DJGM1974

Some sound arguments, and of course sandboxing any internet apps is always a good idea on an officially obsolete OS. However, I would not be entirely comfortable installing unofficial updates that have been reversed engineered from official updates designed for Windows XP, no matter how stable they might be. Has whoever backported XP updates for Win2K, been given any authorisation from Microsoft to do this? I would guess MS might be turning a blind eye to this if they're already aware of it, but nothing can stop them changing their minds and issuing cease and desist letters against it. Ultimately, if MS hasn't authorised these unofficial updates for Windows 2000 from reverse engineered code, they have every right to put a stop to them. It is proprietary code that they still retain full ownership over, even if it is providing an unofficial security blanket for an OS they no longer officially support since July 2010. Official updates may indeed, in a small number of cases, cause unexpected breakages to old versions of Windows that are still supported such as XP, so I would have thought unofficial updates for an OS that's no longer officially supported would carry an even greater risk of system breakage or instability. Assuming Microsoft continue to turn a blind eye to the unofficial Win2K updates with reverese engineered XP updates what happens in a little over 2 years from now when XP is no longer supported by Microsoft for any security updates? How will those of you still running Win2K manage by then? Assuming some of you Win2K die-hards out there are still against the idea of moving up to Win7 or even 8, are you going to migrate to Linux or Mac OS X?

I have to ask those of you still using Windows 2000 ... why use an obsolete OS that's no longer supported by anyone, and no longer receives any security updates from Microsoft? If you're using an older machine that cannot handle a modern OS like Windows 7, at the very least you should upgrade your PC to Windows XP, since it still has a little over 2 years of security updates support before that too joins Windows 2000 as an officially obsolete OS. Don't get me wrong here ... Windows 2000 was a fantastic OS in it's time, but the time to move on is long overdue. Security updates ended over 18 months ago, so you are running an OS which is now dangerously insecure, with perhaps literally hundreds of security vulnerabilities that will NEVER be patched. Connecting a PC to the internet running such an obsolete OS is the tech equivalent of skinny dipping in the Florida Everglades!