Windows XP Support Ending

[Mike Farley]

If anyone is still using a PC with Windows XP installed and which they regularly use to connect to the Internet, e.g. for website browsing and e-mail, now is the time to consider changing to a more recent operating system. Microsoft is ending its support on 8 April 2014, which means that security issues will no longer be fixed. You can be assured that any unpatched security flaws will be ruthlessly exploited by criminal elements and it is not sufficient to rely on anti-virus software for protection. Some of the nastier scams involve hacking into bank accounts and "ransomware" such as Cryptolocker which encrypt all the files on a machine until a payment is made to the perpetrator. Unfortunately, even paying up does not guarantee that the files will be released.

The most suitable Microsoft operating systems to use are either Windows 7 SP1 or 8, with the latter being preferable if upgrading since it will be supported for longer. Windows Vista SP2 support terminates on 11 April 2017. Note that Microsoft has two levels of support. Full Support applies for the first five years after the operating system is released and fixes will be made available for both functional issues and security flaws. For a further five years after that, only significant security flaws are fixed. Full support for Windows 7 ends on 13 January 2015, after which it goes into extended support until January 2020.

Since any machines still running Windows XP are likely to be quite old, an alternative might be to install one of the free Linux distributions rather than paying for a new operating system.

Note that support for Office 2003 also finishes in April 2014.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/ ... pport.aspx

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/lifecycle

[Mike Farley]

I have spoken at a couple of camera clubs recently and at each there were a handful of people still running Windows XP, all of whom were unaware of the impending demise of Microsoft support. Even with an operating system that is now 13 years old, it is very unlikely that all the security flaws have been discovered. The code has its origins in Windows NT, development of which which commenced prior to the explosion of Internet usage, when guarding against online security threats was less of a priority. The inevitable result has been numerous exploits over the years. The black hat hackers are going to have a field day come April.

[Mike Farley]

As an aside, if you are reading this and still using Windows XP, yet don't know what I am referring to in the previous post, what it really means is this:

You should be taking urgent and immediate steps to upgrade to Windows 7, or preferably Windows 8. The latter is a newer operating system with improved security features and will be supported by Microsoft for longer than Windows 7.