on Windows is wise to follow. Especially since he is a former programmer for Windows. Now if he could just get me to do full image backups. Ha! Thanks for this video, Leo.
It’s a 1954 Chevy. The 1953 had smaller parking lights. I owned a 1954. It was my first car. Mine had four doors too, but it was green. I wish they’d bring back the 54 Chevy. I’d buy another one. Similarly, I’d buy XP again, if it weren’t for all the hackers trying to get into my computer. :-(
I think you are right … definitely not a ’57. ’53 sounds good to me.
Leo,
I thought the 57 chevy had upswept back fins – that is what I remenber
Good advice. While many websites have published articles about how to secure old XP systems, the reality is that it’s impossible to do. Sure, you somewhat improve its security by abandoning Internet Explorer, upping the DEP settings, switching to a Limited account, etc. – but this is simply a band aid and, at the end of the day, an XP computer will be significantly more vulnerable than a computer that’s running a supported operating system. Some people think an antivirus program will provide sufficient protection, but this isn’t the case at all: an XP system can be exploited in ways that an antivirus program will do absolutely nothing to prevent.
As painful as it may be, it’s definitely time to move on.
1952 Chevy
And I use Windows 10. I wouldn’t think about using XP now.
Windows 10 spies on you. The EULA says explicitly that Microsoft has the right to record all your keystrokes, and send them back to Redmond. It seems we’re not safe from the hackers, and we’re not safe from Microsoft either.
How’s that tinfoil hat fit? Do you really imagine Microsoft gives a hang what you type or do? Trust me, they have better things to do.
Provided you use XP or any other version, as a in house system only, and it is never connected to the internet , or updated with a infected program, it cannot get infected.
Indeed, but I’d guess that not too many people have non-connected devices these days.
As long as you never ever copy or transfer data to (or even from) it, that’s true. The mere act of connecting up any hardware – disk, flash drive, whatever – to the computer provides a vector for malware.
I think that although XP it’s outdated, I think you are all viewing the “worst case scenario” kind of thing. Yes, I personally don’t recomend anyone to use it anymore, mostly because Windows 10 it’s really OK, not because XP will make my computer blow up with virus and/or malware, I think that the most effective antivirus is comon sense, I work with a W10 machine and I only ever had Windows Defender on it, and I only use Defender since W7 and my Computer never ever had any virus or malware.
One just has to look for the signs, and to trust distrusting everything on internet. :)
Although I am a IT and Network Administrator for a big company in Spain, I really enjoy your work Leo, keep up with the good work :)
Thanks :)
“I think that the most effective antivirus is common sense.” – Yup, common sense is absolutely the most important aspect of security. However, there are instances when common sense will not help. For example, if a reputable/trusted website is compromised and serves up encrypted/obfuscated malware which is undetected by your AV and is able to drive-by install onto your system via unpatched vulnerabilities in the OS/browser. This is not at all uncommon and, as I said, common sense provides absolutely zero protection in such situations.
And I can tell you web site owners (aka people like me) live in constant fear…
Leo, for your videos on YouTube you provide a text overlay for the location of the associated article and comments. Can you please make the text/link a YouTube clickable annotation so that viewers do not have to type the link out?
I ask this because I sometimes share the link to your YouTube videos on Facebook, which plays directly on the Facebook website but does not show the YouTube video’s description, which contains a clickable link.
Thank you for considering this change and I wish you a good day.
By the way, I agree that people need to get off Windows XP. :-)
Have done that once or twice… will try to remember to take that extra step in the future. Thanks!
Thank you for considering the request.
If I get my HP Scanner to run in XP mode, I will get completely on Windows 7. I’m not online with one anyway and the fact is that every XP machine I’ve been using has died anyway so I would have to build another chassis up.
Just ONE peripheral. I don’t even use it enough to justify buying a new one and the combination printer scanners are junk. I still can find 930C series HP printers in working order for $5-10 in thrift stores and understand every clunky thing they can do because I’ve made several large projects with them over the years.
And both of my television sets are 1983 models, still working great and cost less than 15 bucks at yard sales.
