"OK! OK! We'll Support It!" LOL

[Ponch]

I was pointing the cheekiness of showing a 640x480 screenshot to show low memory usage, then show other numbers on a "usable" resolution. I wasn't intending to launch a debate on disk space usaqe (you've had it already and there is no debate).

+The AMD driver download for my HP is 485MB and it doesn't even work correctly. The driver for the touchpad is 124MB (1/3 is .wmv files).

[RacerBG]

RacerBG, as you can see in the 2nd screenie, I'm running Tiny Personal Firewall which later became Kerio Personal Firewall. I still use Kerio today and think it's the best firewall in the history of software firewalls.

If you're depending on the built in Windows firewall, you're seriously insecure. It does not block outgoing connections as far as I am aware. It only alerts you for a very few apps. A trojan can upload all it wants without being blocked or you being alerted.

Kerio blocks EVERYTHING. You have to can if you want allow/disallow: UDP, TCP, ICPMs, all addresses, address ranges, single address, what ports, etc..however you wanna swing it. You can just click the alert twice usually but you can do all those things.

When you first install it, it does come with some basic things like DNS allowing and such but I don't have those since I never install it.

I just keep it on my programs partition, put a driver in the windows driver folder and merge a reg file to make the service whenever I've reinstalled Windows (all unattended of course). I've had my rules for I cant even imagine how long.

EDIT: I'm talking about Kerio Personal Firewall v2.15. Not the new crap.

Thanks for the info. I'm usually depending from AV built-in firewalls. Probably the best in my opinion was Kaspersky but hell this is expensive!

[Agorima]

Now comparing aftermarket auto parts sales train of thought with Microsoft Windows, there is ReactOS. I wish that project would mature and stabilize, because I would use that operating system in a heartbeat!

ReactOS is not a bad project, but before they think of going out of alpha stage, they should improve massively the stability of the system.

It should react as a real NT kernel, not like a 9x kernel.

When a program stops installing or working, it must not take away the entire system with a BSOD.

It's frightening to see a blue screen when starting Word 2000.

Edited January 27, 2014 by Agorima

[Flasche]

Heres an article that will rise your hopes http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/security-essentials-for-windows-xp-gets-a-15-month-reprieve/

EDIT: Someone already posted it (different site) but I did find this http://windowsitpro.com/windows-xp/windows-xp-gets-another-lift-msrt-extension

Edited January 27, 2014 by Flasche

[koganstyle]

Sorry guys but I see this as highly unlikely, I work for a large corporate government institution and the document we received says (per pc) x amount for first year then double the next then triple and etc. Microsoft have actually funded consultants to come in an migrate certain parties (in Australia that is). So don't be under the illusion that MS will supply any updates to private users.

[Jody Thornton]

Well, in any case I have made the move to Vista x64 Ultimate Edition since I had started this thread, so there's no looking back. I really had wished that Microsoft would have extended Windows XP x64 Edition officially until July 2015 (no patching updates), but that isn't to be I suppose. Besides I've migrated now, so I'm good for three years.

[dencorso]

Well, in any case I have made the move to Vista x64 Ultimate Edition since I had started this thread, so there's no looking back. [...]

Besides I've migrated now, so I'm good for three years.

In your opinion.

Now, with all due respect, in my own opinion, I'm good for at least the next 10 years: yesterday I've activated my 6th XP Pro SP3 x86 machine (two of which are also bootable into 98SE). MS will stop supporting XP next April... well, it can do that, all right. Myself, I couldn't care less whether it actually does it, or backs off in the last moment.

[ZortMcGort11]

From my experience I'd agree with Kogan on the whole XP thing. Oh and, concerning my truck, I don't purposefully go out of my way to dent people's car doors. It's just that after my neighbor's drug dealer totalled my car in a hit-and-run and took off to California, I've been kind of jaded about cars. Since the police did nothing (the guy lives in another state) and I never got a dime or an apology or anything from anybody. All I was left with was my car totalled and needing a whole new left side. So, my truck is a repellent for potenial thieves or drivers parking next to me, since it looks so rusty, terribel and awful.

[JorgeA]

Well, in any case I have made the move to Vista x64 Ultimate Edition since I had started this thread, so there's no looking back.[...]

Welcome to the ranks of Vista users. (A small club, sorry to say.)

--JorgeA

Edited January 28, 2014 by JorgeA

[Flasche]

Welcome to the ranks of Vista users. (A small club, sorry to say.)

--JorgeA

You can thank apple for that.

