Monroe

I started this discussion here strictly for XP users no longer having support and besides having an image backup on hand, maybe a "roll back" type of program would be of some use. There seems to be several free and many paid programs available but one I came across today is Windows SteadyState that is no longer available from MS. "SteadyState was available until December 31, 2010 from Microsoft for 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. It is incompatible with Windows 7 and later." I am not familiar with it ... the ones I know about are Shadow Defender, DeepFreeze, RollBack Rx, Macrium Reflect Free ... I think there are a few more that I have read about but they don't come to mind now. Getting back to Windows SteadyState ... I found a download site and will try it out in a day or two. Anyone have pros - cons on this program and could it be of benefit to XP users ... I would think so, since it is free and can help if a machine gets messed up ... probably not 100% like actually having a good, clean image backup at hand ... but with an image backup, a person could use this program (or one like it) to test software and such. I think this program might be better than System Restore, seems more flexible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SteadyState Features: SteadyState can revert a computer to a previously stored state every time it reboots, or on administrator's request. When Windows Disk Protection (WDP) component of SteadyState is turned on, changes to the hard disk are redirected to a temporary cache. WDP offers three modes of protection: * Discard mode: The cache is cleared upon every reboot, thus returning the system to its previous state. * Persist mode: Changes saved in the cache remain intact across reboots. An administrator may later opt to commit these changes. Alternatively, at the specified date and time, the cache expires and its contents are cleared. * Commit mode: Contents of the cache is written out to disk and become permanent. In addition, new changes to the system are no longer redirected to the cache. ... download site Windows SteadyState http://download.cnet.com/Windows-SteadyState/3000-18512_4-10977409.html Publisher's Description From Microsoft: Whether you manage computers in a school computer lab or an Internet café, a library, or even in your home, this software helps make it easy for you to keep your computers running the way you want them to, no matter who uses them. Windows SteadyState runs on genuine copies of Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Starter. And, Windows SteadyState is offered free of charge to Windows Genuine Advantage customers. ...

This is a very interesting article and downright scary ... the claim is that since 2001, 26 atomic-bomb-scale explosions have occurred in remote locations around the world, far from populated areas, made evident by a nuclear weapons test warning network. This network has detected 26 multi-kiloton explosions since 2001, all of which are due to asteroid impacts. It shows that asteroid impacts are NOT rare—but actually 3-10 times more common than we previously thought. The fact that none of these asteroid impacts shown in the video was detected in advance is proof that the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a 'city-killer' sized asteroid is blind luck. Astronauts to reveal sobering data on asteroid impacts Apr 17, 2014 by Jason Major, Universe Today http://phys.org/news/2014-04-astronauts-reveal-sobering-asteroid-impacts.html This Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, three former NASA astronauts will present new evidence that our planet has experienced many more large-scale asteroid impacts over the past decade than previously thought… three to ten times more, in fact. A new visualization of data from a nuclear weapons warning network, to be unveiled by B612 Foundation CEO Ed Lu during the evening event at Seattle's Museum of Flight, shows that "the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a 'city-killer' sized asteroid is blind luck." ...

Thanks Zero3K for the update ... I haven't posted much about the "newer" KM versions since they are furiously working from all angles and now are up to Beta 3 ... they have problems but with so many people helping on the project ... results are happening. K-Meleon 74 Beta 3 http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/forum/read.php?8,127127,page=7 ...

I am using an older version of Zone Alarm Pro ... v4.5.594.000 with my XP setup, works great and it's just a firewall. The free version is also OK. ZoneAlarm® Free Firewall Release History http://sc1.checkpoint.com/sc1/za/release-history/zafree.html This version seems to be popular with other XP users ... doing a Google search. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/older-zonealarm-pro-versions.211980/ Older ZoneAlarm Pro Versions... Jun 10, 2008 I cant remember if the Older versions of ZoneAlarm pro, such as the 4.5 Series were XP compatible, or if they just worked on Windows 95/98 o_O I'd like to use this version,as it has no added crap such as AS/AV included,its just the standalone Firewall. It installs OK on my XP system, but when I reboot I get BSOD every time o_O So whats up ? Jun 11, 2008 I've used 4.5.594 on XP many times without any BSOD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional: ZoneAlarm v4.5.594.000 was the last "pure firewall" only version and then ZoneAlarm v5.0.590.015 started with antivirus monitoring. ZoneAlarm version 5.0.590.015 * Antivirus Monitoring - Helps manage other security solutions by alerting you when your antivirus protection (even from another vendor) has been disabled or is out of date * Alert Viewer - New Alert viewer functionality organizes log details by feature category * Various other enhancements for increased reliability of operation As I said earlier, it works fine with my XP setup but I am always interested in something possibility better ... so I will also check out what others post. ...

