I left XP in my rear view mirror about 6 years ago and haven't missed it a bit, and did use it for several years. I bought a new computer and it came with Vista on it. About 3 years ago, I moved to W7 on my Lenovo Desktop. Whenever I see a computer with XP on it, it seems foreign to me even though I was using it back 6 years ago. I have fond memories of things in the past, but not XP. It could be really difficult to get it going after you had a crash. Basically my W7 computers have been extremely bug free, and if there is a problem, there are better ways to solve them then problems that showed up on XP. Have not had anything bad happen for the past year or so except for the BSOD occasionally, but now I have Blue Screen View and it sets you mind at ease that a BSOD event is not catastrophic. Unfortunately non of my computers have ever been as reliable as my car. I have opted not to move to W8, and may eventually move full time to Android in 3 or 4 years. W8.1 has not impressed me either. W7 is the acme of Windows Systems, and you can still get a computer with W7 from custom computer makers or even some of the major manufacturers are still turning out W7 on some models. Probably as many as half of W7 owners don't want to go to W8, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out. This is Android's Chance to break into the big leagues with a lot of home users if they are smart enough to take advantage of it.
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General discussion
Poll: Are you going to remain on XP even after support ends?
-- Yes, as long as I can.
-- Yes, but only until I upgrade.
-- No, I'm moving on to a different OS.
-- I'm already off of XP.
Place your poll votes here:
http://forums.cnet.com/2706-21566_102-2275.html
Discussion is locked
1 - 30 of 63 Posts
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I believe it was 2009 when I replaced one desktop with Vista and the other with Windows 7. Now I'm all Windows 7 on 4 desktops and my laptop. 2 of the desktops also have Windows 8 in dual boot mode for self education and testing. I have Windows 7 Pro on two desktops so I can run XP Mode when I have to help a friend who's still on XP.
When I took the poll, I think I saw 48% who said they plan to stay on XP as long as they can. I bet that number will be markedly lower this time next year, maybe a couple of months earlier than that.
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I never touched XP. I went from W2000 to VISTA. I still don't understand why VISTA was so despised. It has worked just fine for me for the past 6 years. If you are running a computer older than mine, it's seriously time to consider an upgrade. Although Win8 is hideous....
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I have XP desktop, Vista laptop and wife's computer has Win 7
I much prefer XP, Vista still sucks (even though I use it every day) Win 7 is 'new and shiny' but no better in any way than XP, especially when all the crap is turned off or removed
I haven't tried Win 8 and probably never will (until wife decides she need new computer and Win?? is installed 
)
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Microsoft should be 'afraid' of alternativeOS's.
I forgot I have a tablet with Android and it's plenty quick enough plus there are more free apps than I can use (even the pay for apps are not too bad priced)
They are also written to use minimal system resources with small 'footprint'
Win 8, 20gig installation is a bad joke, Win 7, 10gig isn't much better,
Seems Microsoft developers/program writer are determined to get as much of their 'work' in the OS as they possibly can
It isn't just 'legacy support' it's just bad coding
If more than 1/3 of computers are still happily running XP, I really think they should pay more attention to what people want instead of forcing them to switch as people may (like me) switch to something completely different
I believe French government departments switched to LINUX at least 6~7 yrs ago, even as 'commercial use' it still saved millions of francs every year
Windows was the 'only' OS for a long time, they should realise they now have real competition that they can't 'buy and bury'
The 'monopoly' is over, make Win 8 better for cell phones/tablets that work better with touchscreen and re-issue XP with a few new whistles and bells (triple XXXP?) LOL
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I bought a computer. It came with an OS imbedded in the price tag. It was designed to run a particular OS only (OK, it is supposed to be also compatibile with VISTA. Why would I want to go through the trouble of testing or running Microsoft's upgrade advisor and having to pay for a new OS? Especially, if it is an OS that I don't like and don't like the thought of just "getting used to it"?
On the other hand, I use my personal computer, through VPN, to connect to work. Even though VPN offers some protection, it is not al lot. Already, they chack our machines before the connection takes place to make sure with have approved anti-virus software loaded and that it is VERY current. They are also going to make sure that we are 100% current on our patches. When support for XP goes away, I won't doubt that XP machines will be completely blocked. They held onto Windows NT for way longer than they should have and even Windows 2000. However, they had rules that the department would have to have a really good reason that the old software would be needed and each machine had to be front-ended with a secure firewall. When you work for the government with personally-identifiable information (PII) on others such as constituents, you can't be too careful. And if HIPAA/HITECH, CJIS or PCI-DSS (credit card information) is monitored by the feds, you really can't afford to be without security. And, remember that some places have Microsoft breathing down their necks to upgrade. So, we just started our upgrade to Windows 7 at work (there are over 100,000 employees) and it is not going very well, as usual. Sorry, but there is a lot of software out there that was pushed into working with XP at the time of that upgrade and going to Windows 7 is proving to be a real challenge. This is especially true of communication software to connect to the mainframes. And then there is little in the way of money to upgrade other software and their versions. A real issue.