[Dogway]

Around 2002 I changed Windows ME or 2000 (can't remember) for XP because I was having serious issues capturing a video with pinnacle, somebody over IRC recommended me switching to XP, and that was a revelation. I don't know about other tasks but I think that for multimedia XP was more ready.

The company killing XP is not Microsoft (the guys have been giving support much longer than any company would for their own product), the baddies here are Intel. We are buying Intel hardware that have no support for XP. No AHCI, LAN, USB3 or Graphic drivers, no Intel QuickSync, and who knows what else. The problem is they have no competition, the other one is AMD and it's not up to the game, every other mobo bundles an intel component so you are screwed.

[Jody Thornton]

Well, in any case I have made the move to Vista x64 Ultimate Edition since I had started this thread, so there's no looking back.[...]

Welcome to the ranks of Vista users. (A small club, sorry to say.)

--JorgeA

Well Windows XP x64 users made up a small user base as well so no loss.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

The company killing XP is not Microsoft (the guys have been giving support much longer than any company would for their own product), the baddies here are Intel. We are buying Intel hardware that have no support for XP. No AHCI, LAN, USB3 or Graphic drivers, no Intel QuickSync, and who knows what else. The problem is they have no competition, the other one is AMD and it's not up to the game, every other mobo bundles an intel component so you are screwed.

There's a lot of truth in that ( but not enough to let Microsoft off the hook ).

I often suggest that people write letters to the motherboard OEM's and also the chip makers and DEMAND they continue writing drivers for their newer hardware for all NT Windows. If they are vaguely competent then this is no challenge at all as they only need to write the most neutral of device drivers, avoiding any Vista era specific changes ( Vista could be installed on tons of "legacy" computers proving it can utilize older drivers. ) The driver SDK ( aka WDK ) for WDM and WDF have all the necessary backward/forward compatibility. In theory the programmers writing the code will need to go out of their way to write drivers that crap out on XP. Well, except for the fact that the tools themselves like Visual Studio are evolving ( now VS2013 but problems for XP and earlier definitely started in VS2008 ) which target details in Vista+ so the programmer must literally set out to be compatible with XP ( actually from what I read they need to enable some options and update VS with certain modules, but I don't use these later versions so I am repeating what others have described ). In short, Microsoft are obsolescing Windows XP ( and whatever older Windows they intend to murder ) through a thousand cuts. And at each step along the way, programmers make the somewhat sensible decision that "it's too much trouble to ..." maintain compatibility. So Microsoft cleverly offloads the blame to the OEM device driver programmers, just like they always do.

When contacting these important OEM's I also like to suggest using the wording: "Stop illegally colluding with the Microsoft monopoly and their planned obsolescence while at the same time open up more potential customers for yourselves." That's a no-brainer to anyone, both parts. They ARE colluding by accident or design, AND they are slicing their own potential customer base in half. Only a knucklehead would voluntarily follow this path.

Anyway, getting Intel to continue XP compatible chipset drivers, or even AMD/nVidia/Via/whomever, would spur the others to wake up and smell the coffee or get left in their competitors' dust. That's an argument they can probably understand, even if the issue of antitrust, collusion and planned obsolescence go right over their heads.

EDIT: clarity

Edited January 29, 2014 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[Jody Thornton]

Well, in any case I have made the move to Vista x64 Ultimate Edition since I had started this thread, so there's no looking back. [...]

Besides I've migrated now, so I'm good for three years.

In your opinion.

Now, with all due respect, in my own opinion, I'm good for at least the next 10 years: yesterday I've activated my 6th XP Pro SP3 x86 machine (two of which are also bootable into 98SE). MS will stop supporting XP next April... well, it can do that, all right. Myself, I couldn't care less whether it actually does it, or backs off in the last moment.

I don't know. I really don't think that running an unsuported OS sounds safe. And I'll say it again. I think comparing the running of Windows XP with Windows 9x/ME unsupported is foolish. 9x/ME's kernel is way simpler than Windows NT's, which still exists in Vista, 7 and 8. So an attacker of those systems can get to XP as well. So you shouldn't use 9x/ME's security through obscurity as a precedent for how things my go with XP.

I sense a lot of folks think that Microsoft is out to screw with people on Windows Updates. Somehow they believe Microsoft is undermining the system. I really don't think Microsoft is out to mess with it's own products.

[Jody Thornton]

Actually there IS a way to accurately challenge my statements above (but it really should be a separate thread; hmmmm, naw not really).

For those who continue to run Windows 2000 Professional as of 2014, that would give a more real life indication as to how life with Windows XP as an unsupported OS would be. They are very similar in many ways.