By the way, the games from the OEM XP and even 95 tend to work in 7 but some earlier internet downloads have trouble with modern stuff (darn). It’s fun to play those, even if Plus! for 98 won’t work now :(
I have a copy of XP running in a virtual machine, because I have some old software that only runs correctly in XP. Actually, it is software to learn to read for 5 year olds, and it is a unique system that I’ve never seen elsewhere. We used it with our oldest son, and now the youngest has his turn. Unfortunately, the sound bugs on win 8, it crashes on wine, and the only way I got it working smoothly again was on a virtual machine in which I installed XP (which was the system it ran under when it came out).
That said, I don’t think there is a big security issue, as it is a new install, I disabled network access on the virtual machine, and there’s nothing else on it but this software.
It was made more than 10 years ago by an association (not a company), and has never evolved. You can still buy the install CD for a small fortune on the second-hand market.
The other comment is that a machine that has XP running natively, is in my eyes, the ideal candidate to change into a linux box. Especially because it has probably an old BIOS for which the installation is much easier than with UEFI.
The car shown is a 1954 Chevrolet One-Fifty, the economy model. It is easily Googled. Thanks for the information.
I use xp on one of my computers because it works and i like it,i also drive a 1989 ramcharger because its paid for and its mine,also thats not a 1957 chev.
Car pictured is a 1954.
Pictures of ’52-57 can be found with any search……
This is correct, this is a 1954 Chevy. The ’53 is very similar except for the grill, the ’53 only has 3 vertical bars. The ’52 and earlier are totally different from side view.
I’m also an old computer guy and I agree with Leo, time to put a fork in XP ’cause it’s done.
What about Vista? Could I disconnect from internet and use for say recording live music? I have good software I cannot transfer to new laptop that I like to use for recording my own music. Or if I do buy another laptop what should I do with my old laptop. How to recycle etc?
One point I feel obliged to make is in relation to your car comparison, when upgrading a car the controls are always in much the same place as they were in the previous cars owned.
You don’t find that the ignition key now is under the seat or the indicators switch is in the glove box.
Surely it must be possible for an organisation with the brain power of Microsoft to upgrade its OS offering without making so many changes to the user interface
Sorry if this is a bit of a rant but it is something I feel strongly about particularly in environments like hospital treatment or patient information
Brian, great comment and observation. Most of the recent Microsoft OS changes have been changes for the sake of change only. If you dig deep into the underlying software, it’s mostly the same stuff.
You are absolutely correct.They seem to delight in making changes for no good reason.
Some software lasts for decades. DEC’s VMS was first shipped in 1978. Now known as OpenVMS, whatever that means.
Interesting, that the OS outlasted the company.
The car is a 52 or 53, same car my dad had when I was 12 years old, anyway the car is not important, what is important is your message about systems upgrade, I’m still using Win 7 Pro and have not upgraded to Win 10 per your recommendation. When do you suggest it’s time to go to 10??? I think you need to bring us back up to speed on Win 10. Microsoft keeps bugging me about the machine I’m writing this on about upgrading, and this is a less than 6 month old machine that far exceeds Win 10 requirements.
Microsoft some how force feed the Win 10 upgrade on my wife’s laptop which is an 14 month old machine.
July is fast approaching.
My first car was a ’54 Chevy. So is the one in the picture. I had 2 pc’s running XP – a desktop and a netbook. I bought a new desktop and decided to put Linux Ubuntu on the old one. It will never replace Windows for me but it supports a HP 5200 scanjet. I put Linux lite on the netbook so I can surf the net and use Libre Office when I’m on the road. And it dual boots with XP for one program that I use occasionally.
I too, thought that was an older chevy. I was guessing 54
I have an XP box running occasionally at work to edit Crystal Reports (SAP Business Objects, the publisher of Crystal Reports, hasn’t put out whatever is needed to make version XI run in any OS 8.1 or newer). It runs behind a solid network firewall, has webroot and works only with the SQL database Crystal reports on and the attendant GUI programs. Cheaper than buying newer Crystal with a mess of stuff unwanted here. Hopefully it will remain secure.
Simply being behind a firewall isn’t enough. In a business setting, I’d ditch XP systems unless there was absolutely no alternative but to hang onto them. And if there was absolutely no alternative, I’d look to isolate the systems as much as possible (assigning a static IP and dropping the gateway setting/blocking outgoing connections from that IP at the firewall close to the ISP demarcation point – whatever works given the environment and access requirements of the XP system). Consider too whether there may be compliance implications – using XP can scupper PCI compliance, for example.