So, what I'm going to do is wait until I upgrade my home PC to pick up a newer OS. Which one? At the time, I'm thinking of Windows 7. If you want to stay on XP, just be aware that, despite everything you do, you may not be safe, especially if you visit the wrong website.
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Don't believe the people who bash Windows 8. They are the types who complain about every new and unfamiliar thing, and Windows 8 is a bigger change from Windows 7 even than XP was from 98, and 95 was from 3 (changes that a lot of these same people probably bashed at the time as well). It is superior to 7 by a fairly wide margin in performance and reliability, and is more logically (if differently) controlled. It boots SO MUCH faster that it really is a treat.
But you might want to wait a month or so, so you can have 8.1 installed natively.
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The faster boot times of W8 do not make up for the extra time it takes to do other things and other W8 issues. My W7 machines boot up very quickly and W7 is a very stable OS. While W8 boots a bit faster its stability record has yet to be determined and with 8.1 coming it will be awhile longer before a track record can be stated. W8 is a compromise.The "jack of all trades but master of none". Made for touch screens but sold mainly on systems without one. Even if I had one with a touch screen the added time of cleaning the screen would upset me. But here is the aspect that bugs me the most - Its the first OS from Microsoft whose abilities can't be fully realized without getting a .NET passport. Sort of a big brother issue. You say "wait till W8.1". Well, our W8 complaints are in real time and your main defense is some future release. I'm willing to amend my W8 complaints in the future if the update deserves it. Until then my real time complaints stand!
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To mention some of W8 apps. W8's default music player- What a piece of crap. The first change I made to W8 was making Media Player the default device!
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I think it's much faster hardware rather than the OS that's accelerating things
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8 requires a CPU that supports PAE and a few other things that didn't exist in most XP-era CPU's. On the other hand, as long as the machine supports at least 1GB it will run Win 7 fine. However, Win 7 does run slow with less than 2GB even for simple things like wordprocessing, email and Web surfing.
You can't just upgrade the CPU because the CPU sockets are different.
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It sounds like you did a lot of upgrading. How much extra did all of that cost in $$? About..If I might ask.
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...that I do not understand what motivates the XP loyalist. The only valid reason I can comprehend is poverty so severe that the victim of it cannot afford a computer made after 2005. The only other reasons I can come up with, both of which I consider invalid reasons, are a devout belief in Luddism or a reluctance to learn, or fear of learning, something new.
XP is inherently insecure and cannot be made secure in any modern sense. It is clunky and slow and requires a lot of routine maintenance to keep running in a way responsive enough to remain useful. And XP crashes. Subsequent Microsoft O/Ses, even the much (and unjustly) maligned Vista, don't.
Give it up already! Unless you are irretrievably slow, it will only take you a couple of days tops to acclimate yourself to Windows 8, and even less to 7 which has a user interface that bears an uncanny resemblance to XP. And get a new computer already, fer cryin' out loud.
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Hey, I could afford a new computer in 2006 and they were still XP! Most of 2007 too and well into 2008 if you wanted a dinky net book cause that's all you people that don't understand XP loyalty could get to run on them at the time. Unless you have been using computers for less than 2-3 years and have nothing in your past worth preserving then yes, go forward with nothing less than W8 and good luck to you. Personally I can find and use the best in both worlds. What's the matter fer crying out loud? Can't afford more than one computer??
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While I read many of these forums I very rarely reply much less twice but.... this one compelled me to! Besides, I'm getting old and shunned so I don't get to practice the art of the rapier wit our Frat loved so
much anymore! Besides, you redundantly called me a Luddite that was poverty stricken and brain dead
without meeting me.........though you were not completely wrong!
You say you don't understand XP loyalty. That concerns me because as a separate issue that inability means you might not be able to understand loyalty for anything because the reasons why one becomes loyal to anything from cars to ruthless dictators are from the same and limited list. That list includes things that range from having your life saved by someone on one end, a long and beneficial relationship in the middle, to "Stockholm Syndrome" on the other end. In my world it would have been better to say XP loyalists are idiots than "I don't understand"! Failure to understand groups you are opposed to and that might be opposed to you is a serious shortcoming. Would you have me send my 68 RAM Air III Firebird convertible to the bone yard because they finally made a faster one or cause its only used a couple times a year in favor of a 3 yr old Vette? Not here bud, I'm playing the loyalty card and keeping it! Did I just compare the Firebird to XP? Hmmm, I may have gotten a bit carried away!
