Sticking with XP ?

Saw the thread at...
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=284995
...by Adrynalyne re 'A Warning to Those Sticking With XP'.

Do we have any thread/s here for good ways, as time goes on, for sticking with 'XP'... like this old guy ? rolleyes

 

You are sticking your head in the sand I'm afraid. The malware creators may be evil but stupid they are not. The fact that XP will no longer get updated presents them with a massive opportunity to find new ways to exploit it, and they will. Continue to use XP on the internet, especially for financial transactions, and you will be taking an unacceptable risk. It's OK to use it without internet of course, or to install a virtual machine running Linux and do your browsing through that.

 

When it is OK and how to stick with XP:
1) If you don't do anything on the computer that will put yourself at risk and are on a network with those same parameters (No online banking or personal info you want to keep secret). And if all you do is Facebook, chat and play free games and don't care who knows about it.
2) Download drivers from a computer with a supported OS. Scan everything. Keep the XP machine off line, install XP, set things up and put in your programs. Image the drive and realize you will probably go back there any time you suspect malware. You will reinstall from this image more often than supported systems.
3) MalwareBytes is your best friend, run it often
4) Any time you get a virus or think you have a virus restore from the image. You are running an unsupported OS.
There is nothing wrong with running XP once you know the risks. There are installations I service that run lots of unsupported OS's and they are just fine until the OS does not recognize the hardware.
I phrase it the opposite of Earthling. Run XP ONLY if you are willing to willing to pull your head out of the sand and do pretty much your own virus detection. Usually your virus cleaning will be a re-install of the OS and you may get into a loop of reinstall / reinfect but that is unlikely for now.

 

So noted !
And some interesting suggestions.
Thank you from the 'sandy head'. :-o

 

I'm an old f*rt running XP Pro on one drive and Vista Ultimate on another.

I incorporated a POSReady registry key I was made aware of on May 25, 2014. POSReady is based on XP SP3. I've continued to receive Microsoft updates for it every month since then.

I run Qihu's 360 Internet Security, WinPatrol Plus, Microsoft's EMET and Spyware Blaster. I image the drive every time I update an app I have installed (which is almost on a daily basis).

If it ever reaches the point that I have to restore the drive on a monthly or more often basis, then I'll simply ditch XP for Vista.

I'm really interested in getting my hands on Windows 10. :drool

 

Thanks for the thoughts.
And, just for the record...
1. No facebook... leave that to the wife on her Mac
2. Downloads checked by Online Armor, along with sites blocked settings
3. MalwareBytes full-scan min weekly, hyperscan more often
4. Avast checks email etc, and full-scan min weekly, quick-scan more often
5. CCleaner scan ('registry' & 'cleaner') every day or so
6. SUPERAntiSpyware full-scan min weekly, quick-scan every-other-day or so
7. run chkdsk c: /f/r & sfc /scannow almost daily (while sleeping :zzz ), and yes, very debatable (via some blogs) as to whether helps, but seems to help here.
8. Acronis full backup monthly (differential backup in between).
Sandy head probably comes from in and out of sand and obviously, from above schedule, no time to clean it off !

 

Hope you made an Acronis image before you removed Win 7 ::eek

 

Here is why being your own virus protection doesnt always pan out.

http://www.riskiq.com/resources/blo...k-puts-privileged-enterprise-it-accounts-risk

I would have been hit with this had I been using an older vulderable system because I ran into it when I was going through Jquery documentation for a project. Luckily, I was in 8.1 and fully updated. I was at work at the time, and we have full admin access on the domain due to our nature of work. We don't even allow XP on our networks.

This particular exploit just requires you visiting the site. Who doesn't trust sites that provide code documentation, like Jquery? Sometimes you simply cannot avoid it.

 

Scary stuff Adry.
What tipped you off to the exploit attempt?

 

I was presented with someone's PGP key when I visited the site. I didn't know what it was at first and didn't think to check the HTML source. I ran into it at the tale end of the problem being fixed.

 

Oh yeh, had to use it a couple times (and still have it). :wave

 

Thanks, think I understand your thought.
Used DOS and W95 until web wouldnt work with them, so guess will be with XP (hopefully) for a while.
Dont do much 'fancy' on the web.
Will be interesting for how long it takes the 'web' to throw out XP totally. :-o

Ps: Many times OA at least warns us to make/check the decision.

 

Regarding POSReady, mentioned by mdonah earlier in this thread:
http://www.ghacks.net/2014/05/24/get-security-updates-windows-xp-april-2019/

Download, unzip, then run the attached registry script to activate POSReady updates.

Note: don't install updates for PosReady if you don't have it actually installed!

 

Chkdsk is for "Creates and displays a status report for a disk based on the file system. Chkdsk also lists and corrects errors on the disk. Used without parameters, chkdsk displays the status of the disk in the current drive."

sfc scannow is for "The system file checker utility, Sfc.exe, allows administrators to scan all protected resources to verify their versions. "

If your seeing help from either of these, your hard drive is probably close to failure, or your have lots of in proper shutdowns. A normal functioning hard drive wont corrupt files randomly causing a need to run chkdsk often.

 

Thanks for the thoughts !
Dont see a lot of 'help' from the 'runs', but since changed from W7 back to XP when got the (even had to order a W7 reinstall disk, they dont come with them anymore :confused ) new PC last year, and do a lot of 'crazy' things (special little programs... not connected with web, just on PC, and like 'MicrosoftOfficeDocumentImaging' printer disappears occasionally and need to reinstall) not necessarily related to 'runs', probably overkill, but makes me feel better (peace of mind?) about maintenance of XP :-o

 

Thanks for the info.
Not that familiar with 'POSReady'.
Did some reading about it at... zdnet.com.
Interesting hack, guess just not ready to make life (XPpro) that much more complicated... or at least not try something 'new' right-off-the-bat !
But, sounds like some may be trying it... will be interesting to see, over time, how it works.

Btw, some memories... also use 'Karen's Replicator' freebie for real-time 'backups'... talk about 'old-school'.
Anyone ever use it ?
The author seemed like a very nice person, but passed away a few years ago, per email from relatives.
But website still there.

 

It's not really "complicated"; it's one registry add, and updates will come in like before April. See my update history in the attachment.

 

As pwillener said, with the POSReady reg key, you continue to receive Security updates for XP until 2019. I've had several for XP, XP as POSReady 2009, IE8, .NET Framework and the monthly Malicious Software Removal Tool.

But, it has been noted that Microsoft could pull things at any time. So, I've made sure I'm ready for that.

 

As I still keep an XP system running, mainly to still be able to run an old flatbed scanner, I thought I'd try this POSready fix. Only took a couple of minutes and XP immediately downloaded and installed 10 post April 8 updates. Can't see what you have to lose by trying it.

 

Thanks for the thoughts.
Guess my main concern, as an oldy, is the last part of the (not) quoted

Usually not ready to start something 'new' until it has been 'tested' for some time.
Hence the DOS and W95
But, will keep on the 'watch list', ie (hopefully) this thread, or something like it (re 'POSReady' etc).

 

When you are ready for it (POSReady), create a System Restore Point, then apply the registry patch.

 

Thanks for the suggest.
Yes, will also do an Acronis10 (vers recommended by an IT friend for XP) full image backup and registry export (all to external HD as usual), plus anything else that may be suggested/confirmed for help with any consequences. rolleyes