I Need advice on virtualization and death of xp

[WhiteSolace]

I'm trying to find lazy a way to not replace xp, after spending time in imagination land i came up with a few ideas and I wonder if any of them are possible.

I used xp x64 for music/image/video production and web browsing.

I need your input in those set up plans I have no knowledge about. Could any of them be a working solution?

With virtualization :

- Could I run linux and virtualize xp to use the software with little to no hit on performance? This way internet wouldnt reach xp

- Could I run xp and virtualize linux for internet? in which xp would not have internet (no present drivers on disk) but linux would?

Is there any way internet could reach that computer even with internet connection sharing done through a second computer used as a anti-virus/firewal distro (either with linux/win7/win8) could it eliminate the xp security risks?

If the answer to all those scenario is a straight no. I will go mourn and bring flowers to xp's tombstone.

[allen2]

I need your input in those set up plans I have no knowledge about. Could any of them be a working solution?

With virtualization :

- Could I run linux and virtualize xp to use the software with little to no hit on performance? This way internet wouldnt reach xp

The answer for all those question is yes as long as you don't use special hardware (for music/image/video production) that virtualization could not handle and if you're not too concerned with security.

As long as you don't add a virtual network adapter the virtual xp won't get any networking.

- Could I run xp and virtualize linux for internet? in which xp would not have internet (no present drivers on disk) but linux would?

The other way around won't work as the virtualisation tool need to use the network adapter to provide network to the linux so the xp will have a logical internet access but you could configure it so it wouldn't work properly (most likely your internet provider is using dhcp to assign an ip to connect to internet so if you configure a static ip outside the network provided). So this solution is less secure.

Is there any way internet could reach that computer even with internet connection sharing done through a second computer used as a anti-virus/firewal distro (either with linux/win7/win8) could it eliminate the xp security risks?

Of course as long as you don't install/disable the network adapter on the XP computer, there is low to zero way to have security problems (most of them would come with data transfer). This is also the most secure scenario of all and the easiest to set.

[Jody Thornton]

If the answer to all those scenario is a straight no. I will go mourn and bring flowers to xp's tombstone.

That's funny. Similarly, I use music automation and sound editing software that works GREAT! on Windows XP x64 Edition, but there is no further support after April 2014. I don't really want to move to Vista (although Vista x64 does run VERY WELL on my Dual Xeon HP machine. I would like to go to Linux or eComstation, but I need to be able to run these applications (Wine and Odin just won't cut it).

I really just wish I could keep using Windows XP x64 Edition, or go back to Windows 2000 on some alternate hardware.

[vinifera]

just because fixes/patches won't be given after April 2014, doesn't mean XP will be so heavily insecure and prone to mega malware

or even more than now

the product won't become garbage in May 2014

nor will it become unsupported by various applications

general rule applies: if it ain't broken don't fix it

I'm on w7 sp1 and didn't install any hotfix since SP1 came out

should I be paranoid, jump up and down and pull out my hair ? ----> no

in fact, you're more secure with "3rd party apps" than anything that comes out of MS labs

ditch IE, java and .net then get decent firewall, now youre 80% more securer than before

unless you change hardware and no driver is available for XP, this OS will live 10 more years

Edited May 23, 2013 by vinifera

[ND22]

After April 8, 2014 you can install all updates for windows server 2003 64 bit on windows XP 64 bit simply double – clicking on the updates you manually download to your computer. This way you can still use a machine connected to the internet with all security updates installed and use your software as you like.