You say you only comprehend one reason - poverty. Yet you immediately infer there are other 2 reasons but only list one - Luddism. From this I glean you don't comprehend Luddism and can't count to two! That greatly comforts me and my place among XP loyalists!
You say XP is clunky and slow and requires all this maintenance? As planned after beta testing Vista I bought a new XP computer in the last month possible (or so I thought) from the last company still able to sell new home computers with XP - Dell on their website. At that point hardware power had well caught up with XP power demands so my 2.4 Core2 duo 3 gb pc6400 XPP computer is quite zippy thank you very much. Faster than almost any Vista computer you defend. It's only got slower cause IE8 is clunky and Fire Fox fixed that. I later beta tested W8 and again... bought a W7 laptop in the last month I thought I could get one! I've had to fix a few W8 computers and some more than once for friends n relatives long after I spit out its beta version. While the built in security is better the other things people like me do are from the same extensive list and W8 has removed none of those security issues though I guess its nice being relieved of my twice yearly defrag. Do you believe W8 has relieved you from the need to use Anti-Virus, anti-malware, or robust two way firewall programs as an example? What security task did you do in the past that W8 relieved you of? And those W8 updates! I've seen W8 updates after doing a re install larger than XP! Well, there is much there to still get right and they all require more maintenance than a person should have to mess with. Until the average user learns more about security AND uses that knowledge the value of extra built in security is greatly diminished to little value and someone who knows much about security and uses that knowledge greatly reduces the value of any extra built in security.
You say I must not like learning? I bought a calculator from HP's first line of them and one from Texas Instruments first line. I've loved learning my entire life. It's just that sometimes I don't like what I learn!
I'd be willing to bet there are many people here that know more and will learn more about future technologies than you and me put together that still have a small and justifiable spot in their life for XP.
There are many old folks who I've helped get a computer in their life. Some can learn more but for some the ravages of time have taken that virtue yet they can zip along with XP just fine. Which of your tactless groups do you have them in? The Luudites you don't comprehend and can't count to two with or ... I suppose the irretrievably slow? Yes, I suppose that is one way you could describe mom though I would never do it and its the last thing on my list I'd write if asked to list all of her current attributes. Like I said, "I can find and use the best of both worlds". Perhaps the problem is being to slow to comprehend more than one OS at a time!
You say it will only take a few day to acclimate to W8. I say I tried it for way more than a few days, understand it very well, and will never acclimate to anything I just don't like. While it does not save much, I do like W8 boot up times.
You semi OK W7 even with its almost XP like appearance. Well, there is a longstanding good reason for it. Whoever has the gold makes the rules dude! There were some places you could get XP for years after Vista only for home users. The HP and Dell business divisions. They offered XP Pro or Vista Business but XP is what came loaded from the factory. In fact during those years I had a few friends "pretend" to be a business and buy from the business division instead of the home division to get XP! The business world spoke and they weren't buying unless it was XP. I've since moved many of them to the Vista Business discs that came with the computers.The same is true today. You get W7 or W8 options from the business divisions but W7 Pro is the overwhelming choice because the business world can't take the productivity hit from a change to W8. So thank goodness for the similarity to XP. Its helping our economy long after its demise cause productivity did not take a hit and we sold more computers to the business world than would have been without an XP look alike! And those sales helped keep many Business Division Technical Service phone folk jobs in America instead of some foreign country we can't understand cause they did not want to upset the ones who held the gold they wanted some of...unlike who the home computer folks deal with. In all fairness the foreign ones have gotten better over the years.
After scoping the future using Probability and Statistics along with Elementary Analysis I'm thinking W7 will be my last Microsoft or Apple OS. While I tried it in the past and found it un fulfilling I'll probably go to Linux when my W7 computers fail me. Using the old "if this is true than that"...... line of thinking W8 and future releases will play into the hands of a big bro society if one should come. But not on my computer! If they are right, and I'm not really convinced they are, but if, then I'll join the group being watched they way the Almighty - if there is one - intended. On some Google inspired Android powered device!
