Windows XP Going Away April 8th What to do?

[von-mil]

I have a fairly new computer with decent specs but it came with Vista as the OS. I promptly wiped out Vista and loaded the WinXP that was on the computer I had just replaced. Now I want to replace XP with Win 7 or Win 8 and I am leaning towards Win 7. In shopping online I see way too many choices and too many questions. There is Windows 7 Home Premium, Win 7 Professional, Win 7 Ultimate and of course Windows 8 (or 8.1). Then there are 32 bit or 64 bit versions of all of them. Then I see "OEM" versions as opposed to "Full" versions. I am tempted to just leave XP in place and wait for Windows 9 - in 2015 (or so I have read).

My question is - how foolish is it to leave an unsupported OS on my machine for another year or so? I don't spend a lot of time on the internet - maybe 2-3 hours a day and it is via a slow dial-up connection. I use AVG FREE for anti-virus which I keep up-to-date and run full-system scans regularly. I am getting by on WinXP and old web browsers but can I continue to do this until Windows 9?

 

[SouthpawJim]

In my experience, Windows XP was one of Microsoft's bombs. Windows 7 was MUCH better, but required a lot more memory. Maybe even Windows XP would work better with the memory that 7 requires; don't know. Just know that Windows 7 works a lot longer than XP ever did before it would lock up or grow very slow. It seems that Windows XP would sit there and accumulate junk and go to a crawl all by itself, even letting the computer sit turned on without doing anything on it. Windows 7 does this, too, but takes a lot longer.

Ralph

Xp was pretty stable if you kept it tweaked. Vista was a bomb though. I wonder if Microsoft has started denying that Vista ever existed.

My boss came to me a few months back. He was worried about Microsoft ending support on Xp. We have a few Xp machines that are locked down, not connected to the Internet, running some very old software. (not win7 or win8 compatible)

My remark was, "just because MS decided not to support it any more, doesn't mean I will all of a sudden forget how to support it."

 

[SouthpawJim]

I have a fairly new computer with decent specs but it came with Vista as the OS. I promptly wiped out Vista and loaded the WinXP that was on the computer I had just replaced. Now I want to replace XP with Win 7 or Win 8 and I am leaning towards Win 7. In shopping online I see way too many choices and too many questions. There is Windows 7 Home Premium, Win 7 Professional, Win 7 Ultimate and of course Windows 8 (or 8.1). Then there are 32 bit or 64 bit versions of all of them. Then I see "OEM" versions as opposed to "Full" versions. I am tempted to just leave XP in place and wait for Windows 9 - in 2015 (or so I have read).

My question is - how foolish is it to leave an unsupported OS on my machine for another year or so? I don't spend a lot of time on the internet - maybe 2-3 hours a day and it is via a slow dial-up connection. I use AVG FREE for anti-virus which I keep up-to-date and run full-system scans regularly. I am getting by on WinXP and old web browsers but can I continue to do this until Windows 9?

How often do you call Microsoft for support? If the answer is never. Then you should be fine.

 

[DB Pilot]

Last year our 2001 HP XP started having problems. So we bought a New HP All-in-one PC. It is Windows 8. The nice thing is, it is a tower free desktop. No touch screen just the wireless mouse. At first it was frustrating because of all the different ways we had to learn to find stuff. Still having some problems. And getting our email took about an hour on the phone with our internet provider. Because Microsoft wants you to use theirs. :smiley_aafz: Also it won't take the xD card from our camera so I have to download those to this site on a laptop.

Overall though we have gotten used to this one. Can't really complain. I like the 23" screen. I figure why not try something new and see how it works because even though I would like this computer to work differently, the old XP is starting to look like an antique. :2cents:

 

[GPintheMitten]

I bought an all in one as well. It has a touch screen that can come in handy but mostly we use a wireless mouse. Have a wireless keyboard too. It keeps the clutter to a minimum. Window 8 isn't all that bad. There was a free upgrade to 8.1. You can run it in desktop mode if you want.

It's nice having modern hardware (fast) that can run current browsers.

On the other hand I use my smart phone more than the computer for email and internet. I also recently sprung for a Galaxy Android pad with an 7 or 8 inch screen that is quite useful for email and Internet etc.

 

[Looking4new]

I am running Win7 Ultimate and this thing is fast. 16 gigs ram

 

[WM75Guy]

How often do you call Microsoft for support? If the answer is never. Then you should be fine.

The problem is not telephone support. The deadline is for the end of security fixes when vulnerabilities are detected. Since a large number of computers do still run Win XP, reportedly as many as 1/3 of US computers, odds are there will be hackers looking to exploit the lack of support. Whether or not you are vulnerable does depend on what software you run, the operations you perform and where you go on the Internet. If you were happy with XP I would go Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit if your hardware will support it. Most home and business use programs will run on it. Win 7 (all versions) will have extended support thru 01/14/2020 and later if they extend it like they did with XP.

 

[grsthegreat]

my new Lenovo laptop with win7 pro just screams fast. Only about 30-40 seconds from power up to operational. waaaay faster than my old laptop. I also have all my old programs loaded up and all worked perfect at get go.


has a cool biometric login feature also. nice on a laptop

 

[caps]

I have a laptop with XP, a Desktop with Vista, A desktop with Ubuntu, and a laptop with Ubuntu. Never had any problems with any of them. When Micrsoft stops supporting XP and Vista, I will switch to Ubuntu for all. Works better and has better support and price. Microsoft can suck wind.

 

[brt]

My older laptop with XP is going to live it's remaining life in the garage. I updated everything and ran CC Cleaner (have used it on other computers for years) and installed a free antivirus. It will be nice to have a computer in the garage to look things up when I'm working on a project. When it dies a few rounds into it at the gun range will constitute a proper burial.