General Chat

Microsoft withdrew most XP support over a year ago. They still send out critical security updates however. Now Google Chrome support is soon to go and there is a raft of stuff coming down the river.

Here is a quick fix that is cheap and will install on yr existing XP box with minimal hassle.

Windows VISTA Home Premium Upgrade package is now easily available from Amazon, eBay et al for around £ 10 only.

It will install over XP leaving your apps running as before. After adding MS Service Packs 1 & 2 (free) you will be able to update Windows Media Player, IE ( if you fancy IE9) and so on. VISTA SP2 is essentially the same thing as Win7.

Disable Aero and the Gadgets.

hope this helps the tight fisted.

I am sure that will be of use to someone rollo. But they are not necessarily tight fisted. a lot of older people learnt the PC on XP and may find it difficult to learn something new.

I am still jogging along on windows 7 because I like it but no doubt will eventually have Windows 10 thrust upon me. :-D

I agree, Ann. Being careful with money because you haven't got much is not the same as being tight-fisted.

We learnt computers on an Einstein, then progressed to Windows 95, 98, XP, 8.1 and now 10.

OH still has XP on his laptop because it runs an accounting program which won't run on more recent ones, and we can still switch back to 98 if we want to play some of the older type games. The original Pacman comes to mind and there is also a very good golf one that OH used to play a lot.

The original PacMan, MontyPython, Myst, Riven, MaxPayne, MonsterTruck, SpaceInvaders, Pinball, FlightSimulator can all be got running on Win10 :-) and using a simulator all the Speccy games too, even better. Dunno if fat middle aged MS execs want to vist their glory days but with each incarnation of Windows running old games get easier ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0btzIvlScI

Of course the USAAF now has the utlimate game for real flown from the helmet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnPJEeAEE2k

Google Chrome support finished at the beginning of April for XP and for Vista.
Foxfire and Opera browsers are okay.

Microsoft support finishes for Vista next year, I understand.

Microsoft XP support ended way over a year ago yet when it did around 20% of computers on the net were still running XP. That excludes Chinese XP of which hardly any were licensed. Microsoft are STILL rolling out highly critical security updates for XP which any machine with autoupdate on will receive.

MS do this to help make it difficult for XP hosts to be taken over by scammers. It is only now that third party software is being pulled from XP eg Chrome. Installed versions of Chrome will continue to work just no bugfix/security update. Some would regard the nosy Chrome as not much better than a bug anyway ... Opera, Firefox have not said anything about pulling support for XP. Both are far better than Chrome and preserve yr privacy.

VISTA has a year from now before Microsoft extended support finishes i.e bug fixes and security updates. As many corporates have long term contracts for VISTA going on as much as three years from now end-of-life for VISTA can be taken with a pinch of salt. If the past is a guide MS will continue to roll out security patches for at least a year after extended support ends. After that AVG and others will continue to provide free AntiVirus just as they have done for XP.

A well known grocery retailer only stopped using NT4 in 2015. NT4 stilll powers plenty of car park machines, travel displays etc! Most corporate and govt desktops run Windows7 with no near future plans to change.

There are large numbers of computers which have been running XP for ages and have plenty of life left in them yet. The chief difficulty is the slow death of XP and the cost of replacing it. Windows 8.x & 10 will not, by and large, run well (and sometimes not at all) on typical older machines. They will run Windows7 just fine but a legal OS purchase runs around £ 50. Of course running Win7 opens the door to Windows10 BUT it is a step change disliked by many and may not run on older kit.

That is where VISTA Home Premium UG comes in. It is easy to source for around £ 10. It can be installed over XP or as a clean install if you have the XP DVD. The service packs and updates are all at the Microsoft site (free). Once SP2 is installed it runs pretty well the same as Windows7 and even has a proper start button. "Aero" is best disabled.

VISTA has at least two years of useful life ahead of it.

I cannot think of any other way which will extend the life of a typical Core2 or P4 machine with 2GB RAM for at least 2 years at a cost of less than a tenner except of course running linux.

cheers