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You don't want to become a "Luddite" do you? I still use XP but have been moving toward Linux for permanently this year. When XP is no longer supported, I'll finish the move. I tried Vista, wasn't impressed, took it back off my dual boot I had at the time with it and XP. I have windows 7 in a box, but after trying it on my grown children's laptops while they were visiting, I decided it was better than Vista, but not enough at the time to make me give up XP, and I was already moving toward Linux. Eventually I'll put w7 on my wife's XP desktop since she also uses it with a HDTV/Monitor combo setup. For what I do now, I find free Linux distros (especially Mint and Kubuntu) to be more than satisfactory and time to jump off the Microsoft train.
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It's quite difficult to remain within the courtesy guidelines of C-NET, when formulating a reply to such a demonstration of utter arrogance, which is your comment above. In actuality, a large percentage of we in the XP camp suffer from neither poverty nor a fear of learning something new. Luddites? Hardly worthy of a response.
While I use Win-7 at work, and enjoy it a great deal, both my home PC and Laptop are XP, and will remain so. They both have more than sufficient RAM and processor speed to take care of all my needs. XP is stable, familiar, and serves me well. I see no need, at this juncture, to go through the tedious process of installing a new OS and then rebuilding my computing environment around it.
When comes the time that my PC and Laptop can no longer support the software I use, and/or keep up with demands for speed and memory...
I will replace them and accept the OS available on their replacements.
Hopefully, this will improve your, ummm... comprehension... somewhat.
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Your idea of "poverty" and other's idea of poverty are probably two different things. $100? $100?? Really? I already have an OS. Why whould I spend $100+ dollars on something I already have and works well for me and a lot of people. We have 100,000 employees at work and most are still on XP. And, yes, my computer was made a bit before 2005. Why would I need a lot more just to type a few letters, respond to online posts like this and to surf the WEB? As a security expert, I can easily handle the security for my system. No, I don't use free stuff. I'm rather limited as to what I can VPN into work with. I have an old NETBOOK, perfect size and what I need it for, and it might be able to run the sampler version of Windows 7 but it came with XP and there is no real benefit to going to Win 7. I tried WIN 8 at work and, yes, I did get "used to" it as some imply (I used a volume license). But, I still don't like it and really don't want to be part of the crowd sending a message to Microsoft that I like this new direction for them. You statement that XP is "inherently insecure", well, let's say I'd like to see your source for that. What makes Win 7 more secure? Be specific? I really would like to know what you read and where. I don't use Microsoft's MSE; I use Symantec's, which is way more secure than Microsoft's. Want my source? Try Gartner. Mine is not clunky and slow, considering all things equal. Yes, if you buy a brand-spanking new PC with 8 cores and 1 gb of memory on the graphics card and 8 GB minimum of RAM and it comes with Windows 8, yes it will run rings around my old Dell dimension. But is that because of WIN 8? or newer hardware? The point is I accept the performance of my system for what it needs to do. If I do buy a new machine (because this one breaks or I need to do new things), then I'll see what it comes with. Maybe I'll downgrade it. I don't know yet.
In case you didn't know, here is what it takes to go from XP to Windows 7 or 8:
1) You can't really upgrade windows; you have to kind of wipe it out and then reload software.
2) One needs to run Microsoft Upgrade Assistant first. Maybe you can't run Windows 8 Super Ultimate on your hardware.
3) Drivers: Do NOT plan on using your XP divers on Windows 8, especially if you are going from 32-bit to 64-bit. At work, we found printer drivers crashed your system if you didn't pick up the latest and greatest when going fro 32-bit XP to 64-bit Windows 7. Yes, we are going to 7.
4) Software: Don't belive that your Windows XP-compatible software will run on Windows 7 or 8. We proved at work that it doesn't. Especially really old software needed to interface with an IBM mainframe.
5) Business: Once again we are finding that applications that work under Win XP don't work if you go up further. As for comercial software, we have some that really needed to be upgraded in order to work. So, where you get your $100 figure really amazes me. I'd probably have to buy another copy of Office as old as mine is. But, businesses have a big investment in software. Especially where a contractor has come in and written an application that requires a very old version of Internet Explorer. For example, they can't run on anything highr than IE 6. Or JAVA 1.6 (you don't know how embarrassing it must be for the programmers to tell people that they have to uninstall their JAVA and reinstall an older verion to use an application.
At work, they have just started the upgrade to Windows 7 and they only have a few people done so far. This is due to the reasons stated above. And these are brand new PCs too. Just having to transfer over exotic developer software from the 1990's makes this a one-PC-at-a-time proposition.
But, at home, I'll have a new OS. Probably when I get a new PC. Maybe even before April. I don't know.
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Staying with Windows is being a Luddite, something new would be Android, Linux or MAC
It's only ever a sideways shuffle going to 'latest greatest' with Microsoft
How often does the OS lock you out of something as you don't have correct 'permissions'?
