General Chat

Mmm doesn’t sound encouraging. I can imagine the extra security risks if everything you do ends up passing through the cloud.

Oh no doubt we will be assured that it's all foolproof just like bank cards:-D!

One day some geek in a location somewhere in the world is going to do something that screws up the world financial system and the 1930 crash is going to look like a broken piggy bank by comparison. Governments will fall and all those anarchists will find out just how much they relied on the infrastructure they despise so much to survive.

That’s if the scenario the film War Games depicted doesn’t happen first.

Must lay in a stock of pencils paper and look out the old Ready Reckoner mind you I think mine’s still in £sd!

Mayfield
(feeling depressed now :-()

There will indeed be an update to Windows following on from Win8.
The working name is "Blue".
Release may be as soon as Aug 2013. Cloud computing, Skype, can be expected to figure strongly. Touch screens are not going away, far from it.

Microsoft may move from a license fee to a subscription model for charging. They are already doing this for the latest version of Office.

There is always Linux ... (free) which does all the same things with a lot less hassle.

I have been thinking about upgrading my XP machine as working on steam power in a smokless zone is troublesome at times ;-)
Last time I upgraded was from clockwork powered Win 98 to XP.
I do have a Vista laptop that I keep for banking only but I still like my XP.
I have heard mixed reports of Win8, seems to be the young trendies love it, and those who prefer a keyboard hate it.

On balance I think I will hold out as long as possible. It maybe that 8 will be one of the short lived releases and if people don't get sucked into smearing their fingers over the screen like kids at play school, we might see some rethinking by Microsoft.

Mayfield,
If it ain't broke don't fix it!

don't panic

Microsoft have a free program called Virtual Computer. With Win7Pro and Win8Pro you can use this to run another OS in a "virtual computer". XP will run just fine in a virtual machine.

XP will not stop working Q2 2014 Microsoft will just stop sending security updates. It is possible to download accumulated security updates from the Microsoft web site as an .iso file which is handy for reinstallations etc. and will go on working. It is also possible to download post-SP3 fixes of one sort and another.

In any case XP security updates are now quite rare and most of the security updates issued are for Internet Explorer 8 and OfficeXP. Security updates for these will continue.

It would be next to impossible to get Windows7 or Windows 8 to install on a computer 10 years old, the main issue being device drivers. OTOH it is quite ez to install WinXP onto a new computer using "Virtual Computer" thus allowing legacy programs to run perfectly. I run several programs in this way including a photo slide scanner.

I don't like the sound of that either,i have a computer on windows7 & .and another on windows 8,but neither supports my New Talex road Angel and i can't get updates for it on either platform ,so i have a little hewlett packard on xp that i use for this purpose.
None of the new road angels give me half the info as the old talex does,and i will hate losing the use of it if xp does go .Fred :-(

Not too bad ta - spending all my time thinking of another word for platinum but I think I just got it

Things be good here how are things there?

And how are things with you?

Good Evening Errol

oh and good evening Black Knight

XP support ends in just over a year's time which means in theory that security updates will no longer be issued. However, It will still work and the fact that security updates diminish is not a major problem

Windows XP will not be removing support & will remain as it is today.

Thanks for that ErrolSheep. Was getting a bit worried for a moment. Still not used to everything on this computer and never will be probably!

It will still be "available" it just won't have the plethora of updates

So if Windows Vista is not going to be available (when) what do I have to do now. Have seen nothing about any of this but then I am completely clueless when it comes to IT.

Elizabeth there will be some minimal support but security updates will certainly fizzle out

I've been thinking - and I feel that Rollo is unduly optimistic whem he says that security updates for XP will continue ad infinitum - I don't really think Microsoft is so unselfish as to miss the opportunity of selling new packages to all these large corporations and government departments! I don't lthink I'd risk it.

Did it come from somewhere in Wales by any chance. Thanks for the offer but two are quite enough. M ;-) :-)

MaryAnna
I acquired it recently - do you want one?

I think I will persevere for a bit and see how I get on. I have only had the machine a week so I ought to give it a chance before I start fiddling !!!!!!!!

Thanks Errol. M :-)