sliderider wrote:

Or you can run XP mode in Windows 8 if you insist on using it.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/forget-end-life- … dows-8-xp-mode/

Virtualization is not the solution, in my case. I like using VMs for certain things, but not day-to-day computing.

collector wrote:

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

run an up-to-date antivirus

Until the AV developers drop support for XP. It is time let go of it except when trying to keep an ancient machine going, but not much reason for that other than for an old gaming machine.

I plan on letting go when the AV developers drop support, or the developers of Firefox drop support, whichever comes first.

An update for any of you that have vintage boxes running XP who wish to stay secur-ish. This month's Patch Tuesday releases included several hotfixes that applied to Windows XP but were not explicitly released for it.

As Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 (based on the XP SP3 codebase) continues to receive extended support until 2019, the patches were released for it. And porting them to Windows XP is trivially easy. You can do it yourself by stripping out the line in the update.inf with the "Prereq.XPInstallEmbedded" string and recompressing into an SFX.

Alternately, a guy over at RyanVM's site has done it for you here. You would only need the IE hotfix that applies to your version of IE, of course.

The relevant updates are:
KB2962488: MS14-027: Vulnerability in Windows Shell Handler Could Allow Elevation of Privilege
KB2953522: Security Update for Internet Explorer versions 6-11, May 2014
KB2931352 (.NET 1.1), KB2932079 (.NET 2.0), & KB2931365 (.NET 4.0): MS14-026: Vulnerability in the .NET Framework could allow elevation of privilege

You only need the .NET updates if you have .NET and unlike the XP hotfixes you actually do not need to modify them to install them on non-embedded XP (though I haven't tested the 1.1 update).

Beats migrating your systems to Windows Server 2003 for the time being, at least.

Thanks a lot!

The Internet explorer patches of last week were still distributed by XP Auto-update, actually.

I am now sys-prepping windows 7 for the first time. Good thing I waited it out, because now I am paid for it, happily. 😀
The classic interface (with classic shell) is actually working reliably now, I was having issues with it before.

I for one am kind of happy Microsoft ended support for XP. No more bs updates to install that just screw everything up and make you update more and more until your system is chalk full of crap. Now I can use my xp system in relative peace using a nice simple old version of zone alarm that keeps most viruses and intruders at bay. For my needs, all other os' s are inferior still. Long live XP. As some here have mentioned though. ..I will bet that I will be forced to upgrade soon since websites will require it. That's almost guaranteed. I will hold out as long as possible since everything has worked just fine for me up to this point using xp exclusively. I do have a windows 7 box setup already though just in case I decide to make the transition one day soon.

I don't know why people are so worried about AV software. I haven't used anything AV related for more than 10 years, ever since I realised that Norton Antivirus slowed down my Athlon XP about 30%! Never had any problems with viruses/trojans - just be smart and don't open attachments or click on suspicious links.

Half-Saint wrote:

Never had any problems with viruses/trojans - just be smart and don't open attachments or click on suspicious links.

Even if you know how to surf responsibly, viruses and spyware can also be gotten from illegitimate ads, which is why no matter how good and smart you are about your surfing, it's still possible for things to go wrong. The last time I had an illegit ad try to hack into my system was when one got into the ad rotation on Mobygames awhile back. Also, if you're visiting porn sites without an anti-virus scanner in place, you're gonna be REALLY screwed. Ad blockers would help, sure, but even they aren't perfect. :P

I do agree though that Norton's software is needlessly slow and annoying. It's a wonder anyone still uses it when there's free alternatives that are just as good or better. :P

Gemini000 wrote:

Half-Saint wrote:

Never had any problems with viruses/trojans - just be smart and don't open attachments or click on suspicious links.

Even if you know how to surf responsibly, viruses and spyware can also be gotten from illegitimate ads, which is why no matter how good and smart you are about your surfing, it's still possible for things to go wrong. The last time I had an illegit ad try to hack into my system was when one got into the ad rotation on Mobygames awhile back. Also, if you're visiting porn sites without an anti-virus scanner in place, you're gonna be REALLY screwed. Ad blockers would help, sure, but even they aren't perfect. 😜

I do agree though that Norton's software is needlessly slow and annoying. It's a wonder anyone still uses it when there's free alternatives that are just as good or better. 😜

I havent had any problem with virii and such in years, on XP SP3 w/o any AV. I use ad filters, and not even porn sites give any trouble. If there's anything i hate more than virii is ads. 😁

I think the last virus/adware infection my computer got was back in 2010, when a site infected explorer.exe and ran that fake AV scanner. With a few utilities, i got rid of the infection without having to re-install.

