Windows XP help

oliveoil54

We have an old Dell PC Intel Pentium 4CPU 3.0Ghz 2.5gb Ram, prob approx 10/12 year old , it is running XP 2002 Home Edition SP3 . Just found out that its not going to be updated anymore.

What do you suggest we do?

Its my husband's PC and he is not very computer tech, and I'm not much better. He does occasional financial purchases on it, email, surf web, newspapers, youtube etc.

We have Avast, update & run Malwarebytes and CCleaner regularly.

Would like some advice on what to do, as hubby is not up to downloading stuff on a regular basis to update drivers & software etc, he would probably miss half the extra junk that comes with some of these programmes and end up with problems as he has had occasionally in the past, his memory is poor so anything too complicated is a bit beyond him.

Would really welcome any advice as browsing online is his way of relaxing after illness.

esuhl

With what you've said, you may need to buy a new computer.

Windows XP isn't as secure as modern operating systems and won't be supported by Microsoft (from April, I think...?).

If neither of you are particularly technical and are likely to forget to update security software, it's probably only a matter of time before your PC becomes infected and/or your personal info gets stolen.

Personally, I'd install a lightweight version of Linux on it, but installing, configuring and using Linux (and migrating all your data without accidentally deleting anything) is likely to be one heck of a challenge if you're not too confident with such things!

You might want to check to see if your computer can run Windows 7 (assuming it's still available to buy).
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/downloads/upgrade-advisor

Otherwise, this should tell you if you can run Windows 8.1.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/upgrade-from-windows-vista-xp-tutorial

Unfortunately you might need to buy a new PC to get these later versions of Windows working acceptably...

oliveoil54

Have got Vista CD from my laptop could I use that?

esuhl

As another thought... if you really must use Windows XP... you might want to install these programs (unfortunately you'll need to keep updating them manually):

SpywareBlaster -- stops you browsing to known malware websites
https://www.brightfort.com/spywareblaster.html

Spybot -- as above, but can also scan (like MalwareBytes').
http://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors16/

adwCleaner -- another malware scanner
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/dl/125/

Internet Explorer tends to be the most vulnerable (and most targeted) web browser, so if you can switch to another one such as Firefox, you should be a little better protected.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

Finally, a great trick would be to run the web browser in a sandbox. Doing so means that everything the web browser does (like download files or install viruses, etc.) will be done in a protected part of the computer's memory (a "sandbox") that is isolated to prevent any changes to your real system. When you delete the sandbox, you delete everything the browser has tried to do to your system. Of course you can copy files out of the sandbox if you want to keep a file you downloaded.

It sounds complicated at first, but it's not too hard to set up if you read the info on the website.

http://www.sandboxie.com/

(In all cases I'm referring to the free versions!)

esuhl

oliveoil54 wrote: »

Have got Vista CD from my laptop could I use that?

Probably not due to the licensing. If you bought the CD (or DVD) separately yourself and your laptop is no longer running Vista, you could probably transfer the licence to your XP machine... But if the laptop came with Vista installed on it already, then it will be an OEM copy which means that it is only licensed for use on that particular laptop.

If you tried to install Vista from that CD/DVD, you (probably) wouldn't be able to activate it.

grumpycrab

oliveoil54 wrote: »

He does occasional financial purchases on it, email, surf web, newspapers, youtube etc.

Sorry, what's the problem? If its support stopping don't worry about it. Keep Avast up-to-date. For a 10-12 year old PC I'd leave as is - doubt Windows7 will work on it. One issue for home users may be online banking. At some point banks will not support fraud claims if the transaction was initiated on XP.

oliveoil54 wrote: »

Have got Vista CD from my laptop could I use that?

To do what?

oliveoil54

To replace XP on the PC with Vista. As eshul suggested, Vista is in use on my laptop, so prob not?

Windows 7 or 8 to update a PC XP system seem to be more expensive than a new build, on Amazon approx £150 is this correct, as I'm not really sure what I am looking for? Might just be better to go for a new system, but they all seem to run windows 8 which won't run Office 2003 & a lot of the software we already have & find useful, yet more expense that we can't really afford.

