Roz wants to know what’s going to happen to her Windows XP computer when Microsoft ends support for XP
I have XP Home like Michael. Can you explain in simple terms what it will mean to me in 2014. I like XP and Outlook Express – Will it mean that I will no longer be able to use my Compaq Desk computer, access any of my prgrammes i.e. Word, My pictures, My music etc. –
At present I use Google Chrome and yahoo Internet Explorer. To be honest I have been reading various articles including your news letter but never really taken in what it will mean to me or my computer until I read Michael comments today. So what will I have to do? will it mean deleting all my programmes, XP Home and buying installing windows 7 or 8? I just don’t understand. Or can you upgrade XP Home to Windows 7 or 8 without deleting XP? – I always thought you couldn’t do something like that because XP is a completely different operating systems. I love my computer and use it a lot but programming and understanding what I will need to do to be honest is beyond me. Hope you can help.
Our answer
We’ll try to make it simple. When Microsoft ends support for Windows XP in April 2014, Windows XP will not just stop working. It will continue to work and all your programs will continue to work and everything will seem normal. What will happen is, you won’t get anymore security updates, patches or fixes from Windows Update. This will leave your computer increasingly vulnerable over time as miscreants target XP users whose computers will become increasingly more vulnerable. Using Windows XP past April 2014 will increase your exposure to security exploits and possibly put your personal information at risk. But Windows XP will continue to work and so will all your programs.
If you upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 8, you’ll be able to keep your personal files (photos, documents, music, etc.) but you will have to reinstall all of your programs. You can dual-boot — Windows XP and Windows 8 but we don’t recommend this as Windows XP will become increasingly more vulnerable to exploits. But remember, your computer must support Windows 8 before you and upgrade to it — so that’s another consideration. If you want to check to see if your computer is capable of running Windows 8, you can do so here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/upgrade-to-windows-8
Simply download the upgrade assistant and run it – and you’ll know if your computer can run Windows 8.
You still have plenty of time to make a decision, but the $39.99 special on Windows 8 Professional upgrade ends on January 31, 2013. We don’t know exactly what the price will be after that, but it’s a good bet it will be $100 or higher — all previous versions of Windows have been.
What I want to know is when XP no longer gets updates will Microsoft have a disk that you can get with all the past updates? Because if you would have to do a restore on your XP computer how would you do updates that had already been sent?
No. Windows XP will be a dead operating system — you won’t be able to get past updates.
But, won’t the maggots move on to the newer systems instead of still trying to exploit XP? I’m feeling like everyone else, I really don’t want to move to Windows 8…the cell phone prodigy, that is what it is! Didn’t move to 7 because I do not want to give up my email, Outlook Express! I purchased an XP disk with update disk so I can stay here for some time! I’m almost 70, might be able to stay with this until I die! Then I will send messages by angel!
Of course they’ll move on – but so will Windows updates. And every exploit that the “maggots” come up with will be fixed. But in Windows XP the maggots will have free reign — Microsoft won’t be watching your back anymore. So whether you like it or now, maggots will always be maggots, and Windows XP will become their favorite target and no one will be there to patch up the holes in it.
Is it possible to buy a Windows 8 update package at the cheaper price now but wait until after they they get first several patches done before installing it? I have always tried to wait for at least a year before switching to a new OS. And April 2014 is still more than a year away.
Another question: are computers that are typically running XP today able to run Windows 8 or is there likely to be significant hardware problems?
I’m not aware of any immediate patches. Windows 7 had nothing but regular Windows updates for over a year after it was released. I think you’re paying too much attention to the news which focuses too much on sensationalism. I don’t see any advantage of waiting to install Windows 8 — if that’s what you want to do. You would have to order the CD-ROM — you couldn’t download Windows 8 and wait to install it.
Thanks for your reply. Yes, from what I know of it (which definitely isn’t much – I’m kind of attached to XP still), Windows 7 has turned out to be a pretty good OS. But so was (is) XP. However, there have been other Windows versions that may not have had the same good fortune, especially when they were first released. Someone told me once upon a time that it was just good practice to wait (if possible) before installing a newly released major upgrade software package, regardless of whether that was an operating system or an application. And that made pretty good sense to me.
But what about my second question: is there a pretty high likelihood that most computers running XP today would not be able to run Windows 8 because of hardware conflicts? If I remember right, that was true even for the Windows 7 upgrade, wasn’t it? Would that be even worse now for the upgrade to Windows 8? Or have they improved the ability of Windows to use older hardware?
When I will upgrade from XP home to windows 8,(thought Windows 7 was o.k. from what I hear,) I will certainly get a subcription to “fix my computer” with TC team. Everything I read about them is so positive so I am sure will not have too much trouble when I switch. Thanks for your input. Have a great day.
I don’t like the new system. Having bought a new computer, using
“live”, I don’t understand why I don’t have to sign in unless I
want to use “Hotmail, Live mail(?)”..I’m so totally confused about all this new stuff.
Showing my old age, I too like O.E. better and now have I.E.9
Give me back what I’m used to and quit changing things…thanks
for letting me air.
Sincerely,
mary
I think all the xp users will end up migrating to linux operating systems