XP SP3 still gets updates until 2015.

I thought it would be 8 april 2014...

leileilol wrote:

XP SP3 still gets updates until 2015.

XP still gets *anti-malware* updates until 2015. No security patches, no support.
If you're still running XP, then don't let it connect to the internet. Time to upgrade.

peterferrie wrote:

If you're still running XP, then don't let it connect to the internet.

Indeed, it's that simple. If you're just playing games, you probably don't need to connect to the Internet anyway.

At the very least, keeping Flash, Java, and Acrobat Reader uninstalled is probably a good start, as is disabling non-essential services. If you don't need the .NET runtime, then that's probably best kept away too. I don't think it's possible to uninstall Internet Explorer entirely, but you can definitely disable Javascript.

Take a leap of faith and try a linux distro with Wine if you like older games. I am having plenty of success running many, many older games. If you use Office, look for alternatives. I haven't had Windows as my main OS for nearly 8 years now and enjoying every minute of it

Here are some tips, other then the usual 'upgrade before it is too late' stuff. Which is not that simple since microsoft has lost its way.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/running-windows-x … news-18270.html

For a long time I just ran Windows XP SP2 without ever updating anything and without any anti virus software...all I use is an older version of ZoneLabs Zone Alarm Firewall (free, but not available anymore, except for on oldversion.com I think) that I make sure not to update either. You have to be aware of what websites you are visiting much of the time, but Zone Alarm will always inform you of what is trying to access your computer or the internet...it's so simple and so awesome, but it has to be the right version....I tried the newer version once and it sucked...it did not block everything that the old one would and it kept asking to be updated....it also seemed to slow my computer down a bit.

I ran my setup like this very successfully (no viruses, popups, etc. from what I could see for almost two years). I only ever have had issues when I disabled Zone alarm on a couple occasions just to be able to download some old drivers from some sketchy website....of course I got some malware, but then I just cleaned it up with SpyBot (older version) and everything was good again. I continue to use XP (SP3) now and I continue to make sure automatic updates are off and I never update beyond just some early and critical security updates I have already installed...and I never use any anti virus software...I am convinced that any anti-virus software just makes you havve to keep updating and for some reason I always have to keep updating to kill some new virus...it's a never ending cycle.

Zone Alarm has worked great for me, But I do wholeheartedly agree with Jorpho's comments above about disabling Java, Acrobat Reader, etc...what he describes is the best way IMO to run XP safely.

I do plan to not even have my XP system connected to the internet at all in the near future anyways and just have a crappy win7 machine connected for web browsing and downloading stuff that I can just transfer to my XP machine. I never was into online games either, so I don;t care about that reason to connect to the web for that either.

😀 In other words, "I have sex with everyone that I meet, and I never use a condom. I've never got sick so everything is fine".
It's just luck that you haven't experienced anything worse. It's definitely not recommended behavior.
If you connect to the Internet, then you are vulnerable. Your browser has bugs that can be exploited, even in the absence of Java, Acrobat Reader, etc.
Besides, what kind of experience are you going to get if everything is disabled? Many web pages won't even display properly anymore in that case.
It's only a matter of time.

None of my PC's which are Windows XP and below are not connected to the Internet. I see no reason. However they are connected to my LAN. But only if I need to transfer files. Once everything is stable, off the LAN it goes.

peterferrie wrote:

Besides, what kind of experience are you going to get if everything is disabled? Many web pages won't even display properly anymore in that case.

You can certainly get along without Java unless you have a very specific application for it, and it's increasingly easy to get along without Flash. Disabling Javascript is what really starts to break everything. (I went to an Internet cafe once which secured its systems that way. It was a poor experience.)

rodimus80 wrote:

However they are connected to my LAN. But only if I need to transfer files. Once everything is stable, off the LAN it goes.

If you're just transferring files (and not streaming data over the LAN), it seems wise to disable Windows networking and rely on SFTP instead.

I'll look into this SFTP. Thanks.

What to do after Windows XP dies in April 2014?

I still like to boot my XP installation for games like Killing Floor, since I have a surround sound system, that game only works with EAX and not ALchemy. Of course then I need internet for Steam and multiplayer.

After the April cut off date I'll still be using it, obviously for nothing serious (not going to do my online banking on there), and I'll be curious to see if it gets 'pwned' just from me powering it up and using Steam and a few other gaming bits. Worst case scenario my Steam/Raptr/Xfire gets hacked I guess.

peterferrie wrote:

If you're still running XP, then don't let it connect to the internet. Time to upgrade.

Yeah, it's a good thing that Windows 7/8 are 100% backwards compatible with all software written for XP, and don't have any higher system requirements, so that every XP system can be seamlessly upgraded to Win7/8 and every single piece of software will continue to function flawlessly!

Bladeforce wrote:

Take a leap of faith and try a linux distro with Wine if you like older games.

And if you like newer games too?

Bladeforce wrote:

I am having plenty of success running many, many older games. If you use Office, look for alternatives. I haven't had Windows as my main OS for nearly 8 years now and enjoying every minute of it

You know what always turned me off from Linux? From time to time, I go looking for a program to perform some task and I usually stumble across at least one page devoted to a Linux program to do whatever it is that I'm looking to do. Invariably, the instructions for the Linux program tell you that you need to have at least two other support packages installed, then it's usually a 2-3 step process to accomplish whatever the task is, including complex command lines. I mean, look at the most popular video ripping and encoding programs like ffmeg and Mencoder. I'm sure they're powerful, but you have to spend an hour studying the docs to try and figure out what options to use. I occasionally use the Windows port of Mencoder to convert video to AVI format, but I have no idea what half the options do. I just copied a command string from a forum which seems to do the job and saved it in a BAT file. I'd actually like to change a few of the options, but the docs are so confusing I have no idea how to do it. I can change the simple stuff like cropping and scaling, but telling it to change the sample rate for the audio, convert to something other than AVI, etc, is beyond me. Sure, there are some frontends available, then you're back in the "you must have this, this and this installed to use that" territory.

As for XP being a risk; XP is 12 years old and they're still patching security holes. What does that say for the number of currently unknown security holes in Win7/8? Let's say that a typical release of Windows has maybe 500 critical security flaws over its lifetime. That means that Win7 has what, maybe 470 security holes that haven't been patched yet?

For what it's worth, I used Win98SE long after MS discontinued support for it and never had any major problems. I'm sure that people will say that it was probably part of a dozen botnets and running hundreds of pieces of malware, but I never saw any evidence of that.

Using Windows XP for retro games might be a hot topic in the future.

How will you activate Windows?

For Steam games you will need to connect to the Internet. But are you safe as long as you never go online? What if you do go online but only to known safe sites?

Install this:

MALWAREBYTES ANTI EXPLOIT
https://www.malwarebytes.org/antiexploit/

Excellent program.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

How will you activate Windows?

It is trivial to circumvent the need for Windows activation in XP. Even then, the primary reason for activating Windows XP is to get updates from Microsoft, which won't be a problem soon.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

But are you safe as long as you never go online? What if you do go online but only to known safe sites?

There have been exploits in the past that could infect an XP machine as soon as it connected to the Internet regardless of whether you did anything else. We shall soon see if any such vulnerabilities remain.

If you're behind a router, don't use IE, don't download anything from shady websites, and install a virus scanner with real-time protection, can XP still get exploited?

This way, I ran XP SP1 with auto-update disabled for years without any trouble, even long after SP3 was released.

I suppose it depends on how exactly the router is configured.