Thanks for the info & suggestions! Now I think I’ll just decommission it & find a retiring Windows 7 box to do this stuff on.
I finally traded-in XP this Christmas. I choose to go with Windows 7 in my new self-built system; and I am very happy I did.
Windows 7 is a significant improvement over XP in my opinion and I really like it.
I never had any concerns about security issues with XP; even long after Microsoft had officially ceased servicing it. I have never had any security issues on my computers over the years. But I am the only one using my computer; and I am very careful and wary about where I go on the internet and about emails and spams etc. If I get the slightest sense of something being not quite right I will immediately halt and carefully examine the page and URL and I will back-out if I am not confident. I have no interest in the darker corners of the web or any ‘deep web’ BS.
To anyone still using XP today I would say; unless you have a specific technical reason to do so on a dedicated machine, I would advise moving on to either W7 or W10. I am very pleased with W7 because it gives me the best of both worlds – past and present; and I want to let W10 develop and mature before I switch to it. But from what I hear W10 pretty solid.
Thanks Leo
It is a 1954 Chevrolet. I owned a 1953 and wish I still had it.
I don’t care what Chrome does or how old XP gets. As long as XP keeps working for me on the machine it is on, I will keep using it. The more time that passes, the safer it will become because exploits will no longer be written for it. BTW, Chrome is also dropping support for Vista at the same time as XP, (so much for using something newer). This will be Google’s loss because there are plenty of good browsers still supporting both. Yes, I have other PCs with Vista & Win8 and do not plan to upgrade to 10, even though I support clients who have it. I have yet to see any increase in security issues with XP and I do believe the scare tactics used to get people and businesses to switch was BS hype.
“I have yet to see any increase in security issues with XP and I do believe the scare tactics used to get people and businesses to switch was BS hype.” – There’ll absolutely be an increase in the number of security issues. OSes share a significant amount of code. A vulnerability that exists in Windows Vista SP2, 7, 8 or 10 may well exist in XP too. In the newer OSes, the vulnerability will be patched; in XP, it will not.
As a professional accountant, I do need to keep a computer with XP installed to access historic accounting and tax data created with old proprietary programs. For example, a person sells securities that he/she acquired 20 years ago. What was the cost back then? The original cost may be kept in a program that cannot run in a current operating system.
Because viruses and internet security are an issue, I disconnect all access to the internet when I run XP. Fortunately, the programs years ago didn’t rely on the internet as much as they do today.
Ok these letters raise a question. I, too, run an ancient DOS financial program on XP. The XP is run in Virtual Box and has never been connected to the net. However I do have a shared file that is only used by the XP machine so that I can save and copy by thumb drive to YET another unconnected W2000 machine. Lloyd gives the exact reason for keeping this data.
Do I have much risk?
BTW the host is W 8.1, protected by Kapersky
“Do I have much risk?” – Probably not too much. So long as the network adapter is not enabled, I’d say the setup is probably reasonably secure.
See my comments to Sandy (above).
“DANGEROUS”? Very overstated. When have the thousands (or is it millions) of Microsoft’s “Security Updates” protected anyone from anything? I still use XP and I can do everything that 99% of all computer users can do. As for some applications not working: there are always workarounds or alternatives. A good example is MS Office. I still have Office 2003. Not only it works great on XP, but as most people I only need to use about 10% of its capabilities. There is no reason to rent word processing time from Microsoft’s cloud (a rather silly idea). Let’s be clear, it’s not the cost of a new system or fear of technical novelty that I still use XP, but if it ain’t broke, don’t muck with it. I also have computers with Vista, Windows 7, and 8.1, but I get most of my work done on XP. I recommend everyone re-read Leo’s articles on “backups” for safety, as they will do more to keep you safe than any new OS or new “Security Update”. Besides, by the time I’m ready to give up XP, Microsoft will have a decent new OS again.
