What to do with Windows XP after support ends. Windows XP support: features and requirements
Microsoft, under pressure from corporate and ordinary home users, is forced to take an unprecedented step - resuming support for an outdated software product.
We are talking about the Windows XP operating system. Let us remember that this platform was released more than fifteen years ago - on October 25, 2001. Immediately after its release, the operating system began to rapidly gain popularity. According to Net Applications, Windows XP was the most common operating system on computers with Internet access until August 2012.
Mainstream support for Windows XP was stopped back in April 2009. Five years later, in April 2014, extended support for the OS ended. Since then, users have not received any security updates.
But Windows XP is not going to retire just yet. According to statistics from the already mentioned company Net Applications, in February 2017, this operating system was in third place in popularity in the world with a share of 8.45%, second only to Windows 7 (48.41%) and Windows 10 (25.19%) .
Not only home users, but also corporations continue to work with Windows XP. So, this is the OS on many modern ATMs. Therefore, the lack of fresh patches for vulnerabilities in Windows XP jeopardizes important elements of the IT infrastructure.
In this situation, Microsoft is forced to make an exception to its own rules and resume releasing updates for the outdated OS. The second phase of extended support is reported to last until April 2022. Thus, users will receive updates for another five years.
Moreover, those customers who previously switched to Windows 10 due to the lack of support for Windows XP will be able to return the money they paid and continue using the fifteen-year-old platform.
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Windows XP can still be installed and activated after support ends. Computers running Windows XP will remain functional, but will not receive Microsoft updates or receive technical support. Additionally, after this date, retail installations of Windows XP will still need to be activated.
Will it be possible to use Windows XP mode in Windows 7?
Windows XP Mode is subject to the same support lifecycle as Windows XP. Extended support ended on April 8, 2014.
Which computers will receive end-of-support notification for Windows XP?
A notification will be sent to Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional users who have chosen to receive updates through Windows Update. Users in organizations that use Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), System Center Configuration Manager, or Microsoft Intune will not receive end-of-support notifications for Windows XP.
The Windows XP operating system was released on October 25, 2001, that is, thirteen years ago. Think about this number. During this time, new technologies have been born and died, private spaceships and artificial organisms have appeared, but she is still alive and, it seems, is not going to give up.
Windows XP users today resemble Old Believers who went into the deep forests and hid there from civilization and progress. They jealously preserve their ancient customs and faith in the most correct operating system. They believe that Windows XP is great and no one can replace it. Let's try to convince them.
My Windows XP computer works great
My system still works great. Why upgrade to a modern version of Windows when I can surf the Internet, use Office, and do everything else I need just as well? After all, almost all software supports Windows XP, one way or another. And even hardware devices have drivers for Windows XP.
Unfortunately, this is not entirely true. Microsoft's support for your operating system ends in just a few days, signaling to all manufacturers that Windows XP is dead. Some a little earlier, some a little later, but they will all stop providing support for their products for this operating system.
Security must be mentioned separately. The XP architecture by default is not a standard of security, and with the end of the process of eternal patching of holes, this system will turn into a sieve. Do you need it?
I'm used to XP and don't understand Windows 8
I've been using Windows XP for so long that I feel very comfortable here. It's like a well-worn pair of shoes you love. And this figure eight of yours completely stupefies me - there’s not even a Start button!
Yes, the Windows 8 interface is a mixed bag. Here, indeed, many things are implemented too differently, and one cannot say that they are very successful.
But there is Windows 7! It will be supported until 2020 and is a modern, secure and user-friendly operating system. Plus, there are no innovations related to touch input, and you will feel no less comfortable than in XP. In addition, you can set, for example, such a visual style, and you will not notice that anything has changed at all.
Updating takes too long
Updating your operating system is like moving to a new apartment. I have everything conveniently laid out here, but I have to save everything, reinstall it, transfer my data, what if something gets lost? Besides, settling into a new place will take more than one day, I simply cannot afford it.
Yes, it's all true. Updating the system can take time even if you know exactly what to do and how to do it. If you cannot boast of such knowledge, then you will have to turn to specialists, so, in addition to time, you will also have to lose money.
However, there are other ways. For example, Microsoft offers a free tool called Laplink PCmover Express that lets you save all the files, settings, and accounts from your old Windows XP computer for later use on your new computer. It is very easy to use, practically, you only need to follow the instructions of the step-by-step wizard to quickly move to a new system.