How are you so sure you have no spyware?

Because last time i ran spyware tests, it only came up with cookies being installed.

Even better news. A simple registry flag will enable XP Embedded updates through Windows Update, essentially taking you back to pre April 8th.

1Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
2
3[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady]
4"Installed"=dword:00000001

Save to reg key, run, & reboot.

Great, Will surely try that, I understand this goes only for the 32-bit version of XP.

On a related note: I have here a pile of Office 2003 Prof retail boxes. I need to reinstall these on fresh Windows 7 installs. But unlike before Office setup now mentions that activation by phone is no longer supported. By now the software has been installed/uninstalled earlier, so internet activation won't work either.
AFAIK It has just became impossible to activate office 2003 (unless one uses a enterprise serial instead, or uses an earlier 'OPAbackup' for a reinstall on matching hardware).

If you look around I'm sure you can find a KMS activator for it. Considering you have a license to the software it shouldn't be an issue.

Disabling the activation is rather shitty. They removed that requirement from Office 2000 when it went EOL and the last time I reinstalled Office XP on a computer I didn't get prompted for activation (regular Office XP Pro CD) so I presumed they had done the same thing for that. I haven't messed with 2003 in awhile.

EverythingOldIsNewAgain wrote:

Even better news. A simple registry flag will enable XP Embedded updates through Windows Update, essentially taking you back to pre April 8th.

After installing the updates mentioned previously in this thread on an XP box today, I applied this registry patch, but I haven't noticed any additional updates (yet). Still, good to know.

The modded XP has been auto-updating here. 😀

Fortunately Office 2003 can still be activated by using the toll free number found here: Microsoft Activation Centers
KMS Activator 2.5.1 does not support Office 2003.
Anti-MSOPA 1.72 for office 2003/XP does run, but just breaks the MSO.dll file.

gerwin wrote:

The modded XP has been auto-updating here. 😀

Yeah, I figure that mine would be except there haven't BEEN any new patches besides the one from last week.

I guess I'll wait for the next Patch Tuesday to see... 😀

new patches are available for anyone who wants to test again.

robertmo wrote:

new patches are available for anyone who wants to test again.

yeah, I saw. No problems here so far...

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

I'm a diehard XP user, and honestly, I don't really care that Micro$oft has given up support on XP. Some people would say I'm foolish, but the key to staying safe while running an unsupported operating system is simply to use your brain. Don't open email attachments, don't click on sketchy-looking links, disable browser ads wherever possible, run an up-to-date antivirus, run a hardware firewall, use ludicrously complicated passwords, and most importantly, BE PARANOID. 🤣 It works for me. 😁

Can you still use it to game online without being attacked?

I have thought about to switch to vista 32 bit.. But that seems really hard, as some hardware doesnt support more till windows xp. Iam also dont want to run in VM consoles.. Then the machines radically needs much more memory.. But in my mind iam also think to stay with windows xp, and trying to find a possibillity to make it really save for using as a gaming pc only.

The things iam trying to consider:

1. Dont install adobe reader anymore (i think it would be trying an other PDF reader for it)

2. Disable JAVASCRIPT.

3 Should a hardware firewall always work?

4. Iam thinking of using a PCI reborn card.

Maybe this saves someone the trouble:
Watch out with the latest version of Skype (v7.6) in combination with Windows XP

Source - This week we had problems with Windows XP SP3 computers becoming downright unusable. Today I traced it back to wheter or not Skype was loaded in the tray. With Skype loaded the system behaves as if it is running out of disk and/or memory space, including GUI corruption. After like 10 minutes of working it ends with a Blue Screen of Death titled BAD_POOL_CALLER.
Please Fix ASAP. Don't break your own MS software on purpose.