JorgeA ... thanks for the article: "All sent and received e-mails in Gmail will be analyzed, says Google" I just closed my Gmail accounts in the last two weeks ... first I was with Yahoo and got fed up with all the changes, went to Gmail and then all the Google news started to come out over the past year. I had started to move my e-mails away from Google about 5 months ago. I am always on the look-out for a good e-mail site. Perhaps we need a good discussion on what e-mail sites are OK to use at this time ... April 2014. Someone here mentioned Hushmail, so I went there for now. They seem to be OK, there are free and paid accounts available. Decided to post the Hushmail link ... I am not endorsing them, they seem OK with the free account but there might be something better out there. They seem to be ad free but they do try to get you to sign up for a "paid" account when you sign out, that sort of can be expected ... but nothing really terrible. I guess this site could be OK unless they get bought up by AOL, Yahoo or Google in the future. https://www.hushmail.com/ Probably today a person can say ... that another name for the NSA is Google! The NSA is the hidden face and Google is the public face. As of today can anyone truly imagine what Google will be like in 5 years ... 10 years. They really seem to dig this spy stuff ... I don't remember seeing this mentioned but maybe it was ... about Google buying a drone maker ... just came out a few days ago. I don't care what they are saying about providing internet service ... probably just a cover, they like collecting and storing everything "forever". So as I said earlier, what will be the Google story in 5 or 10 years ... the real story? Google Buys Drone Maker Titan Aerospace http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/14/technology/innovation/google-titan-drone/ By James O'Toole - April 14, 2014 The technology company announced Monday that it has acquired Titan Aerospace, a start-up founded in 2012 that makes high-altitude, solar-powered drones. The purchase is part of the new push in Silicon Valley to find ways of delivering Internet service to underserved areas, particularly in the developing world. "Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world," Google said. "It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation." The Titan team will operate separately from Google, but will collaborate with divisions including Google Maps and Project Loon, which has been working on delivering Internet service from high-altitude balloons. ---------------------------------------- Google Buys Drone Company Titan Aerospace http://www.businessinsider.com/google-buys-drone-company-titan-aerospace-2014-4 ...

Very interesting, thanks for posting ... I never heard of Lorenzo Da Ponte. I like all composers and music from the 1700's and before. He was born 8 years after Antonio Vivaldi died, my favorite composer. His life is a little like Vivaldi's ... became a priest, lived in Venice but fascinating that he eventually ended up in America and briefly ran a grocery store in Sunbury, PA and in 1828 became a US citizen ... his "Memoirs" looks interesting. I enjoy reading about the early composers ... with today's royalties they probably would have all lived a better life. ... I do not want to write more and take away what ROTS originally posted about.