Backward software and hardware compatibility
My favorite old scanner works great on Windows XP, but I'm not sure I'll find drivers for other systems. The same applies to specific software and some games.
If you use Windows XP for personal purposes, then we can confidently say that you can find a suitable replacement for almost any application application. And old printers and scanners that have reached the end of their useful life almost certainly end up in a landfill.
The situation is much worse in the corporate sector. There may indeed be special software or hardware that is incompatible with new versions of operating systems. In this case, the update threatens with serious financial expenses or is completely impossible. The only solution that can be offered here is to use Windows XP in a virtual machine, which, however, is also not always appropriate.
As you can see, among all the reasons for loyalty to Windows XP, only one is truly serious. And then, it concerns more the corporate sector. So, the Old Believers have no excuses and cannot have them. It's time to say thank you to the veteran and let him retire.
Sleep well, dear comrade!
Microsoft has officially announced that support for Windows XP SP2 has ended. For those who need to continue to receive free updates for this version of this software You need to install the latest service pack - SP3. Support for users with Windows XP SP3 installed will be provided until April 2014.
The corporation has officially announced that the support period has ended Windows XP SP2. For those who need to continue receiving free updates for this version of the operating system, you must install the latest service pack - SP3. Support for users with installed Windows XP SP3 will be provided until April 2014.
However, if necessary, install Windows XP SP3 Professional will be available for much longer, and quite officially. Despite the completion of various support cycles (including extended ones) and the fact that this version of the OS has not been available for retail sale for a long time, it will be possible to install it for another 10 years, until 2020. To do this, you just need to use the downgrade option. All owners of pre-installed operating systems and . Wherein Windows 7 Professional is expected to be available before 2020, while Ultimate is expected to stop shipping five years before then.
It should be noted that this is not the first time that the corporation has made such concessions. However, it is safe to assume that this will be the last concession to users.
Recall that initially the transition time from Windows XP on Windows 7 limited to six months starting October 22, 2009, the date of sale of the latest OS version from . However, in June 2010, six months was increased to eighteen, so the right to rollback the version was retained until approximately April 2011. It was assumed that users of "older" versions Windows 7, and Windows Vista can use the operating system if desired Windows XP Professional until released Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or until January 22, 2011 - whichever occurs first. However, now this restriction has been lifted, and the downgrade period has been extended until 2020.
What forced me to take this unusual step was that the film, published in 2001, Windows XP continues to enjoy high popularity. Although Windows 7 became the most popular version in the history of the corporation's family of operating systems: it continues to sell at a rate of 7 copies per second (as of June 23, 2010, 150 million licensed copies were sold Windows 7 and CEO Steve Ballmer suggested that this trend will continue until the end of this year). However, at the Worldwide Partner Conference 2010, USA, Washington, DC, it was announced that currently Windows XP still costs 74% of corporate computers, and the average age of business computers is 4.4 years, the highest in the last decade. In this regard, representative Brandon LeBlanc noted that “customers would not like to lose the right to roll back the version” and the corporation is meeting them halfway.
Sources: www.cnews.ru, www.zdnet.com
Security issues and upgrade options
How do Russian guests differ from English ones?
The English guests leave without saying goodbye.
And the Russians say goodbye, but don’t leave.
The Windows XP operating system appeared on the market 13 years ago. In fact, if you think about it, it’s an amazing fact - most of the events of that time are already perceived by us as ancient history, especially in such a rapidly changing industry as information technology. And HR, meanwhile, is still with us.
At one time, its release became the most important event for the industry. If only because it became the first universal operating system for home and corporate users, in which ease of operation and visual appeal were implemented on the powerful and reliable Windows NT platform. Although Windows XP had its problems and shortcomings, it was an excellent operating system for its time. As a result, the level of capabilities, speed and comfort provided has become sufficient for many users - so sufficient that even 13 years later they see no reason for themselves to switch to new versions of Microsoft operating systems.
True, today it no longer meets any requirements and does not fit well into our realities, and its support takes a lot of time and effort, which forces Microsoft to actively campaign for the transition to newer versions of Windows OS. And the main reason here is not only and not so much the desire to force users to pay for these new versions, as many users explain. This approach is overly simplified, and therefore incorrect. However, let's first give the floor to Microsoft representatives, and then we will draw conclusions.
