According to another thread Windows XP will stop receiving updates next April.
- Do I need to get a new OS for my computer?
- What happens to all the programs and files on the computer if I upgrade?
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Need? Probably not. A good idea? Probably.
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If you upgrade to Windows 7, most of them will probably keep working. You can use the Upgrade Advisor to check for issues before upgrading.
If you upgrade to Windows 8 instead of 7, you’ll probably hate the new interface. You can remedy that with a 3rd-party program like Start8, which brings back the familiar Start Menu, but it’s probably easier to just go to 7 and ignore 8 altogether.
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XP won’t stop working at that date, but that’s the cutoff for critical updates, so your computer could start being less secure and stable after that point - and if it breaks, I don’t think reinstalling XP will be an option.
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You’ll have to reinstall them on the new OS - possibly you will have to upgrade some of your applications to versions compatible with your new OS (or find alternative solutions).
To add to what Mangetout says, you’ll be best off making a deliberate effort to save the files you want from your current boot drive, and reformatting it as part of the new OS installation. Upgrading old OS versions rarely works as well as you’d like, and you’re almost always better off doing it from a clean slate.
If you have multiple drives, the OS change will primarily affect the boot drive. For example, if you have c: as your boot drive, and d: as your storage drive where you keep all your mp3s and digital photos, you probably won’t have to fool with d:.
The computer won’t “decay” in any sort of way. It will be just as stable as it is now. Microsoft has also promised to keep XP activation going even after support ends in 2014 so re-installation won’t be a problem. You should even be able to download all of the service packs.
Microsoft won’t be making any more patches for it though, so what’s in the latest service packs will be it when their done. So if someone comes out with something like a new security exploit, Microsoft won’t make an XP patch to fix it. While your install of XP technically won’t be any less secure than it is right now in the sense that it’s current security will keep on working just fine, it will be less secure in the sense that it won’t have a clue about newer security threats.
Most installations of XP are 32 bit and most installations of everything later (Windows 7 and 8) are 64 bit, so trying to do any sort of automatic upgrade on your existing OS installation probably isn’t going to work very well. Your best bet is to backup all of your files, install the new OS, install your software, and copy over any data files to the new system. There are some software incompatibilities between Windows 7/8 and XP so it is possible that some of your programs just won’t run. I got around that by installing XP on a virtual machine and running the XP specific software on that.
Overall, if you are behind a good firewall and you don’t use internet explorer for web surfing, then the security risk really isn’t all that much to worry about. If you want to keep the old beast running, you can. Mrs. Geek’s computer runs XP, and all she uses it for is e-mail and genealogy research. I don’t plan on upgrading her computer any time soon. She won’t see any benefit from a faster computer, and what she has works just fine and will continue to work just fine for quite some time.
Thanks for expanding on that - this is what I meant, but reading back, I wasn’t clear.
I think it quite likely there will be some kind of a spike of new, XP-targeted malware after the cessation of updates - just because there are still a lot of XP machines out there - and it’ll effectively be open season.
Note that several other companies are going to stop supporting XP in the very near future as well. The Chrome and Firefox browsers for example. It will become progressively harder to get updates for other programs, and for browsers this is quite important.
There is no one-step way to go from XP to 7 or 8. MS recommends backing up your data, doing a clean install, restore your programs (if they work under the new OS) and restore your data. There are other ways but they are not for the faint of heart.
Run the above upgrade advisor to see what issues you might have going to 7. Note in particular if it’s going to be reasonable to go to 64-bit with your processor and MB (if you haven’t done so already). That is usually a big plus, especially allowing you to install and use more memory.
Anyone know (or care to speculate) how likely this is to happen?
It’s happened with every other operating system that Microsoft has obsoleted. It would be foolish to think it won’t happen for XP. Usually these exploits affect more than one version of Windows. They patch the currently supported versions and the older versions, if affected, are left as-is.
The risk of one of these exploits actually causing a problem with your system is fairly low. But it’s not zero.
ETA: On rare occasions, Microsoft has patched obsolete operating systems in cases like this when a particular exploit becomes an issue and affects large numbers of systems. This doesn’t happen very often though.
How do I save my old programs? How do I reinstall them?
I think it was Leo LaPorte who said that some consider WinXP to be one of the most solid operating systems because it’s been patched for 12 years now.
How many more security holes could it possibly have? I haven’t used XP on any of my home systems since 7 was released. I imagine it still gets regular and multiple security updates every month, or have they been trickling off? At some point shouldn’t a fully patched XP be about as secure as you’re going to get?
I would expect it has fewer vulnerabilities than ever before, but more than zero; if there was a zero point to be reached, there’s no reason to expect it to happen at exactly 12 years after first release - it hasn’t happened yet, so most likely there are some as-yet-undiscovered holes left.
And once patching has ceased, it seems likely that any remaining vulnerabilities will be enthusiastically exploited.
Do you have the original install discs for them? What programs do you use on your PC?
Actually I thought about this after I posted and realized it would probably be easier just to re-download any programs I need from the internet.
Assuming all the software you’re talking about is freely downloadable and still available, yes - this is the best option - because you’ll also probably upgrade to the latest versions in the process.
Anything that you had to pay for, or that required a licence activation or something - it would be good to check with the supplier on how to transfer your licence to a new machine before disposing of the old one (you may need to retrieve a key or something from the program)