Sad story ... what will become of us, our stuff, things we probably all think about at times ... In your story, I guess cremation might not be a possibility, it can also be expensive. In the 1700's many people were just buried in common graves that were later probably dug up to make room for new buildings and such. Death maybe is not fair and most of us will not be ready for it ... those that are lucky to be well off than most can arrange something better for their end. ... still you post a sad story. I was reading about Mozart and the belief that he was buried in a paupers grave ... but that seems to not be exactly true. I heard that many years ago and couldn't believe that could happen but he had debts and his wife and children had nothing when he died at age 35. The Location of Mozart's Grave ... Was he Buried a Pauper? http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/famouspeople/a/dyk11.htm An Unknown Grave Although Mozart is buried somewhere in Vienna's St. Marx cemetery, the exact location is unknown; the current monument and 'grave' are the results of an educated guess. Unfortunately, the circumstances of the composer's burial, and the lack of any definite grave, has led to great confusion, including the common belief that Mozart was dumped into a mass grave for paupers. This view stems from a misinterpretation of funerary practices in eighteenth century Vienna. Mozart's Burial Mozart died on December 5th 1791. Records show that he was sealed in a wooden coffin and buried in a plot along with 4 - 5 other people; a wooden marker was used to identify the grave. Although this is the kind of burial modern readers may associate with poverty, it was actually the standard practice for middle income families of the time. The burial of groups of people in one grave was organised and dignified, differing greatly from the images of large open pits now synonymous with the term 'mass grave'. Mozart may not have died rich, indeed he may have been relatively poor, but friends and admirers came to his widow's aid, helping her pay debts and funeral costs. Large graveside gatherings and grand funerals were discouraged in Vienna during this period, hence Mozart's simple burial, but a church service was certainly held in his honour. ----------------------------------- Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at 1:00 in the morning on 5 December 1791. Sophie, his wife's sister, recalled, "I cannot possibly describe the boundless misery of his faithful wife as she threw herself on her knees and implored succour from the Almighty for His aid. She could not tear herself away from him, beg her as I did." Following her husband's death, Constanze recovered from her despair and addressed the task of providing financial security for her family; the Mozarts had two young children, and Mozart had died with outstanding debts. She successfully appealed to the Emperor on 11 December 1791 for a widow's pension due to her as a result of Mozart's service to the Emperor as a part-time chamber composer. Additionally, she organized a series of concerts of Mozart's music and the publication of many of her husband's works. As a result, Constanze became financially secure over time.[19] Soon after the composer's death a Mozart biography was started by Friedrich Schlichtegroll, who wrote an early account based on information from Mozart's sister, Nannerl. Working with Constanze, Franz Niemetschek wrote a biography as well. Much later, Constanze assisted her second husband, Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, on a more detailed biography published in 1826. Mozart's musical reputation rose following his death; 20th-century biographer Maynard Solomon describes an "unprecedented wave of enthusiasm"[19] for his work after he died, and a number of publishers issued editions of his compositions.

Sadly I also did not see the lunar eclipse ... it was cloudy and raining on and off. Did anyone actually see the event? ... how about Brazil, did you get to see it, dencorso? ...

More on the spying and watching a person's every move ... maybe the regulars will post more information. Who’s Watching Me? Police Took Photos of My License Plates By Kathryn Watson / April 14, 2014 http://watchdog.org/138370/police-reporters-license/ ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The police know exactly where my car has been — and when — during the past few months. They could have the same information — or more — about you. As a part of my series on the use of automatic license plate readers in Virginia, I wanted to find out what kind of information local police might have. By law, the only information I’m privileged to is my own. Last week I filed a public records request with the Alexandria Police Department. I’ve lived in the lovely city of Alexandria for just two years, and my driving record — aside from the occasional parking ticket — is virtually spotless. What I found, however, left me riveted. In all, police captured 16 photos of my car — mostly at night — and recorded my license plate eight times on five dates — from October 2013 to as recently as April 1. ... more at the link ----------------------------------------- FBI Will Have Up To One Third Of Americans On Biometric Database By Next Year http://www.infowars.com/fbi-will-have-up-to-one-third-of-americans-on-biometric-database-by-next-year/ Privacy group warns “even if you have never been arrested you could be implicated as a criminal suspect” Steve Watson Infowars.com April 15, 2014 A leading privacy watchdog has warned that the FBI plans to have up to a third of all Americans on a facial recognition database by next year. The Electronic Frontier Foundation notes in a communique that some 52 million Americans could be on the Next Generation Identification (NGI) biometric database by 2015, regardless of whether they have ever committed a crime or been arrested. The group managed to obtain information pertaining to the program via a freedom of information request. The database will also hold fingerprints, of which the FBI has around 100 million records, as well as retina scans and palm prints. Profiles on the system will contain other personal details such as name, address, age and race. The system will be capable of searching through millions of facial records obtained not only via mugshots, but also via so called “civil images”, the origin of which is vague at best. “The FBI does not define either the ‘Special Population Cognizant’ database or the ‘new repositories’ category.” The EFF writes. “This is a problem because we do not know what rules govern these categories, where the data comes from, how the images are gathered, who has access to them, and whose privacy is impacted.” ... more at the link -------------------------------- Virginia Cops Constantly Photograph Random People’s License Plates http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/14/virginia-cops-constantly-photograph-random-peoples-license-plates/ 04/14/2014 Police officers in Alexandria, Virginia, frequently take pictures of the license plates of random vehicles all over the city — meaning that people’s addresses, work locations and daily routines are well known to the authorities who collect such information and store it for stretches of time. The disturbing discovery was made by Katie Watson, an investigative reporter with Watchdog.org’s Virginia bureau. Watson submitted a public records request with the Alexandria Police Department for all information the police had about her. Watson already knew that the police used automatic license plate recognition software to collect information. What she didn’t know was how pervasive the surveillance was.