“When have the thousands (or is it millions) of Microsoft’s “Security Updates” protected anyone from anything?” – Every second of every day. Literally. Systems get compromised (mainly) in one of two ways: either via infected files/email attachments or via vulnerabilities being exploited. The more vulnerabilities a system has, the more likely it is to be compromised. And, as vulnerabilities in XP will never be patched, they’ll steadily increase in number. From Microsoft:
“The very first month that Microsoft releases security updates for supported versions of Windows, attackers will reverse engineer those updates, find the vulnerabilities and test Windows XP to see if it shares those vulnerabilities. If it does, attackers will attempt to develop exploit code that can take advantage of those vulnerabilities on Windows XP. Since a security update will never become available for Windows XP to address these vulnerabilities, Windows XP will essentially have a “zero day” vulnerability forever.”
http://blogs.microsoft.com/cybertrust/2013/08/15/the-risk-of-running-windows-xp-after-support-ends-april-2014/
“I recommend everyone re-read Leo’s articles on “backups” for safety, as they will do more to keep you safe than any new OS or new “Security Update”.” – Backups will do you no good at all if your system is compromised by financial malware/crimeware – ZeuS, say – which steals your banking credentials and empties your account. And one of the most popular methods that criminals use to spread this malware/crimeware is drive-by downloads/installs on systems that have unpatched and exploitable vulnerabilities – in other words, systems like Windows XP.
Hello,
I’m definitely one of those stubbornly holding on to WinXP Pro SP3, but even I can see the writing on the wall- so to speak.
So, with a fresh install of Win7 Pro SP1 on a Samsung850 Pro 512GB SSD, how do I transfer a decades worth of important Outlook Express emails on the old system to a new email utility (such as Mozilla Thunderbird) which will work in the new set-up?
Rather than ask me why, please just provide me with the simplest way to effectively accomplish this if possible.
Trust you would know, Leo-
Thanks much.
MC
P.S.
FYI:
your video #22129 was the catalyst for this post, but I’ve been planning the transition for several years & know have all the tools to actually do it-
It seems to me that XP isn’t really the issue. I have a 32 bit laptop as it has a program which is no longer supported which will only run on a 32 bit machine. I can’t seem to upgrade a 32 bit machine to W10 (which I would prefer) and I can’t get a 64 bit machine to run the program. There is no sensible alternative to that particular program.
Now what?
“I can’t seem to upgrade a 32 bit machine to W10.” – Why not? Windows 10 is available in both 32 and 64-bit versions.
Are you sure that your laptop hardware is really 32 bit ? I had for years a laptop with a Celeron 550 on it, and as I had originally Vista 32 bit on it, I installed a 32-bit ubuntu over it as I thought it was a 32 bit machine. Only a few years ago, when booting from a 64-bit system on a flash drive, I realized that the celeron 550 is a 64 bit processor !
Sorry, XP serves my needs quite nicely. It’s the best OS MS ever put out. Been downhill ever since. Simplicity, clarity, beauty, look and feel, lightness, ease of interaction … gone by the wayside as MS tried to pad its pocketbook by arrogance. (See how most MS websites SCREAM at you today if you try to reach them using Microsoft’s own product, IE8, on an XP machine). But with Firefox , the WEPOS/POSReady registry hack, and Norton Security Suite (improved tremendously over the years) I’m good to go through 2019, maybe longer. And my data? All backed up. And little on my machine I wouldn’t yell out in the public square.
Two weeks ago a corrupted MS file (hmmmm…) on my XP laptop froze my logon at the Desktop. Could do nothing but a hard “button-push” re-boot. Took me over a week to find and eliminate the problem (with the help of Safe Mode and chkdsk). So in the meantime I cranked up a Windows 7 machine that I bought two years ago as the screamers – including Microsoft – yelled “The sky is falling, the sky is falling” with the demise of XP support.
I have two XP machines, two Windows 7 machines, and one Windows 10 machine. I use the Windows 10 machine for running CPU/memory intensive executables in a VMware Player Linux virtual machine. Will never use Windows 10 for any other purpose because of its many and troubling privacy issues. And I will not “upgrade” my Windows 7 machines to Windows 10 – in spite of the insidious warning MS has installed on my Windows 7 machines. (And Edge … you’ve got to be kidding!!!)
And Windows 7? Used it for two weeks (and always at work because I’m forced to). The verdict? Windows 7 is not even a close second behind XP – nor to Ubuntu which I can boot to from a thumb drive. Same applies to the ribbonless old MS Office 2003 which is far superior to all subsequent MS Office releases since (and I have extensively used MS Office 07, 10, 13, and 16).