They tried to convince us of the need to switch to more modern systems:
- Mila Shilina, Windows promotion manager in small and medium businesses
- Andrey Beshkov, information security program manager. I personally remember Andrey Beshkov for his interesting lectures at TechEd conferences, which invariably receive a lot of positive feedback from participants
End of support
Exactly six months later April 8, 2014, support for the Microsoft Windows XP operating system and the Microsoft Office 2003 office suite will be completely ended. This entails the following consequences:
Stopping updates. The development of Windows XP has stopped for quite some time; new features and support for new technologies have not been added to the system. Now security updates that eliminate vulnerabilities in the kernel that allow an attacker to get into the system bypassing security and without the user’s knowledge will also no longer be released. Thus, computers with Windows XP accessing the network will be under constant, irreparable threat. Plus, this OS will no longer meet security certification requirements.
Loss of compatibility. Already, under Windows XP there are no drivers for many modern devices, including sometimes even keyboards and mice. After the end of support, it is logical to expect that all software and hardware manufacturers will begin to refuse support for this OS.
End of user support. In addition to the release of updates, all support for Windows XP users will cease, and any problems that arise with its operation will have to be resolved independently.
Support cost. It's getting more and more expensive to maintain an old Windows XP computer. Microsoft representatives cited a specially conducted study by IDC, according to which maintaining a computer with Windows XP in the fifth year costs twice as much as in the second ($324 versus $177). Overall costs, including replacement of failing parts, specialist time, etc., are also significantly higher.
Information security threats
However, the main problem that will face users who remain on Windows XP is security, or rather the lack of it. At the time when Windows XP entered the market, the attitude towards system security was completely different, and much of what today seems to us a natural and generally obligatory requirement simply did not occur to the developers then. Even the attitude towards system vulnerabilities was much more frivolous than it is now. For example, leading analytics company Secunia, which specializes in analyzing software vulnerabilities and providing advice on their elimination and protection, only began collecting information about them in 2003.
This is largely due to the fact that the worldwide Internet network then occupied a completely different position than it does now. It was relatively small, had low communication speeds, and provided users with a fairly limited set of capabilities. And the work scenarios were much simpler and more limited.
Accordingly, the picture of the attackers’ activities looked completely different. Then it was a kind of community of rebels, and the main motivation for the attacks was either vandalism or the desire of individuals to become famous. Massive attacks and self-serving actions were virtually non-existent. And the hacking and attack tools were also relatively simple. That's the case now!
Today, the Internet is a huge market and a place for doing business. Its financial component is already quite large and is growing all the time. Everyone is active on the Internet: companies, including the world's largest corporations and banks, states, and individuals. And criminals always pay attention to a big market with a lot of money. Nowadays, malicious activity on the Internet has increased many times over, and its priorities, forms and methods have changed significantly.
If earlier cases of attacks for economic or political reasons were isolated, and their targets were mainly the world's leading corporations, now absolutely any enterprise can become the target of such an attack. The goals can be very different - from disruption of work followed by blackmail to theft of valuable data. The risks have increased significantly - disruption of an enterprise's IT infrastructure can cost from 100 thousand to 1.5 million dollars (the corporate division of Hewlett-Packard on another occasion cited data that the average damage today is about 5 million dollars, but it can vary within very wide limits). Finally, malicious activity on the network is extremely high. According to Andrey Beshkov, if you put an unprotected machine on the Internet now, it will take an average of 20 minutes until they start “probing” it. And if the machine is not updated, then it will be hacked quite quickly.
Therefore, over the past 12 years, the perception of secure systems has changed radically. Now, already at the development stage, great attention is paid to the safety and security of the system, algorithms and code undergo special tests, systems are assessed for resistance to penetration from the outside, and more and more security technologies are being introduced. The problem is that most of these technologies simply did not exist when Windows XP was developed. For example:
All together, this made it possible to achieve a significant reduction in the number of system vulnerabilities. For example, here is a comparison of XP and Vista (in which analysis began to be carried out immediately during development) in terms of the number of vulnerabilities identified during the initial distribution of the system on the market.
Well, general resistance to infection:
As you can see, the security of systems has increased significantly. However, attackers are not asleep, coming up with more and more new attacks. But the main conclusion that can be drawn from this is: unfortunately, more and more new vulnerabilities will be discovered in Windows XP - simply because it was developed a very long time ago, and during its development the security of the system kernel was not given the same attention that is required now.
Here it is worth briefly recalling such a point as active system protection, including from attacks from the network. This direction has also made great progress over the past 12 years. In principle, the first firewall appeared in Windows XP. He was perceived then something like this.