Well if this is happening already, then I wonder how long all the actual updates will still be available? ... -X- had it right in the first post ... only now it's "grab and save" everything fast, the lights may go out sooner than later. Sounds like desperation on their part ... get XP off the stage as fast as possible. The last official updates were released just a week ago and M$ is busy. All this this in one week ! ... wonder what will happen in week two. Yesterday, I did an image backup on my three XP computers ... cleaned all the junk out, all the final updates were installed ... got everything exactly the way I want it, so now I have the perfect Factory CD (except it's a DVD now!) for any catastrophe. Those that don't remember those early days, when you bought a new computer ... there was always a "Factory CD" or CDs with the computer for going back to square one after a disaster. I'm sure those are no longer in the box these days. My next project will be to update some older software programs to newer versions ... when I figure out what programs need to be updated ... if I decide to update, like we all know ... sometimes newer versions aren't all that great, then I will do another image backup ... but I will always have the "final backups" from yesterday (Apr 14th) to get back to. So far the backups seem to be 100% perfect, I have never had a "perfect" backup, close but never perfect, always find something not right and that may happen ... looking good so far. I always have a list of what needs to be done, this time I seem to have had a very good check list.

I was looking for a certain program today, a portable duplicate file search program ... I came across this collection of portable software. I'm going by the description that everything is free and portable ... I had never heard of this site before ... anyone looking for some portable programs, maybe they are here. There is a list of everything in "INCLUDED APPS" and the Full Download is large ... you can look for individual programs. Lupo PenSuite (v2013.04) http://www.lupopensuite.com/index.htm The free collection of portable software for everyone - all-in-one for every needs - completely free and portable - translated in 28 languages - no spyware, adware or viruses - easy to use and to personalize - over 160 programs and games included - thousands of programs and games available http://www.lupopensuite.com/suite.htm#download Lupo PenSuite is a completely free collection of portable programs and games. This Suite is designed to simplify the user's life, by collecting the best suites and portable applications available on the Web. Optimized to be loaded on a USB flash drive and brought always with you, this Suite works perfectly well on any other device. It includes over 160 highly selected portable programs and games (7-Zip, Audacity, CCleaner, eMule, FileZilla, Firefox, GIMP, Instantbird, IrfanView, Notepad++, Opera, SumatraPDF, Thunderbird, µTorrent, VLC and many more). You can also easily customize your suite adding portable apps from our broad software database. All you need in one package.

Sounds like an ad for the company but I place it here just for reading and maybe discussion. Today at the Giveaway of the Day site ... they have an encryption software program ... in the many comments so far, someone posted about a Brazilian banker's hard drives being very secure from hacking. I had never read this story ... this is old news from 2010 ... I wonder if they were ever able to get into the hard drives? "For years now TrueCrypt has been providing free encryption. But don’t be mistaken. Its not the average encryption that it provides. It provides the encryption of the highest degree. Check out this excerpt from the Wikipedia page: In July 2008, several TrueCrypt-secured hard drives were seized from Brazilian banker Daniel Dantas, who was suspected of financial crimes. The Brazilian National Institute of Criminology (INC) tried unsuccessfully for five months to obtain access to his files on the TrueCrypt-protected disks. They enlisted the help of the FBI, who used dictionary attacks against Dantas’ disks for over 12 months, but were still unable to decrypt them." ----------------------- FBI Hackers Fail to Crack TrueCrypt http://news.techworld.com/security/3228701/fbi-hackers-fail-to-crack-truecrypt/ The FBI has admitted defeat in attempts to break the open source encryption used to secure hard drives seized by Brazilian police during a 2008 investigation. The Bureau had been called in by the Brazilian authorities after the country's own National Institute of Criminology (INC) had been unable to crack the passphrases used to secure the drives by suspect banker, Daniel Dantas. Brazilian reports state that two programs were used to encrypt the drives, one of which was the popular and widely-used free open source program TrueCrypt. Experts in both countries apparently spent months trying to discover the passphrases using a dictionary attack, a technique that involves trying out large numbers of possible character combinations until the correct sequence is found. ------------------------- Brazilian banker's crypto baffles FBI ... 18 months of failure 28 June 2010 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/28/brazil_banker_crypto_lock_out/ Cryptographic locks guarding the secret files of a Brazilian banker suspected of financial crimes have defeated law enforcement officials. Brazilian police seized five hard drives when they raided the Rio apartment of banker Daniel Dantas as part of Operation Satyagraha in July 2008. But subsequent efforts to decrypt files held on the hardware using a variety of dictionary-based attacks failed even after the South Americans called in the assistance of the FBI. The files were encrypted using Truecrypt and an unnamed algorithm, reportedly based on the 256-bit AES standard. In the UK, Dantas would be compelled to reveal his passphrase under threat of imprisonment, but no such law exists in Brazil. The Brazilian National Institute of Criminology (INC) tried for five months to obtain access to the encrypted data without success before turning over the job to code-breakers at the FBI in early 2009. US computer specialists also drew a blank even after 12 months of efforts to crack the code, Brazil's Globo newspaper reports. The case is an illustration of how care in choosing secure (hard-to-guess) passwords and applying encryption techniques to avoid leaving file fragments that could aid code breakers are more important in maintaining security than the algorithm a code maker chooses. In other cases, law enforcement officials have defeated suspects' use of encryption because of weak cryptographic trade craft or poor passwords, rather than inherent flaws in encryption packages. ...

