Completely stuck! Need help with what next after windows XP

rock-y-beach

If anyone could please help or steer me in the right direction I would be VERY appreciative.

We all (myself, my parents, my partner and his parents) use windows XP and have done for many years with no problems. Now with windows XP becoming vulnerable next month due to microsoft ditching it, we are completely stuck with what to do next.

My partner tried windows 7 on an old PC of mine the other year and it all messed up. So don't know what to do in case our computers are not good enough to handle windows 7.

My parents have a 4 CPU 3.00GHz 3.01GHz, 1.99GB of RAM pc and I have an intel core 2 CPU with 1.86 GHz with 2.00 GB of RAM pc.

It seems the options available to us are the following:

1) switching to linux which is free but have heard reviews it is difficult to use if you are used to windows

2) Buying a windows 7 cd or code which would cost £50+ to £70+ of which money is very tight at the moment and also there is the chance it wont run on our pc's so that money will have been wasted

3) Buying a new pc but wouldn't these have windows 8 on of which I have heard bad reviews of windows 8 not working properly

or 4) buying a refurbished pc that's got windows 7 but that could also mess up if there is something wrong with it (past experience from buying from a 2nd hand computer shop & ebay)

Does anyone have any opinions please?

thank you very much

closed

backup, continue to use anti virus, stop worrying. maybe use sandboxie too if you are still worried.

lack of future patching doesn't mean it will get infected.

windows 7 messing up means?

KxMx

Don't buy into the Win 8 hate hype is my advice.
I have a list of annoyances with it and things I think should be changed, but been using it every day for nearly a year now and as an OS it's fine!

rock-y-beach

Thanks for your replies.

By messing up I meant it didn't work properly on it.

I have been told not to trust windows XP next month as you don't get any more updates and your ip can be easily hacked in to

John259

You could stick with Windows XP, it won't stop working. Provided you're sensible with the sites you visit and the options you click you'll probably be ok. Having a decent anti-virus program would be wise.

With new computers:

Windows 8 can be made far more acceptable by installing one of the many third-party utilities such as Classic Shell which restore the Start menu, disable the Charm icons, and generally put right what Microsoft haven't yet fixed with their own updates. Some of these utilities are free of charge, while others require a small payment.

If you only have relatively simple computing requirements then you might want to explore Chromebooks as an alternative. However, you would need to fully understand exactly what these devices can do, and more importantly what they cannot do.

duggan1

I wouldn't be inclined to worry too much. XP isn't going to be any less secure, it just means that Microsoft will no longer be patching any vulnerabilities that pop up.

There is a lot of hype about it at the minute, mainly driven by Microsoft in their dual responsibility of having to make sure XP users understand that there will be no more support, and having to make money selling W7/W8.

I no longer use XP myself, but I support a number of customers with a number of XP machines and we have no plans to stop supporting it.

prowla

Windows 7 is Microsoft's best OS release.

Given the choice between WIndows 8 and XP with a 3rd party virus checker, I'd probably stick with XP.

Linux is perfectly viable as a desktop OS, but Ubuntu (my favourite desktop Linux) is a bit resource hungry.

If you shop around you can get valid Windows licence COA stickers for less than £50, and images of the original media can be downloaded from digitalriver (Microsoft's official distribution partner), so you could create your own DVD rather than buying an original.

rock-y-beach

Thanks for all your help.

I run an online business on my pc and do a lot of internet banking etc so that's why I'm concerned about not being protected. But I can certainly understand why microsoft are scaremongering - so they can make money out of it.

In all honesty I would love to just stay with xp but really don't know if I could trust it after that date. I think I would be constantly worried.

closed

browsing protection
http://www.filehippo.com/download_sandboxie

antivirus
http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/
http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

temp file cleanup
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

disk imaging backup
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Storage/cat/Hard-Drive---External/subcat/-Portable-Hard-Drives
http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Storage/cat/Blank-CD,-DVD-and-Blu-Ray/subcat/DVD-Media?sort=price+ascending&q=dvd&page=1

ThemeOne

Based on the specs you mentioned you'd be fine running either W7 or 8 on both of them.

S0litaire

You can run Win7 for a couple of weeks before you need to register it with a valid key. So i'm sure you can pick up a copy from somewhere ^_~ and give a test rub on the PC to see how it handles!

If it's fine then you can shell out the £50+ for a licence knowing it's not being wasted.

But XP will still run fine! You just have to make sure anti-virus and firewall are kept up to date.

As much as Microsoft would wish and want, XP won't suddenly uninstall itself when MS support expires. ^_^


I'm not going to suggest Linux since the oldies might struggle a bit. ^_~ but yoiu can run it from CD/USB stick so you can let them try it without messing up the machine...