So when “generic you” stops supporting me, yes, it’s getting close to moving on. But websites that really want my business (Amazon, eBay, many others) don’t tell me to go suck an egg when I try to reach them with IE8. If forced to abandon XP I will likely move to one of the many free Linux OS distributions – or to a Mac, where the rest of my family has already gone.
“Sorry, XP serves my needs quite nicely. It’s the best OS MS ever put out. Been downhill ever since.” – I remember people saying the exact same thing about Windows 9x. People hated ME, hated XP and were going to stick with 9x until somebody pried it from their cold, dead hands. I suspect that most of those people are now happily using Windows 10.
When XP was announced it raised an incredible uproar. People HATED it. Irony.
I think there’s been something of an uproar over every OS released by Microsoft. “This is outrageous! I’ve had enough! No more M$/Microsucks for me! Linux here I come!” And yet….
Leo and others have explained why Windows 10 is no worse than earlier versions (or, if it is worse in some ways, how to work around the problems). But no one seems to have explained why it’s better – apart from being supported, which I know is crucial. I’m happy to report that I’ve found an area where 10 is better than XP and 7: the interface for editing the ‘path’ environment variable is much better.
“But no one seems to have explained why it’s better.” – Whether or not somebody would find Windows 10 an improvement really depends on whether they’d use the features that it introduced – things like Continuum, Cortana and Task View. It should also be remembered that OS releases tend to be more evolutionary than revolutionary. Windows 10 was not enormously different to Windows 8, Windows 8 was not enormously different to Windows 7, Windows 7 was not….etc., etc. But if you compare Windows 10 to Windows 9x, it’s pretty obvious that all the little evolutionary changes have contributed to an OS that’s massively improved in terms of usability, functionality, security, automation and more.
“Windows 8 was not enormously different to Windows 7”. Are you kidding me? It was COMPLETELY different. No Start button or menu. Tiles instead of icons. And that’s why the Start menu was brought back in Windows 10 – because of the enormous outcry.
And yet, if you restored the start menu using something like Classic Shell … there was little difference to be seen beyond that. It was most certainly NOT “completely” different.
…and setting Windows 8 to boot directly to the desktop made it even more Windows 7ish.
And yet, if you realize what is being said, it is absolutely true. Go to any store selling Windows 8 PCs — did you see Classic Shell installed there? Of course not. Leo, just admit it: PLAIN VANILLA Win8 was absolutely different, a wholesale change in many areas, esp the user interface. It is only WITH the addition of third-party tools when can you say “there is little difference”. Try going to Best Buy and getting a demo, you won’t see any 3rd party tools there — the average user sees the new interface at Best Buy and clearly can tell that Win8 is, plain as day, COMPLETELY different. THAT is an undisputed fact. On first use, out of the box, the difference is IMMEDIATELY clear. Only after installing a 3rd-party tool do they become similar again. But, darn it, we’re only talking about what MS is selling here, not the combo pack MS+3rdPartyTool . Stay on point.
We have different definitions of “completely”, it appears. The user interface is, at most, 10% of what makes up the operating system. 90% of what’s under the hood remains almost exactly the same.
Well, you sure have a lot of car enthusiasts listening to you ;-)
As for me, I’ve been running WIN7 without any problems, yet wondering when I’ll either have to upgrade to that dreaded 8 or worse 10 or if they’ll have a good one out before that time. I’ve also been considering maybe I’ll have to change to Ubunto or Linux or ?;
any thoughts sure would be appreciated.
Windows 7 will be supported until 2020, so you have a few years yet to make your mind up. That said, I really don’t see any reason not to upgrade to Windows 10. It’s free – until July, anyway – and, if you didn’t like it, it’d be very easy to use a backup to revert to Windows 7. Plus, some minor niggles aside, Windows 10 is actually quite nice. As for Linux, why not simply try it and see what you think? You can run Ubuntu or Mint from a DVD or flash drive without needing to install/replace Windows 7.
I just discovered that Google Chrome is no longer available if you use Windows XP
As the article says, the older versions will still work, but the latest safest versions won’t run on XP.
Just saying what a lot more have already said, and that is, that Chevie is definitely a/54. The /53 had fewer vertical bars in the grill.
I took my old XP box off line years ago and use it for personal stuff only. Anything that needs to be transferred goes onto a flash drive. Online things like email and Google, etc., are accessed with a tablet and/or smart phone…works for me.
