Microsoft announces "end of life" date for Windows XP

[wbmiller3]

My personal feeling is that it will be very dangerous to use a computer running XP to connect to the internet after support ends. But everyone should make their own risk/reward judgment.

Since I last posted in this thread in September I've transitioned to Ubuntu Linux from my XP computers. There is a good answer for using Netflix now and using the Windows emulator program Wine I've been able to run the XP programs I still need to. I will still keep an Ubuntu/XP dual boot setup for a while to make sure I haven't missed anything.

I have to say that it wasn't a seamless experience transitioning over and I ended up reinstalling the OS once. Thank goodness for solid backups! But I've learned a whole lot and in some ways I actually like Ubuntu better than XP.

[Bill]

If you are running Windows XP (like I am) and are considering an upgrade to Windows 8, you need to understand that your computer may not be able to support the upgrade. This is true not only of lightweight bargain computers from WalMart or whatever, but computers that were considered first-line when new, with plenty of RAM and hard drive space. Before you contemplate spending money on Windows 8, you need to check.

Microsoft has a Compatibility Checker which will check not only your computer, but also your devices (printers, CD and DVD drives, etc) and all of your applications (programs). You download the program, let it run - it takes a while - and it will give you the results, good or bad.

I have five computers that have run XP very successfully since it came out. One is a relatively old laptop, so I discount that. But four are first line machines as described above. In each case, the Compatibility Checker told me that I could not do a standard install of Windows 8, but would require a "special version" of the new OS. It didn't define "special", but I don't have a good feeling about it. It also told me that almost all of my programs would require updates, assuming they exist, and that most of my peripherals would not work. Hooray for Windows 8!

Needless to say, I will continue to run Windows XP for as long as I possibly can.

The Compatibility Checker can be found by going to
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...oad-online-faq
and clicking the blue rectangle labelled "Download Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant" (not the one labelled Windows 8.1).

Hope this helps someone.

Bill

Bill - I would also suggest checking compatibility with a Win 7 upgrade. 7 will be supported until 2020 and has proven to be a stable OS.

[wbmiller3]

I agree with MisterP that Windows 7 is a good system. Unfortunately, even though it will be supported for a long time, Microsoft officially stopped selling it late last year. So it will be a little more difficult to find a legal copy to install. But there are still copies around at various retailers.

[ShrimpBurrito]

The reliability/stability/quality of MS's operating systems is very predictable -- you get a good one every other time. These are the major versions:

3.1 - great
95 - garbage
98 - great
Millenium/Me - garbage
XP - great
Vista - garbage
7 - great
8 - have not used myself, but have heard anecdotal reports of problems; in any event, clearly not as good as 7.

So following this reliable pattern, which spans about 25 years, I'd be in no rush to upgrade to 8.

Dave

[Bill]

Mr. P -

I'm under the impression that Windows 8 is nothing more than a smoother (read "design errors corrected") version of Windows 7. That being the case, I wouldn't expect the compatibility results for Win 7 to be much different from Win 8. And that is indeed the case. The compatibility checker first tells me that Windows Aero will not work. I think Aero is supposed to be one of the big features of Win 7 and 8, so I've lost that right out of the gate. Then I will need a custom install of a 32-bit version of Windows 7, after which I will have to reinstall all my programs. Then it tells me that many of my programs and devices won't work. They will have to be upgraded or replaced, including programs and devices that I have paid good money for.

For example, a particular annoyance is that my current versions of Microsoft Office won't work any more (but it assures me that a paid upgrade is available). 'Scuse me? I spend several hours each day using Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, and now Microsoft wants me to buy a new (and expensive) Operating System, which will kill my paid-for versions of Microsoft Office, and require me to buy a new version of Office from Microsoft? For several hundred dollars? Not today.

It is not my intent to bash Microsoft or the new operating systems. I simply want to remind XP users that before you buy the new OS, be sure that it will work with your machine.

Bill

[scrubjaysnest]

Daughter upgraded laptop, it came with windows 8. Didn't work well and she was thinking of going backwards to 7 when 8.1 was released. Likes it better but still not a happy camper. This summer I will make the transition to her windows 7 laptop and see what happens. I still keep an old 386 machine going to run DOS programs. Until I get 7 figured out we'll keep running XP.

[wbmiller3]

Scrubjaysnest: If you download and install Classic Shell (http://www.classicshell.net/) you can get Windows 8 (mostly) back to the nice operation of Windows 7.

ShrimpBurrito: Totally agree. This will be my last MS OS, I'm going Linux from now on.

Originally Posted by Bill

Mr. P -

I'm under the impression that Windows 8 is nothing more than a smoother (read "design errors corrected") version of Windows 7. That being the case, I wouldn't expect the compatibility results for Win 7 to be much different from Win 8. And that is indeed the case. The compatibility checker first tells me that Windows Aero will not work. I think Aero is supposed to be one of the big features of Win 7 and 8, so I've lost that right out of the gate. Then I will need a custom install of a 32-bit version of Windows 7, after which I will have to reinstall all my programs. Then it tells me that many of my programs and devices won't work. They will have to be upgraded or replaced, including programs and devices that I have paid good money for.

For example, a particular annoyance is that my current versions of Microsoft Office won't work any more (but it assures me that a paid upgrade is available). 'Scuse me? I spend several hours each day using Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, and now Microsoft wants me to buy a new (and expensive) Operating System, which will kill my paid-for versions of Microsoft Office, and require me to buy a new version of Office from Microsoft? For several hundred dollars? Not today.

It is not my intent to bash Microsoft or the new operating systems. I simply want to remind XP users that before you buy the new OS, be sure that it will work with your machine.

Bill

Bill -

I totally agree with your comment to check compatibility before any upgrade. I am not a MS expert, I hate Windows and run a Mac. That being said, I have one PC I bought for a job, and it runs Win 7. Other than the large number of security updates it has every time I turn it on, it is a stable platform.

As far as Office, I quit buying it long ago and run Apache Open Office on the PC and Mac. The key for others to use documents from Open Office is to save them as the equivalent MS Office document. So, if I write a letter I want someone else to read, I save it as a Word document. You can also save to PDF if that is your preference. Once you get used to the differences, you might find Open Office useful.

Paul

[scrubjaysnest]

Started making the transition to Win 7; what a pain finally got Garmins Basecamp and Mapsource working. In the process I even got the old NUVI 550 to accept a mapset up date. The work continues migrating Book marks and email address books from the XP machine. Price was right on the Win 7 machine, it was one our daughter was no longer using