Another good link ... thanks dencorso ... I've seen several total eclipses of the Moon and they really do look 'blood red" ... the term I remember from years ago was "copper-red" ... but as you said, they are beautiful. Maybe this one will be more red than usual, I don't know.

Thanks for the reminder ... I knew last month it was due but I forgot about it. Now I have to hope for clear skies.

You are probably right with future updates for MS Office. I do have the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack installed and I found out early on when the first Office 2007 update showed up, that it was "probably" OK to install the update and the later ones also ... but I had to research it all out to be sure. I for one would be interested in what you might discover in those ISOs ... almost seems to easy, has to be a trip wire in there somewhere. ...

Dave-H ... are the XP updates really done for April, who can say? Now that this November 2013 Root Certificates question is going around the web ... could MS fix and update and release a new RC later in the month or before Update Tuesday in May? Would that not still be considered an "April last XP update" ? I don't know. Thanks to dencorso and his logs, we have a pretty good idea when the March RC update was pulled. So who knows if there still might be something released before May 13th or on May 13th ... to make things right. Kind of a shoddy way to send XP out ... you would think all the "final updates" should have been 100% correct and up to date ... just my thoughts. I sort of asked what you are asking under another post about possible more updates for IE8 and MS Office 2000 ... since I had an Office 2007 update for Office 2000 this month (April). This thread: Another XP Update Question ... Sort Of !

OK I found out this all happened near the end of March ... this is from the Wilders Security Forum dated April 08 2014 ... Very strange - MS root certs for XP Discussion in 'other security issues & news' started by FanJ, Apr 8, 2014 at 3:12 PM. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/very-strange-ms-root-certs-for-xp.362462/ (yes, I know that MS is stopping updates for XP and that today was the latest) System: Windows XP Dutch As you may know: updates for MS root certs on XP are optional and are differently handled compared to newer Windows versions. The latest update for root certs for XP was from March 2014, which I had installed. See http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/update-root-certs-for-windows-xp-march- 2014.361286/ Today I see that there is an update for root certs for XP dated November 2013. To be honest, I am kind of flabbergasted that I was offered an update from November 2013 while I had installed the update from March 2014. I am wondering whether other users on XP are seeing the same. Probably on other language versions of MS XP. What is going on here? Is this right? Is there an error on the MS Dutch update site? Is this also happening on other language versions of XP? Anyone know more about this? Any input is more than welcome! Maybe I will try to upload some screenshots but I don't know whether I will succeed with that on the new board forum software. ......... also from DSL Reports ... 25 March 2014 http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29130460-Update-for-Root-Certificates-for-Windows-XP-recalled-on-3-25-2014- Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP recalled on 3/25/2014? Hello. I just checked my two/2 XP SP3 machines' Windows Updates and noticed "Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP [November 2013] (KB931125)". According to both machines' histories, I got "Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP [March 2014] (KB931125)" on 3/11/2014. What's going on? Did MS recalled March 2014's root certificates? ------ Thanks for raising the question. The same thing as you noticed, has also been noticed by folks at Wilders: »www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/···.362462/ (with link to this thread here at DSLR/BBR)

Thanks submix8c ... I have never completely understood Root Certificates. I've read your links ... I don't understand exactly what I'm reading. I think for now I will stick with my image backup with the XP March updates. I was just experimenting with the April updates to see if everything was OK. I was waiting to see if anyone else posted that they also had the November 2013 Root Certificates update show up after having the March Root Certificates already installed. Again, if this is not happening to anyone else then I have to figure it's on my end. Should I fool around with more Root Certificate updates from those links you posted or just stop with the November 2013 update ... tempted to install the March 2014 RC update again to see what the Windows Update Tool reports.

