If you are still running XP please read.

[johnwhelan]

April 8th 2014 Microsoft withdraws support for XP. Does it matter well yes. Unfortunately Microsoft will still be sending out security updates for Vista, Win7 and Win 8. These days the majority of Malware comes from people examining the security updates that Microsoft sends out to see what the vulnerability is then they try it on all the versions of Windows.

So if a vulnerability exists and is closed in Win 7 then it will be published to the malware people and and not closed in XP. In a twelve month period thirty Win 7 / Win 8 patches were also applicable to XP.

So if you do decide to continue in XP after April 8th then the advice would be not to use it for anything that involves credit cards and not to use it for any passwords such as gmail or PAYPAL since the accounts will probably be compromised.

Cheerio John

 

[alexl102]

I appreciate you posting this, John- thank you!

 

[RRSignal]

Really? Because in the last 13 years I've almost never patched XP except for service packs and I've never been compromised. Could this be a case of F.U.D.?

 

[Zeldaboy14]

RRSignal, you may be lucky then. I once downloaded a file on my Windows XP, and it was a virus. It blocked Internet Explore (which I don't use on XP) and it blocked most of the web pages on Chrome.

 

[RRSignal]

RRSignal, you may be lucky then. I once downloaded a file on my Windows XP, and it was a virus. It blocked Internet Explore (which I don't use on XP) and it blocked most of the web pages on Chrome.

I'm not the only one who can say that I don't patch and don't have issues. A lot of the more hardcore users I know are in the same boat.

But, your example is the entire problem: If you go randomly clicking on every file presented to you for download, and if you don't practice "safe hex", then no patch or security software will help you.

 

[johnwhelan]

Really? Because in the last 13 years I've almost never patched XP except for service packs and I've never been compromised. Could this be a case of F.U.D.?

Americans who believe in the correct God are of course exempt from Malware. Recently there have been a few million credit cards compromised by Malware, Target comes to mind, I understand one of the difficulties is although chip and pin is widely used in Canada and Europe and is quite effective the Americans can't decide who should bear the extra cost of making chip and pin credit and debit cards.

The difficulty is knowing if you've been compromised since the latest in Malware seems to be key loggers whether installed by NSA or others from web sites, you don't even need to download anything, its just your email contacts who get bombarded with SPAM as your passwords get hacked and whilst your bank account might not have been compromised others have and having worked in corporate security I've seen quite a few cases of Malware. Generally speaking prevention is cheaper than the cure.

Cheerio John

 

[gremlin1812]

OMG, "April 8th 2014 Microsoft withdraws support for XP" this is the end of the world as we know it, all PC's will implode and the internet will cease to exist. This could mark the end for human kind.
Barrie

 

[Jananton]

If you're really afraid that your XP installation will be compromised and updating to Win 7 isn't possible just make your PC system a double boot and install Linux for your internet traffic. Most current distributions are as easy to install as windows is these days.

Greetings from nighttime Amsterdam,

Jan

 

[Zeldaboy14]

I'm not the only one who can say that I don't patch and don't have issues. A lot of the more hardcore users I know are in the same boat.

But, your example is the entire problem: If you go randomly clicking on every file presented to you for download, and if you don't practice "safe hex", then no patch or security software will help you.

I've patched my Windows XP with every update that's thrown at it. I did use Microsoft Security Essentials to clean the virus off it, and also installed AVG to make sure it was fully protected. Also, I didn't mean to download the virus. It was something that I downloaded that I was looking for that had the virus.

 

[leksie]

I've patched my Windows XP with every update that's thrown at it. I did use Microsoft Security Essentials to clean the virus off it, and also installed AVG to make sure it was fully protected. Also, I didn't mean to download the virus. It was something that I downloaded that I was looking for that had the virus.

I recommend you to use one virusscanner.

 

[Zeldaboy14]

Thanks for telling me, but I don't use the Windows XP very often. Any more things I install on it might cause a hard drive failure. The computer was built when XP first came out back in 2002. It's a good computer, it just can't run modern games like Trainz 2009 and up due to integrated graphics. And it's very slow.

 

[leksie]

Did you switch of one of the virusscanners or did you remove one . The game will also slow down with two virusscanners.
When i play Trainz i switch of the virusscanner.

 

[Zeldaboy14]

I removed Avast off it to install AVG. AVG does use quite a lot of ram, but the computer's graphic cards can't handle Trainz 2009 and up because 1: When the computer was reformatted in May of last year, the graphic cards were rolled back to the original driver and 2: It only has 2 CD Drives, and a Floppy Drive.

 

[leksie]

I also use http://www.razerzone.com/gamebooster , Razergame booster .I will get a lot of comments now ,i think but i get good results.
It's not a booster but it will switch of a lot of programs who are running on the background when you play Trainz.

 

[UnumProvident155]

I used to have Windows XP on my old desktop computer now I have windows 7

 

[RRSignal]

I've patched my Windows XP with every update that's thrown at it. I did use Microsoft Security Essentials to clean the virus off it, and also installed AVG to make sure it was fully protected. Also, I didn't mean to download the virus. It was something that I downloaded that I was looking for that had the virus.

Again, that proves my point: Patching won't help if you are so careless as to click on any old thing that shows in a download window. Over 90% of malware is spread through what's known as "social engineering", which is a fancy way of saying that attackers trick people into downloading and running a regular executable file. Of the 7% of attacks that do occur via software exploit (which what patches are supposed to protect you against), most of them occur in high-level apps and not at the OS level e.g. security flaws in Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash, Sun Java, etc. Of those that do exploit OS flaws, most (well, ALL, that I can think of offhand) involve the propagation of malware already on one's network.

 

[Zeldaboy14]

I didn't mean the FAKE updates. I ment the one's that Microsoft has.

 

[Lendorf]

OMG, what am I going to do now? No more WinXP upgrades/updates anymore. Looks like I might have to install Win95/98 or possibly MS DOS 6.22. On second thought, I might crank up my old AMIGA 1000, 2500HD or 4000 and go on the internet with any of these.

Problems over problems. I wonder how I can sleep at night .

Realistically, having a top virus scanner, always upgraded to the last, is all one needs plus as mentioned above, ONLY d/load and/or open any files that you know are OK.

Lennard

 

[nicky9499]

All these headaches can be avoided if a little bit of common sense is employed when accessing the internet.

"Why does this mp3 I'm downloading end with an .exe extension?"
"Why does this site where I'm making a payment not start in https:// and have a security certificate?"
"Why does this download button take me to a russian website instead of my file?"
"Why am I using multiple antiviruses when it's a bad idea?"

You know.

 

[Lots_Trains]

I run XP never upgraded it never had a problem, I'm on the inter web always. I havn't run a virus scanner in the last 6 years never had a problem, what am I doing wrong, my puter should have crashed an blown up years ago.

Cheers

Lots