OT MSSE XP end of support nagging screens etc

[Bod]

[Bod]

Whoops, a typo! The M should be a *Z* Zorin.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Bob Minchin writes

It wasn't as bad as I expected.

One problem is that M$ won't let you upgrade direct from XP to 7, so you have to upgrade to Vista first, then from that to 7.

The Vista install DVD .iso images are available from the official Microsoft mirror at Digital River.

I had a clean up of little-used apps before starting, then ran the Windows 7 Compatibility Advisor (free download from Microsoft). This threw up a couple of incompatible apps and suggested that the PC be deregistered from iTunes prior to upgrading.

I then upgraded XP to Vista Business, declining the offer to enter a licence key (which isn't needed, as this is going to be immediately upgraded to a licensed Win7).

Checked Vista out, all OK, then upgraded that to Win7 Pro from the upgrade DVD, entered the licence key from the sticker on the DVD sleeve, successfully activated online, and Bob's your uncle :-)

Windows 7 found and configured all my hardware fine, including the chipset drivers, a satellite TV card, an old Canon scanner, a Microsoft HD3000 webcam and a Laserjet P2015 printer. I was pleasantly surprised.

I expected the registry to be a total mess afterwards but running a couple of registry cleaners (CCleaner and Wise Registry Cleaner) threw up only a few issues.

You can only update 32-bit to 32-bit. Changing to 64-bit requires a clean install.

You can only upgrade to the same Windows variant - e.g. XP Home -> Vista Home -> 7 Home Premium, XP Pro -> Vista Business -> Win7 Pro. I made the mistake of upgrading to Vista Ultimate, and the Win7 Pro upgrade DVD refused to upgrade from that, so had to restore from the image I took and start over.

It's quite time-consuming as the install process is slow and several reboots are needed. It's an idea to have the machine plugged into the internet as the installer downloads updates on the fly as it proceeds.

I made an image of the SSD containing the XP system before starting, so had a fallback available if things went pear-shaped, and physically disconnected my other two hard drives before starting, just in case.

[Bod]

[Johny B Good]

Avast Free

[Bod]

I used to use Avast, but lately there is too much nagging to upgrade to the paid for version.

[Bob Minchin]

Thanks for the detail Mike

I guess I was more asking about how much justification was needed for the educational version. Do they check anything?

[Adrian]

I've got an XP box here, without MSSE on - and it's not said a sausage.

[Adrian]

They aren't a charity.

[Scott M]

I pay attention but I don't see these things looming large on the radar.

I agree, I see lots of ransomware. But what I don't see is it getting through because of some tiny obscure security flaw buried away in the OS. I see it coming in straight through the front door of double-extensions etc. And with users still happily clicking away on "my-girlfriend-naked.jpg.exe", I can't see the botnet operators putting worrying about exploiting the last possible hole in XP when the weakest point of a system is the operator (cf car security.)

I understand exactly what they could do (ex-sw engineer), but they generally don't. I'm not saying toolbars, malware etc is benign or tolerable on a system, but I don't see an influx of it just because XP support is finishing (unless there's a super-hole that every single hacker in the world has kept really quiet about and never exploited just for next month.)

Funnily enough, this kinda reminds me of the Y2K 'bug'.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Bob Minchin escribió:

You can only obtain it if you're a student or work for an educational institution that has a campus agreement with M$. I work for a uni.

The DVD contains the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Win7 Pro. It can be installed and activated on two machines.

[John Rumm]

A good number of them probably already are...

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

What do you mean by "new versions"? New versions of what?

Lots of a/v software is continuing to support XP. See the table of end dates at the bottom of this webpage:

[Bob Minchin]

It was ubuntu something or other

[Adrian C]

Some time ago the Chinese developed their own Linux based move on from XP.

and some group in Taiwan have cooked up this.

Warming up a VM as I type....

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Although... common perception is that that was a fuss over nothing.

The company I was working for spent a huge amount of money converting software and testing it so that the Y2K changeover (and future events that would look back to data dated before & after the date change) worked ok.

The whole job was done partly in-house and partly by external contractors, and took, if I remember correctly, somewhere between one & two years.

One of the things that made the whole job complicated is that throughout the conversion process all un-changed programs and all archived data still had to work. As more and more parts of the company's workload were updated, both the old and new systems still had to work perfectly. If you think this was either trivial or simple, you're wrong.

[stuart noble]

Lot to be said for a Chromebook I reckon, at least for faffing about online

[meow2222]

A miniscule threat compared to all the junk windows is vulnerable to

NT

[Adrian]

Indeed. All the frantic running around behind the scenes meant that nothing went wrong on the day - but it sure as hell would've if there hadn't been that running around.

[meow2222]

thank christ for linux.

NT