Just finished installing the April 2014 XP updates on my machine ... went back to recheck everything with the Windows Update Tool on IE8 ... all updates were OK except that I found that I now needed an older Root Certificates update from November 2013. Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP - November 2013 (KB931125) I had installed the last Root Certificates from March 2014 with the March updates ... Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP - March 2014 (KB931125) so why I now had to go back to November 2013, I don't know. I installed it and went back for a recheck and all updates are installed ... wanted everything correct for an image backup later. Just a heads up to others to double check the Roots Update ... may just be something with my computer setup. ...

Again thanks for the reply ... but not what I was looking for. I am not making my question clear so I have made my decision ... I will not "turn off" the Automatic Update Service for at least 3 or 4 months to see if anything new actually shows up. My plan 6 months ago was to turn the service off (finally) after the April updates but now I have reconsidered and will put that on hold.

Thanks for the reply ... but that's not what I really had in mind ... I don't plan on installing anything in the near future unless in a year or two some unofficial update projects show up. I am referring to using the IE 8 update tool. I was just interested in how others think that there could be additional updates for the two that I mentioned ... IE 8 and MS Office. I suppose there could be some sort of XP update for some very serious flaw, I thought I read that somewhere, it would have to be something very serious.

Just like to have an opinion or two about this ... or a direct answer. I am wondering if running an XP update check on Update Tuesday would still be necessary ... even now after the last official XP updates have been released? Here are my last XP updates for April 2014 ... Microsoft Windows XP Security Update for Windows XP (KB2922229) Typical download size: 277 KB , less than 1 minute Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - April 2014 (KB890830) Download size: 24.7 MB , less than 1 minute Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP (KB2936068) Download size: 9.2 MB , less than 1 minute Windows XP End of Support Notification (KB2934207) Download size: 504 KB , less than 1 minute Microsoft Office 2007 Security Update for Microsoft Office 2007 suites (KB2878236) Download size: 2.1 MB , less than 1 minute Of course I'm not interested in KB2934207 and KB890830 ... but could there be more updates for IE 8 not connected with Windows XP ? MS was still releasing updates for IE 6, if I remember. Also, I have Office 2000 installed but over the last year or so I have been getting an Office 2007 update every so often. At first I was hesitant to install the Office 2007 updates but since I have an image backup on hand ... I did install them and I checked around the internet and could find nothing bad posted anywhere about putting these updates on with Office 2000. So could there also be more Office 2007 updates down the road for some XP machines? I was planning on turning off the Automatic Update Service but now I am wondering if it should be kept on for some possible future updates not directly XP updates but for IE8 and MS Office?

Well this is all very interesting ... reading the last 12 - 15 posts. I didn't have a clue to actually what was being discussed but I am in learning mode. Just a suggestion since maybe this may well turn into an XP project of some sort very shortly. Perhaps a "new thread" properly titled in the XP forum should be started today or very shortly so it can be more easily followed. Maybe someone passing through MSFN will notice it and be able to also contribute. Sure didn't take long (the next day) for something to get started dealing with XP. Maybe a moderator or someone here posting with knowledge of all this can get a new thread started while the discussion is still young.