If we leave it as it is and just keep our security software up-to-date is that enough? I have read online about Hackers preparing for a field day.

The reason I am wary is that PC has managed to get infected a few times now, he has now idea how or where they came from, but they were a pain to find and get rid of and has occasionally required a complete reboot/re-install at PC world losing lots of stuff. Just recently had a load of trouble with Bandoo & searchqu toolbar where it came from is a complete mystery, but its not showing in Install & Remove Programs or on Google Chrome which he uses, but was on the IE which he doesn't use, have disabled it in add ons & used Malwarebytes to get rid of nearly 500 items all listing Searchqu. Ran Malwarebytes scan today & their were a 4/5 items 2 with searchqu (which I thought I'd got rid off?). So am quite apprehensive about just leaving it in husbands less than capable hands and don't want hassle of updating 2 computers myself.

Am concerned that all the software that you suggest running esuhl would slow it to a standstill its really quite slow as it is?

esuhl

oliveoil54 wrote: »

Am concerned that all the software that you suggest running esuhl would slow it to a standstill its really quite slow as it is?

None of the software there should really slow it down.

Spybot & SpywareBlaster block sites by adding them to the browser's blacklist, so the programs are only running when you update them (or run a scan with Spybot).

adwCleaner is just a scanner to remove malware (and well worth running by the sounds of it). Once you delete the junk, the program closes and won't run continually.

Sandboxie could theoretically slow down your browsing, but I've found it works really well on old machines -- I never noticed any speed differences. Oh hang on -- just found this on the Sandboxie website:

Under the supervision of Sandboxie, an application operates normally and at full speed, but can't effect permanent changes to your computer. Instead, the changes are effected only in the sandbox.

closed

backup http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

stop worrying

the annoyances that you've had are due to not looking at what is being installed properly, they are toolbars bundled with software, not viruses

and it doesn't need to be slow at all, follow the speedup sticky thread, pentium 4 with 2.5GB ram should fly

and reboots at pc world are likely to be a factory restore, which can be done by pressing one key at boot yourself, assuming they haven't wiped the partition

oliveoil54

He is currently running and familiar with chrome, is Firefox so much better? Because getting him to get used to chrome after ie was hard enough. He is a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to doing these things.

We back up onto separate hard drive fairly regularly would we still need Macrium?

Just read re adwcleaned that it deletes chrome preferences, as he uses chrome how would I stop this, can I set it to ignore his preferences?

Just had a look on some info on sandibox and am concerned that he will struggle to use it, as it seems a bit complicated, will download it and try it myself first. Think main concern will be getting stuff he wants to keep permanently out of sandboxie ie recovery, is there anyway of opening/storing these files by scanning them first with malwarebytes etc? The stuff he usually goes for is downloading instructions, recommendations and photos etc which he would want to keep.

Really appreciate your help and advice, many thanks

Gillor

grumpycrab wrote: »

Sorry, what's the problem? If its support stopping don't worry about it. Keep Avast up-to-date. For a 10-12 year old PC I'd leave as is......

I agree.

oliveoil54 wrote: »

Just had a look on some info on sandibox and am concerned that he will struggle to use it, as it seems a bit complicated, will download it and try it myself first. Think main concern will be getting stuff he wants to keep permanently out of sandboxie ie recovery, is there anyway of opening/storing these files by scanning them first with malwarebytes etc? The stuff he usually goes for is downloading instructions, recommendations and photos etc which he would want to keep.

Sandboxie presents you with the option of recovering or deleting any downloaded items from the sandbox.

If you want to keep the file, recover it from the sandbox and before opening it, right click the file and choose "Scan with Malwarebytes" which will tell you whether it is safe to proceed. If you want to be doubly sure, download Hitman Pro (free) and do the same check.

As long as you do all your web browsing in Sandboxie and scan all downloaded files prior to opening you'll minimise most of the potential security problems likely to be encountered following the withdrawal of Microsoft's support for XP.