In the first editions of Windows XP, it was disabled by default, and had to be specially enabled. True, it was still turned on in Service Pack 2, but many users, having seen after turning it on how something stopped working, instead of configuring it, simply turned off the firewall entirely. Modern systems already come with a good firewall and antivirus from the start (which are disabled when installing third-party applications with the required functionality). An important step in the development of system security was the Smartscreen filter, which appeared in the latest editions of Windows OS. It checks all the files that the user received from the Internet and tries to run it. This filter does not analyze them like an antivirus, but can evaluate whether such a file comes from a trusted source, how widespread it is (how many users have already installed it), and based on this makes recommendations whether it is worth running or not.
However, Andrei Beshkov urged not to trust antiviruses too much. Their main strategy is to identify the virus. Therefore, now the average lifetime of a malicious program is about 8 hours after its appearance. During this time, it will come to the attention of the antivirus software, will be analyzed and added to the database, and then the antiviruses will begin to detect a new threat. But modern viruses can change their code (mutate), and antiviruses stop recognizing them, which gives them extra time. Thus, the presence of an antivirus is not always able to protect a system with unpatched kernel security holes: a virus may have time to infiltrate the system before it is detected. Additionally, once OS support ends, security businesses should also begin to reduce their investment in Windows XP security.
Thus, in Windows XP there may still be many vulnerabilities at the system kernel level, which after the end of support will remain open, allowing you to invade the system and either steal/corrupt data or take control of the system. This may not be so scary for home users, but businesses face serious losses in any case.
Transition to modern systems
If we try to summarize all the factors due to which enterprises and users do not want to switch to a new system, we will get approximately the following picture.
Firstly, this price factor: the upgrade is still paid, and many components of the IT infrastructure will have to be changed. On the other hand, more and more money is spent on supporting old equipment every year (for example, it simply breaks down) in the absence of manufacturer support, and huge security holes can at any time lead to infrastructure failure, which will cost much more. Microsoft is currently offering discounts on software upgrades to the latest versions:
Those who take advantage of the upgrade program, of course, will receive a free upgrade to Windows 8.1, and in the future, a free update of the operating system as part of the Windows Software Assurance program. Users of the Office 365 cloud service also always receive the latest version of MS Office. You can update, in particular, through the Microsoft partner network (the list is available).
Secondly, this the need to retrain staff to work with the new interface. It can be mentioned here that Microsoft has special training programs that allow you to quickly adapt to the new interface.
Finally, the third frequently encountered argument is Availability of specialized software, developed for Windows XP and taking into account the system features, which is why such software does not work under more modern operating systems. To solve this problem, you can run Windows XP in a virtual machine using the built-in Hyper-V client - this removes most threats to system and data security. Additionally, there is Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V). Finally, Windows 7 Professional editions include XP Mode, which allows you to run applications written for XP in compatibility mode. This also provides a good chance to get new technologies and maintain compatibility with software that requires unique XP features.
Since we're talking about updating, I want to remind everyone that modern Microsoft licenses allow downgrading up to two generations ago, i.e. if you have a license for Windows 8 professional series (Windows 8 Pro), you can install Windows without any problems 7. Moreover, this opportunity should apply to any systems, including OEM systems with the Windows 8 Pro version, purchased by private users.
Opinions and conclusions
Today, upgrading from Windows XP to more modern systems is truly an urgent need. Therefore, throughout the article, I tried as best I could to refrain from counterarguments. Of course they exist. The problem is that any objection will be reduced to particulars and will in no way be able to cancel the main message: Windows XP is outdated and does not meet modern requirements for compatibility, reliability and security.
We have before our eyes a wonderful example with the Internet Explorer browser. At one time, when IE6 reigned supreme in the browser market, and competitors got only crumbs, almost all corporate resources were optimized to work correctly only with this browser. Over time, when IE6 became irrevocably outdated, this compatibility began to do much more harm than good: it forced you to keep an outdated version of the browser with security problems, held back the development of IE itself, and did not allow you to use more convenient, faster and safer alternative products. It got to the point that Microsoft itself had to deploy a very large global program to oust IE6 and resources optimized for it from the market and transition to more modern technologies.
The situation is approximately the same with Windows XP. At one time it was a very good system that met all the requirements of that time and gave users a very good level of performance, reliability and comfort. But its time has passed, technology has moved far ahead. And now keeping this system on the market also does more harm than good. And therefore we need to abandon it, moving to more modern solutions.
Goodbye Windows XP. It was good with you, but we need to move on.