I posted an XP article from China earlier ... there was a link to this article ... can we also expect this from contractors one day everywhere trying to save money ... new buildings for the "seniors" ! ... low cost means "low cost" !!! ... I'm sure this will catch on all around the world. Look at the pictures ... the building looks great on the outside from a distance. Fake Windows Painted on New Chinese Qingdao Apartment Building by Fauna on Saturday, October 26, 2013 http://www.chinasmack.com/2013/pictures/fake-windows-painted-on-new-chinese-qingdao-apartment-building.html Fake Windows Painted on Low-Cost Qingdao Residential Complex Buildings October 23rd, Qingdao, the Yichang Meijing ["Beautiful Scenery"] Residential Neighborhood located at the intersection of Yichang Road and Xinglong No. 1 Road in Qingdao city’s Shibei district is a low-cost high-rise residential complex. On the walls of three buildings near the Yichang Road side, many “windows” were neatly painted, with netizens calling it a modern Ma Liang and His Magic Brush. October 23rd, Qingdao, the Yichang Meijing buildings under construction at the intersection of Yichang road and Xinglong No. 3 Road are affordable low-cost residential real estate. On the outer walls of the north face of the buildings are painted “fake windows” matching the specifications of the windows around it. Xiao Jian/CFP ... there are many comments at the bottom of the article ... but this one is priceless: "How are thieves supposed to deal with this! After scoping out the terrain, with everything in hand, they dive into the window. BANG, they’re knocked unconscious." ...

I briefly mentioned this earlier ... "70% of China XP Users Never Applied Updates" ... "Thirdly, data shows that 70 percent of China's XP users in the last 13 years have not chosen to use Microsoft's periodic security service updates. For most of the users, XP's retirement will have a limited impact. In spite of this, Microsoft and several domestic vendors will soon release a series of security measures, and offer continued protection to these users, before they eventually decide to upgrade to a new OS." I found an interesting XP story at a Chinese site ... "chinaSMACK" ... the comments are also interesting, going back and forth about staying with an old OS, calling each other names ... you think you might be reading this in the US or Europe but it's China. Microsoft Ends Support for Windows XP, Chinese Reactions by Fauna on Monday, April 7, 2014 http://www.chinasmack.com/2014/stories/microsoft-ends-support-for-windows-xp-chinese-reactions.html The following microblog post by state-broadcaster CCTV is the 6th “hottest” of the day, and the #Say Goodbye to XP# hashtag is currently the second most popular… From Sina Weibo: @央视新闻: Tomorrow, Support for XP Will Officially End! — Tomorrow, April 8th, Windows XP will be officially retired, with Microsoft to stop offering customer support. When the time comes, although XP will continue working, it will be even more susceptible to Trojan horse attacks! Many domestic companies have declared they will continue “providing for the elderly” XP, but in a recent private “attack and defense exercise”, many third-party protection software were “instantaneously” compromised by hackers, so XP “is old” now. On this last day, those who have used [XP] before, raise your hands and #Say Goodbye to XP#! There are many comments ... I pulled just a few to show the discussions going on in China over XP ... seems to be a very "heated" topic of discussion there. Those who agree with me that XP is better than Windows 7, click upvote. --- The computer in my home is garbage, used only by my father to play Dou Dizhu or whatever. If it is attacked, then great, he plays so much everyday that he doesn’t even make dinner anymore. --- Nowadays mobile phones are used as computers, computers are used as televisions, and televisions are used as decoration. People like this, click upvote --- I suggest all hackers abandon attacks on the XP system. For the honor and self-respect of hackers as well as the XP that has accompanied us for so long, we need to reach a tacit agreement! Hacker knights, spare aging senile Win XP, let us use action to tell Microsoft that they may have abandoned XP but we will never abandon it! I’m still fantasizing about XP being a defenseless system but still becoming an eternal classic. --- Retired, your mother, are they stupid c****? 70% of users in China are all using XP, so you think it is retired just because you say it is? You stupid c***. --- XP dies on Qingming Festival --- I only know how to use XP… --- I don’t understand, what is the domestic media is trying to do announcing this in this way? The words “service will be ended” [服务 can be interpreted as "support" or "service"] is inappropriate. Microsoft is just stopping their service of providing updates and patches for the XP operating system. After April 8th, the XP operating system can still be used normally. --- My computer happens to be XP, so what am I supposed to do now? Who can tell me? --- Hehe, what is everyone who has pirated versions of XP installed getting all f****** upset about? --- For next year’s Qingming Festival, I’ll sweep your tomb for you, ol’ XP… --- My computer is XP, can I no longer use it? Or do I have to go to a computer repair place and re-download/re-install some software? I don’t understand. --- A bunch of ridiculous people who use pirated versions discussing what to do now that Microsoft has stopped customer support… there was never any support for pirated versions in the first place, okay. --- windows 95 was better than Vista, in fact, everything that ever was or will be is better than Vista. Everyone knows it, even Microsoft know that OS was a steaming pile of dog SH!*… ... OK so there is some interesting discussion going on even in China.