[Rupert]

April 8th is the date they say all support ends for XP. I'm an old guy, got started on XP, went through all the kinks, and now find it works for me with almost flawless perfection.
I hear bad things will happen without Microsoft support and I am trying to determine how I can deal with this change.

All my software is on XP, my photo editing programs, and a ton of other familiar software that I use from infrequently to very often. Transferring it to Windows 7 would take forever, or in some cases be impossible. I am no computer guru, I can use a computer fairly easily to do the things I do, but have little clue as to how they work or what can or can't be done in the operating structure.

Here is my idea, can you tell me if it will work and if it is practical enough to work smoothly?

I am thinking that I can keep my XP on my present computer, all my files and software, and add Windows 7. Iwould only use XP offline, insulating it from the various malware they say is just waiting to attack XP, while using Windows 7 for all my online activities. I have a 1T harddrive, mostly empty, and a back up 500GB harddrive....if that makes any difference?

Is this possible....or practical?

Regards & Thanks!

[vonBaloney]

There is actually no reason to think anything bad is going to happen to your XP because they drop support. Just have a decent firewall, virus protection, etc, don't do anything stupid and it will be fine. I would just keep on using it as normal, it just won't get updates. You will have to upgrade eventually though, unless you are planning to die soon...the vast majority of your software should run just fine on a newer Windows system and most new software will be 64-bit only before long. The only stuff that might not run is programs that were obsolete when XP was new -- old DOS stuff, etc. (Which you can actually still run with an emulator, but that's another story.)

[dansamy]

Is your PC not compatible with upgrading to Windows 7? If it is compatible, a simple OS upgrade will not lose all of your stuff. You will have to reinstall some things, but your personal files would remain intact.

Well, never mind. Apparently Microshaft made it a pain to go from xp to 7 by forcing you to need to do a clean install.

[Rupert]

That sounds good to my ears! However, eventually even old guys have to upgrade. I hear Windows 9 will be out next year, maybe I can hold on to XP for one more year and see if W9 is closer to XP as they say it will be? And.....with old guys, there is indeed always that possibility you will die before your OS does.......I hope not in the next few days or weeks, I have a X-T1 coming later this week, and if I kick off before then, Mrs Rupert would probably just sit it out with the trash on Tuesday pick up day.
Your thoughts?

Regards!

[dansamy]

My thoughts now, after learning that 7 requires a clean install, I'd backup all of your personal files & locate copies of any software which you'd like to reinstall. And just take the plunge & get'er done!

---------- Post added 03-09-14 at 01:34 PM ----------

Alternatively, you could mirror XP from your primary HDD to a smaller drive & load 7 on your primary & dual boot. I've never done that, but I know that many people use dual OS boots, usually for Linux/Windows on a single machine or sometimes Windows/whatever Apple calls their OS.

[monochrome]

Alternatively, you could mirror XP from your primary HDD to a smaller drive & load 7 on your primary & dual boot. I've never done that, but I know that many people use dual OS boots, usually for Linux/Windows on a single machine or sometimes Windows/whatever Apple calls their OS.

I do that - run an XP Pro virtual machine under the Win7-64 shell to use a piece of simulation software that wasn't upgraded.

I've had luck only upgrading MS operating systems that are odd-numbered, so I'll probably do Win9 about a year after it is released.

[dansamy]

I do that - run an XP Pro virtual machine under the Win7-64 shell to use a piece of simulation software that wasn't upgraded.

I've had luck only upgrading MS operating systems that are odd-numbered, so I'll probably do Win9 about a year after it is released.

My husband's theory is that every other Windows release is a stable, retail release. The between releases are Microsoft laughing all the way to the bank while consumers pay them for the opportunity to beta test for them. XP was good. Vista was pretty, but otherwise sucktackular. 7 is fine. 8 is another sucky one. 9 *should* be fine.

[Racer X 69]

Just because WinBlows is ending support for XP does not mean that on April 8th your computer will stop running. In fact you should be able to go on using it indefinitely. About the only real issue that may present itself is that as things you use online, such as the browser you use and the plugins, i.e. Flash, Java, etc., will eventually not work.

