dr_st wrote on 2020-09-14, 11:07:
I wouldn't advise to use XP to browse the web for prolonged periods of time, for sure. For security reasons, and others. It's not even a pleasant experience with all the mainstream browsers having dropped support.
I see no any difference browsing with XP than any other (modern) system. there are weekly browser updates for example, here:
http://rtfreesoft.blogspot.com/
plus there is "360 Chrome Browser", which is using latest Chrome engine, but it's Chinese port of it to XP. There are 3rd party patches for "360 Chrome Browser" to remove all the spyware the Chinese included. In any way, because it's Chinese, the people who made those patches were very paranoid to make sure it's totally secure, i.e. it was carefully audited for secuirty.
As far as XP security is concerned - POSReady patches (that were made until August 2020) solve that - I mean if it's secure for countless number of ATMs and POS terminals, then it's secure for me too.
Last, but not least, even with the latest official Firefox for XP version 52.9, it's very hard job to find website it cannot open. Same for the latest official Chrome for XP, version 49.0.2623.112, even Youtube is still working with that now ancient browser. The only catch with Chrome for XP is that it downloads and installs the certificates during its installation and Google removed that link. So, you need to make sure to update the certificates in your WinXP installation manually.