Everything since XP thinks your too stupid to know what your doing and may cause OS to commit suicide 
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On my work computer (internet connected.) I have W8, and waiting for W8.1. My music machine, I have XP and W7 dual boot. W7 to play the music, and XP to work on the music (over 42,000 files) of different types. I just got a laptop with W8 to take some of the music with me when I out of the office, I must have my music! I may replace the W7 with 8 to get the upgrade for free!
Ultra99manager
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Like many here I have more than one computer. My computer usage policy will not change after XP support ends
unless my XP computer fails me because many of the post support concerns are actually here today to some lesser degree. I use my W7 laptop and desktop for the bulk of my time on the internet simply because they have greater built in security features, can use IE 10, have better built in graphics abilities, and are faster though my high end dual core 3 GB XP machine is no slouch. I use the XP computer to play older games, to use my older version of Photoshop, to scan old photos when that comes up, as a music player, and to check email or do a few known safe internet things like a Skype chat with friends if it comes up while on that computer, and to play with Fire Fox due to IE 8 limitations including security and slowness. I do as much as I am willing to do on my XP computer in the hopes of wearing it out and hence extending the life of my W7 machines! All online purchases, banking, and bill paying are done on one of the W7 computers with its own email address for those purposes only. While Vista has been trash talked much I never really hated it like I do ME and W8 but my poor Vista laptop has been demoted to being a portable time checker I can carry to the various TVs around the house to re-set the clock on the assorted VCRs, DVRs and TVs! Well, I do surf a bit with it at times. When my beloved XP desktop dies n goes to the great computer cloud in the sky I'll be comforted by the knowledge that so far most of my old XP programs including Photoshop Elements 2.0! installed and run nicely on my 32 bit W7 Home Premium desktop and within the virtual machine running XP on my W7 Pro 64 bit laptop! (don't tell Adobe I said that!) Actually the Adobe installs were a test and were removed. I'll put it back on the 32 bit W7 machine when the XP computer fails to boot up some day. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Like many I like W7 more than XP but I'll always love XP. It was a huge improvement from ME which I hate more than W8 and had a nice long run. I still laugh when I think about XP's rebirth when computer companies learned they could not fit enough processing power or RAM into those dinky net books to run Vista - and the "Vista Backlash" largely from the business community!
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I am currently setting up a new build to dual boot to XP and Win 7. There are things that I like about each of these systems. There are things that I can do with XP that I can't do with Win 7 and vice versa. I don't plan on going on the internet with XP, just with Win 7. I have found that many new upgrades to various software leave out things that I like in the older versions. I have made the progression from Win 3.1 to Win 8 (have the CD for it, have not installed it) and only missed Win 2000, yes I had ME and Vista.
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Gee, XP must be getting "long in the tooth". I think it just set a record for smallest forum I've ever seen on cnet!
Hahaha, Ah hahaha.
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It was impossible to do so, because, Vendors evented new programs, which would not work. Its about money for both the Vendor and Microsoft and Others making mony every year. Need I say anymore!
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How many people actually used Win2K? It was a loser OS from the get go. As bad or worse as Win Millennium Edition. Or were they the same thing? LOL Completely Apples and Oranges to compare it with XP...
The single most widely used OS in MS history.
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W2k with all 4 service packs and rollup installed may still be one of the most stable operating systems Microsoft ever produced, and without added memory suck of activation program on top of it too.
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To often non-technical end-users try to make something work without technical know how, meaning, in the case of a non supported Win XP, C-Net forum responders seem to be responding with their personal ideas, which are un-tested and no research done on subject.
Well, I've tested the waters and found that WinXP is dead & WinVista is next, inclusively.
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The topic wasn't directed toward IT/IS professionals, your majesty. For the Home User...
Personal Ideas/Experience *is* what matters.
And the pontification about "technical know how", is utter BS. Many of we in the XP camp are not without expertise in our particular fields. I'm not an IT/IS pro. I have a Masters in Analytical Chemistry and a 35+ year career working with State of the Art instrumentation. I've written programs to help interface older analytical instruments with more current ones and their software. In actual fact...
I was probably using computers before you were born.
Nice try at self aggrandizement. In addition to which...
If you'd read the complete topic, you would have had a clearer understanding on the perspective of myself and others.
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IT Pro or not, it don't take a Rocket Scientist to understand by auhthority of Microsoft..... WinXP is dead, especially for Internet use, and loading current or upgraded programs, Vendors will not support it any longer. Its a money issue, not an IT Pro issue, inclusively!
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