I have a CD-Based car repair manual that will only run on Windows XP / 2000 or earlier operating systems. It will run in a Virtual Machin on Windows 7, but the printing is messed up.
The software is unlikely to be upgraded as the cars it supports were last imported to the U.S.A. 10 years ago.
I had to buy an XP Laptop from eBay just to run that software. My other working laptops all run Windows 10
Unfortunately, some older programs need XP to run, a dedicated machine for that purpose is sometimes your best option. In that case, it’s safest to never use it to access the internet or plug in any USB devices (a printer would in most cases be OK) which you share with other machines. If you really need to use XP, have a system image backup on hand to be able to revert to a clean system in case you get malware while connected to the internet or through a USB device.
This seems to me to be obvious good housekeeping, which Leo has been trying to instil in us for as long as I can remember. I too need XP to carry out a particular function (film scanning) with a scanner that requires XP. I have bought a secondhand laptop that has been professionally wiped and had XP reinstalled, and will make a disc image before putting it into use. The laptop will never be connected to the internet; after scanning, the images will be transferred by USB memory stick to my Win 10 desktop for all other procedures.
I concede that there may be a risk of transferring occult malware from the desktop to the laptop, but the disc image is the answer to that. I cannot see that I am in any way putting my desktop at risk, since any malware transferred must by definition already be on the desktop. Or am I missing something?
“Or am I missing something?” – Nope. The laptop doesn’t present a risk to the desktop – and, if it’s non-connected, the laptop isn’t at any significant risk either.
The image backup of your pristine installation is the key to keeping it safe in case malware gets in via the usb flash drive. In fact a system image backup is a silver bullet for almost anything.
Please, I am NOT a pro, geek or hobbyist. Just want safety. Hope this will help those who have My problem with a/ MSE no longer updated for XP and b/ Chrome no longer updated for it either. Got the notices that one is not going to be supported any more and selected the help option, it acted like it was never set up to give ANY help. Typical MS, eh? I still have windows security alerts–last was for Office 07, but it’s not going to do anything for me, right? , .just .alerting me while making false promises that the download will help when I know it wont even download. The XP since April 14 has rejected any MSE update by blocking among other URL’s 93.174.93.94 as a malicious website. And Error Message 0x80000700c1 says ” isnt available in safe mode.” I’ve read some of Leo’s content re that type error message. The 2 red icons have shown up in my system tray–one windows security alert and the other referring to antivirus being turned off. Think I’ve turned off one at least temporarily. To top everything else this week, c/ downloaded Firefox & it crashed in a couple days, and then d/ negative word on Yahoo mail future. 4 Strike-outs. I will keep Malwarebytes. Hope it and MS Defender will do the job for my clean new machine. Supposed to have Win 7 Pro 64 bit installed with Win 10 upgrade free but I have a sneaking suspicion that Dell only installed & sent Win 10. Yes, will be reading leo’s s pages very carefully. Have a free one year McAfee subscription but see no reason to remove Malwarebytes to activate McAfee. Dont mind paying for a reasonably priced av/ firewall that will work alongside Malwarebytes. Does this resonate with others’ problems in the last week or two?
““DANGEROUS”? Very overstated. When have the thousands (or is it millions) of Microsoft’s “Security Updates” protected anyone from anything?”
Remarks such as this make me bristle (to borrow a phrase from Mr. Notenboom). XP is no longer a secure OS – and is, therefore, dangerous to use – and nobody with even a modicum of security knowledge would claim otherwise. End of story. If you use XP for everyday activities, you’re putting your computer at risk, your data at risk, your identity at risk and your banks accounts at risk. If somebody chooses to accept those risks, that’s obviously entirely up to them; but to encourage other people to assume the same risk by downplaying the dangers associated with using XP is completely irresponsible.
Switch to Windows 7, 8 or 10, or Mac or Linux – whatever you want, so long as it’s still supported – but don’t keep on using XP. It isn’t safe.
It is a ’54 Chev. ’54 had rectangular Parking lights. ’53 had round Parking lights.
Simular situations on the rear also.
If Win 10 is the final OS according to Microsoft, why can’t the manufacturers of peripherals, such as printers and scanners, write a final, mature Win 10 driver for their old hardware? It should be the last time. I get a lot of donated equipment that still works fine, but I can’t find drivers for them. (eg. Epson scanner yesterday).
