XP a ticking time-bomb with only 500 days to go ...

Microsoft has made a firm stance that it will officially stop supporting the Windows XP platform, (as well as Microsoft Office 2003), effective after April 8, 2014.

Windows XP is a ticking time-bomb with only 500 days to go

 

For various reasons, I've been in four different hospitals and a number of specialist mdeical clinics in the last 18 months and every one of them has Windows XP. The bigger facilites have networks with several hundred computers, one in each room, all with XP.

If MS is really serious, they're going to have either a mammoth free-of-charge replacement with whatever new system they want the mdeical profession to have, or a major revolt against their plans, maybe even a switch to Apple?

I can see MS getting a major black eye (or even being beheaded) on this one.

 

At the hospital I was in last, I plugged one of my USB keys on my keyring into the little Dell mounted on the back of monitor next to me. Sure enough, I heard the familiar Windows XP da-ding and Explorer popped up the Auto-Play window. Rather scary if you think about it.

An estimated 500 million are still using XP ... which means one-million per day, weekends included, still need to be upgraded.

 

I agree.

At another hospital, there was a long line of people because 'the printer had stopped working about an hour ago'. And they were still waiting for the IT staff to arrive. After about 10 minutes I had convinced them to let me take a peek. Had the printer running in less than two minutes. Got a little round of applause.

(These were also Dell boxes running XP ... and [Ctrtl-Esc], [Winkey-R], [F11], etc. were all fully functional).

 

500 Days count-down for XP

There's only 500 days left for Windows XP. Where do you go?

Here's the countdown gadget.

 

If anyone who has upgraded from Win 7 to Win 8 wants to sell their Win 7 disks, I'd be interested (unless it's against Microsoft rules!!)

 

Really shite I didn't know that so If I want to go back to 7 from 8 I'd need to buy a new key or ring MS bleedin heck they make life difficult

 

so really your ******* if you do and ******* if you don't

Personally I'd go for an OEM Windows 8 Pro non upgrade edition if you wish to sell on your windows 7 disk and number

 

I have a question here. If we old-timers with XP just hang in there, what will happen on "update Tuesdays" after the clock has run down? Will an XP machine simply be knocked off the connection, or will updates to, say, W7, W8, Vista, etc. which just happen also to be applicable to XP get downloaded and installed?

 

If, like me, you use your machines running an older OS, XP say, there is no problem if you do not connect your machines to the public net. If you have off-line machines running an older OS and applications, and they work fine, just keep going; by now you probably understand your system very well and can support it yourself. I've being doing that for years using W2K Pro. I can usually solve software problems quicker that the Microsoft "help ".

 

Undecided?

Another question.....

Will continued use of XP become a big risk (with internet usage) after the expiration date? I've glanced at the new Win8 models shown at the stores and frankly they scare the heck out of me! I'm still learning WinXP! (And that's still a struggle!)

I wish they would make an OS that was "simple" for simple people like me or at least offer some type of a choice.

Would it be foolish to hold out and see what the next OS they may offer by the time the WinXP is kaput?

 

A viable alternative to MS Windows is Ubuntu, no cost, free updates, compatible with most commercial software that runs under Windows. Intrinsically more secure than Windows. A donation to the Ubuntu foundation is much appreciated, (any amount) but not essential if you are short of cash.