I know people who used WinBlows 98 for any years after support for it was ended.

Just keep on keepin' on Rupert.

Bill may not wait for you, but who cares what he and Melinda are doing anyway?


I used NT, then WinBlows 2000, then XP Pro, and now WinBlows 7 Pro. I find the Pro versions are rock solid, and have less issues than the "home" versions.

[RGlasel]

Transferring it to Windows 7 would take forever, or in some cases be impossible.

Which rules out running your old programs in XP mode or in a VM. Those solutions require you to re-install your old programs once you have Windows 7 installed. Even if you have all of the installation files for old programs, any special settings (including passwords and file locations) will be lost when you re-install, so you are taking a real risk, especially with programs you don't use every day. My suggestion is to find out how to create a new partition on one of your hard drives and install Windows 7 or 8.1 in the new partition.

Eventually, as you use your old XP programs, decide whether you want to upgrade that program to your Windows 7/8.1 system and make the switch one program at a time. Security wise, your strategy of doing everything online in your new system is a good one, the odds of a virus (or more likely malware) messing up your files on the other system are pretty low. The real inconvenience is when you want to move or copy files from one system to another, you basically have to copy the files to something removable like a memory stick, then reboot your computer.

[ChrisPlatt]

If you add another PC for online use you might consider Linux (FREE!) instead.
An inexpensive machine could do nicely as hardware requirements are lower.

Chris

[rawr]

My main PC is Win XP, my other PC (for photo stuff) is Win7.
XP will do me fine for a while yet on my main PC.

I doubt if keeping Windows XP on your computer will cause any significant problems for you. In terms of security, my 3rd party firewall will still be updated no matter what MS does with the underlying operating system, and MS have promised to continue to provide updates to Microsoft Security Essentials (my anti-virus tool) even when XP goes end-of-life. And other anti-virus vendors are going to keep updating their XP versions too, no matter what MS does with the operating system. Many other other applications (eg Firefox, various graphics tools etc) will also continue to be upgraded and will no doubt work fine for years to come after XP bites the dust.

While I do have a copy of Windows 8 available, I am in no rush to install it. I upgraded a relative's XP PC to Windows 8 a few months ago and it was a pretty traumatic experience - the Windows 8 install required nuking the whole system, and after doing the install it became apparent that the v8.0 interface of Win8 is a poorly designed and totally disorienting mess.

The main target for the end-of-life announcement from MS is, I suspect, all the corporates who still run vast fleets of Windows XP on their PC desktops. And all the companies who still run XP on stuff like ATM's and internal POS systems. That's where the upgrade money is for MS, and that's also where many of the critical security risks are too.

[dansamy]

Windows 8 is horrible. I really want a newer laptop, but I don't want one with Windows 8. Darn near impossible!

[rawr]

Darn near impossible!

I think HP have made Win 7, instead of Win 8, an option now. Perhaps a few others have too.

Windows 8, especially if you don't have a touch-screen, is just a horror.

[monochrome]

The main target for the end-of-life announcement from MS is, I suspect, all the corporates who still run vast fleets of Windows XP on their PC desktops. And all the companies who still run XP on stuff like ATM's and internal POS systems. That's where the upgrade money is for MS, and that's also where many of the critical security risks are too.

My company upgraded abut 70,000 licenses to Win7 last year, including buckets of consulting and custom programming money to MS for our special needs.

Big Bucks.

[Canada_Rockies]

In order to use some newer software, I converted my laptop to Win 7 Pro. The "Pro" is important. With Pro, I can run XP SP3 in a virtual machine. My old laptop is short on memory so things are slow, but I can still run all my old programmes and use my HP 1000 laser jet from the XP window. Who would have thought that a laserjet printer would go obsolete? It did.

You need "Pro" or "Enterprise" - not "Home Ultimate" or "Home" anything.

By the way, I still have one laptop running Windows 98. it works. I wouldn't worry too much about the lack of updates. I'm quite looking forward to not having every Thursday half gone between Win 7 and Win XP updates running.

[Edit] That should be Home Premium. Ultimate is beyond Pro. Thanks, photolady.