At an Apple II conference at a Kansas City College in the 90s someone had gotten ahold of a prototype Apple Ethernet card and overnight wrote a driver for it from scratch and was able to print to the printer in the College office using an Apple IIgs. Can’t be that hard to upgrade an already written driver for the new OS.
“If Win 10 is the final OS according to Microsoft, why can’t the manufacturers of peripherals, such as printers and scanners, write a final, mature Win 10 driver for their old hardware?” – Economics, mainly. Manufacturers can’t keep on supporting their entire product line indefinitely – especially as the older hardware becomes, the smaller its user base becomes (I doubt that many still print on a good ol’ MX-80). And, of course, they want to buy new stuff.
The Apple driver was, what, 20 years ago? WHen things were WAY simpler than they are now.
Regardless of whether something called “Windows 10” is the final version of Windows, I can certainly envision future updates that impact drivers so that they need to be updated. Progress is progress, change is change, regardless of whether you give it a new name or not.
The car is definitely a 54 Chevrolet. I was around in those days, and as a boy, I was a real car fanatic. The vertical grill pieces are arrowhead-like. The 53s had a more round version of those grill elements. Hey, we had no PCs back then, so cars were the only thing, besides westerns on TV.
I would love to dump or upgrade my old XP machine, but that means BUYING a new label printer and abandoning a couple programs that I use that ONLY run on XP. There are no suitable replacements for those programs. Also have 2 laptops that run XP and I tried upgrading one of them, but the hardware drivers were not available to make an internet connection, so had to downgrade again to XP. (Used an external internet adapter for a while, but that was less than desirable). That means I’ll have to buy at least one new laptop; maybe two if I leave XP. I do have one machine on Windows 7 and two on Windows 10, so am not resisting moving forward. The problem is that I am not ready to spend $1,000 to $1,500 or more to replace old hardware and trash it when it still runs perfectly. It almost seems that Microsoft is in cahoots with the hardware makers, as the OS goes obsolete long before the hardware fails. It “hurts” to get rid of perfectly good hardware because there is no OS support anymore for it. My old desktop running XP will die one of these days and I wouldn’t think of putting XP on a new machine. Until it does die, I am keeping it running.
“It hurts to get rid of perfectly good hardware because there is no OS support anymore for it.” – I’m actually quite pleased when hardware keeps on truckin’ until it becomes obsolete. I’d much rather that than have it shuffle off the mortal coil after only a couple of years – like early TVs and PCs often did!
To be clear, I have updated all our Windows PCs to Windows 10.
However, when reading discussions about such upgrading, I have yet to see a logical explanation why XP should suddenly become dangerous etc, literally overnight, because of MS Support being withdrawn.
Any remaining weaknesses and issues must remain the same as at that withdrawal – agreed not decreasing – but equally not increasing.
As the number of operating PCs using XP diminish directly or indirectly by moving to virtual versions, hacks for XP will be less attractive, so reducing the likelihood of attacks.
At that time, it had been updated for various aspects over several years, including particularly security, so was generally considered safer than when originally issued.
Contrast that with W10, a new or updated system, without its own years of testing and use, so theoretically more open to having as many if not more and different problems coming to light over the next few years, until proven otherwise in practice.
Vulnerabilities are not increasing. But the number of known vulnerabilities is. For example there’s very likely a bug in Windows XP right now, though no one knows about it. In fact, it’s in all versions of Windows. It’s a bug that could be used by a hacker to compromise your machine. One day that bug is discovered, and hackers begin to use it. Microsoft fixes that bug in all versions of Windows that they support, which does not include Windows XP. XP still has the bug, and will always have the bug, and now hackers know about it and can exploit it.
“I have yet to see a logical explanation why XP should suddenly become dangerous etc, literally overnight, because of MS Support being withdrawn.” – I’ll point you to this comment (which I mentioned above):
“The very first month that Microsoft releases security updates for supported versions of Windows, attackers will reverse engineer those updates, find the vulnerabilities and test Windows XP to see if it shares those vulnerabilities. If it does, attackers will attempt to develop exploit code that can take advantage of those vulnerabilities on Windows XP. Since a security update will never become available for Windows XP to address these vulnerabilities, Windows XP will essentially have a “zero day” vulnerability forever.”
http://blogs.microsoft.com/cybertrust/2013/08/15/the-risk-of-running-windows-xp-after-support-ends-april-2014/
What! I had a hard time giving up my Commodore C-128, but I see your point. I always enjoy your videos. Everyone is well done.
