Let me get this straight: They didn't just leave our old and unsupported systems alone, but they did update them, only to destroy something that was working?

That's just messed up

konc wrote:

Let me get this straight: They didn't just leave our old and unsupported systems alone, but they did update them, only to destroy something that was working?

Yup, forced obsolescence at its worst. Very Microsoft. At least we should be thankful Microsoft doesn't write laws, because if it does, then you might go to prison for not upgrading.

Well, it kind of makes sense that they wouldn't want users to think their outdated systems with their outdated security would be properly defended against the latest threats. I guess?

Noticed nothing, but that is because always stuck to MSE v4.4.304.0. Kinda expected a move like this, but it is very annoying still.
Just like modern versions of Skype, that claims XP support but brick the O.S. when it is running. With animated emoticons OFF it kinda runs OK, but not enterily.

Jorpho wrote:

Well, it kind of makes sense that they wouldn't want users to think their outdated systems with their outdated security would be properly defended against the latest threats. I guess?

In that case a message would suffice.

By the way, Microsoft XP embedded/Wepos/Posready has support till 2019 by contract.

I use XP as my daily driver at home (GOG games, web browsing, LibreOffice). I'm noticing more and more of this planned obsolescence. Dropbox just disabled their client on XP, so it makes sharing my files between systems much less convenient. I have to download spreadsheets, then when I update them, remember to upload back to DB. I've ended up with multiple versions already...ugh. Firefox/LastPass seems to be getting worse too. Almost no sites autofll my credentials from LastPass anymore. I've got a Win7 license I've been saving for when I get a system capable of 4 cores and >4GB, but I might just have to upgrade my XP rig to 7 if these issues keep accumulating.

I wonder what kinds of horrible unpatched vulnerabilities XP has accumulated.

swaaye wrote:

I wonder what kinds of horrible unpatched vulnerabilities XP has accumulated.

Quite a few, like every version of Windows, likely (one issue that anyone should fix now is to disable NetBIOS on Windows, because apparently there's a major security hole in its implementation that goes all the way back to Windows 95 😵 ). However, just disabling a protective service with no notice the way M$ did here is asinine.

Isn't there some other free AV option?

I thought they killed MSE for XP long ago. I didn't know there were crafty hacks to get around that.

Xp was never very secure fine the get go. But m$ still makes sec updates for xp, just not openly releases them.

I.E. paid updates derived from pos 2009
In fact most of the updates you get for xp today (if you pay for them) are just repackaged tested pos 2009 updates.

swaaye wrote:

I wonder what kinds of horrible unpatched vulnerabilities XP has accumulated.

The Neutrino exploit kit, which is powerful modern software for distributing malware (including popular variants of ransomware) basically works by downloading itself on a PC and trying one of several possible exploits, until it finds one that works (if it does). I briefly looked at the list of CVE articles that is mentioned in relation to this kit, and some of those apply to XP (or the IE that's part of XP) and have been found after XP went out of support. I believe that some of them were patched in the POS/Embedded flavors, but not all of them.

gerwin wrote:

In that case a message would suffice.

Oh, like anyone ever reads "messages", or takes them seriously.

swaaye wrote:

Isn't there some other free AV option?

I thought they killed MSE for XP long ago. I didn't know there were crafty hacks to get around that.

Basically what they did is to make it throw up a nag screen at every single boot some time back. Going back one version fixed that. Now they've again made an update that breaks things where going back one version fixes it. The dumb thing is that reverting to the old program version allows you to download virus definition updates which will work fine anyway. So apparently the base format of the definition updates is not being changed, even though you'd think that would be the easiest way to really kill old versions dead, by making them incompatible with new virus definition lists...it's a bit mind-boggling really.

I guess if no decent fix shows up I'll have a look at what other AV solutions still work (or simply disconnect the system from the net entirely).

clueless1 wrote:

I use XP as my daily driver at home (GOG games, web browsing, LibreOffice). I'm noticing more and more of this planned obsolescence. Dropbox just disabled their client on XP, so it makes sharing my files between systems much less convenient. I have to download spreadsheets, then when I update them, remember to upload back to DB. I've ended up with multiple versions already...ugh. Firefox/LastPass seems to be getting worse too. Almost no sites autofll my credentials from LastPass anymore. I've got a Win7 license I've been saving for when I get a system capable of 4 cores and >4GB, but I might just have to upgrade my XP rig to 7 if these issues keep accumulating.

What kind of hardware are you currently using? Anything P4 with 2gb of ram and a decent gpu can make a good 7 rig. And if you dual booted you could retain usage for xp only stuff

ODwilly wrote:

clueless1 wrote:

I use XP as my daily driver at home (GOG games, web browsing, LibreOffice). I'm noticing more and more of this planned obsolescence. Dropbox just disabled their client on XP, so it makes sharing my files between systems much less convenient. I have to download spreadsheets, then when I update them, remember to upload back to DB. I've ended up with multiple versions already...ugh. Firefox/LastPass seems to be getting worse too. Almost no sites autofll my credentials from LastPass anymore. I've got a Win7 license I've been saving for when I get a system capable of 4 cores and >4GB, but I might just have to upgrade my XP rig to 7 if these issues keep accumulating.

What kind of hardware are you currently using? Anything P4 with 2gb of ram and a decent gpu can make a good 7 rig. And if you dual booted you could retain usage for xp only stuff

Xeon 3070 (2.66Ghz C2D), 4GB and 8800GTX. It would certainly run Win7 fine, but if I'm going to use up my precious Win7 license, I want to put it on something with 4 cores and 8GB so I can plan modern games too.

That makes sense

HI everyone long time lurker and huge fan of this site. I have a xp pro laptop and i dual boot my main rig with xp pro an win 7 ultimate and on both of my XP installs MSE still updates just fine in fact my laptop just finished downloading new definitions.

Jorpho wrote:

Well, it kind of makes sense that they wouldn't want users to think their outdated systems with their outdated security would be properly defended against the latest threats. I guess?

What MS is doing here is attempting to make the lie the truth - i.e. they tell you that XP is stupid, unsecure, doesn't work anymore, will get 10,000 viruses automatically by just putting it on the internet, etc. (yeah, right). Then they go ahead and try to force that to actually happen by breaking MSE.

To say xp is secure is a lie. It can be made pretty well secure. But out of the box even with all the sec updates it's still not even all that secure.