Why the heck did you give it up? I still have mine!
Hi Leo , Thanks for helping us face reality !! So many people today hate the way everything keeps changing . As soon
as we accept something , something new comes in (not always or necessarily better) and we have to change . Well ,
Windows XP was like a pair of comfortable house slippers that made me feel warm & safe . It was easy to operate and
I loved all my old games . They were fun . Then………along came Windows 8 and Windows 10 and all that went with
them . I hate the games . I haven’t found one that i find fun …. really !! And then 8 and 10 do not support my old games .
The bottom line is that some people don’t like a lot of change . But reality doesn’t care what people like . It just keeps
going forward and we have to accept things such as : new mates , new houses , new neighborhoods, new cars that though
pretty and attractive don’t carry any flavors , character or emotions that make us feel warm & cozy . I could go on & on
but I will stop here . All that is left to us now is heavy metal music , hip hop , and Windows 10 .
Ours was a mid-fifties Hudson. I used to love riding in the rear window deck. (I remember being severely disappointed a couple of years later when I found I would not fit in that space in our “new” Dodge Dart.) Back in those days, if I wasn’t riding on the rear window deck, I’d be standing on the seat to be able to see out, and the “seatbelt” was Dad’s arm which, during sudden stops, he would throw out to prevent me from doing a faceplant into the very hard metal dashboard. :) These days he’d probably be jailed for child endangerment, but it was the norm back then.
Yes, very well said. However, I run a number of XP machines because I have a music playback program that will not run correctly on any operating system after XP. It is a midi program and as you know, midi is not mentioned in windows after XP (although it is present and mostly functional), so I am one of those dinosaurs that have elected to keep running XP. I have to add though that I do not connect these machines to the internet and really only use them for the music playback function that I need. So, I guess much of what you have said doesn’t apply to me, ie. I could just keep the ’57 Chev (although I remember that they had “fins”, the ’57 is a classic and not easily misidentified, your picture looks like an earlier one ’54 perhaps?), and just drive it on Sundays, whilst using my new “Toyota 10” for actual transport etc. What would be a great help for me (and perhaps for others who are also in my situation), is to be pointed in the direction of a “slimmed-down”, “bare-bones” version of XP, that would take fewer system resources and hard-drive space (since I run netbooks with very small SS hard-drives). Yes I know there are programs out there for doing this (Lite, or something similar), but it seems to me that you need to be a programmer already to be able to get a result with them. So do you have any suggestions? Thanks.
KEEPING WINDOWS XP (Pros & Cons)
If it’s not too late, I’d like to add my 2 cents:
Unless I’m overlooking something, there IS a scenario in which it is safe to keep using XP – I didn’t notice it mentioned anywhere.
If you’re not needing it for e-mail or other on-line use, it would be safe, right? If you have software installed that you’re using for
certain things (word processing, spreadsheets, games, et al) then you should be okay – as long as any possible connection is disabled.
gary
Where any possible connection INCLUDES: never ever attaching it to the internet. Never ever attaching to it an external drive that has been attached elsewhere. Never ever taking data to and from it using floppy drives or USB sticks.
Then sure. Not sure it’s a particularly useful machine (out side of some dedicated purposes examples), but if there’s never a way to transfer data to and from it in any fashion, then it should be safe.
I was a Windows XP and Office 2003 devotee for seven years until I had to get a new computer with Windows 10 and Office 2016 on it. I now find Windows 10 is better than Windows XP in some ways, such as navigation.
Did you know Microsoft will end extended support of Windows 10 in 2025? This presents a problem because Microsoft says Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows…
I expect that there will be another version — still called Windows 10 — that will be supported as long as need be.
It’s actually good news that Windows 10 is the last version. That means that you will be able to get all of the latest versions of Windows 10 for free. Previously, when a new version came out, it was called a new OS and you had to purchase it. Microsoft has issued 2 new free major upgrades since Windows 10 came out, Anniversary edition and Creators edition. Now matter how radical the upgrade is, it will be always be free for the life of the computer it installed on.
Apple did something similar with OSX (X stands for 10).