Windows XP Professional SP3 support ending

Any information or scuttlebut on whether ESS will be able to continue to provide protection for XP users who wish to continue using XP after support ends?

 

Yes, ESET is not planning to discontinue support for Windows XP SP3 any time soon.

 

Glad to hear that!

 

Hello,

Even older versions of Windows such as Windows NT 6.0 SP6a and Windows 2000 SP4 are supported by ESET as well.

Once a version of Windows reaches its "End of Life" Microsoft will no longer make security updates available (at least, not unless you are a very large enterprise customer) which do things like fix vulnerabilities exploited by malware, as opposed to just blocking malware that exploits the vulnerability, which is what anti-malware software typically does.

It is a good idea to use a vendor-supported operating system when possible to ensure one gets those security patches from the OS vendor, as well as whatever other reliability and performance patches fixes they provide.

ESET does realize that sometimes this is not possible (e.g., a piece of industrial or scientific equipment that uses an obsolete PC for a controller) and does maintain compatibility with legacy operating systems for as long as it is possible to do so. For example, Windows 95, 98 and 98 support just ended earlier this year.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

Golden Years: From somewhere on a Microsoft website, I have read that MS will cease providing updates for Windows XP in April 2014.

But I realized that switching from Windows XPsp3 (which I am now using, on a Dell Latitude C840) to Windows 7sp1 will be a major project. And many "modern" laptops have screens that reflect my ugly face. So I purchased (on eBay, but later I found it available also at Dell Outlet) a Dell Latitude E6500 laptop with a Matte (no reflections) WUXGA (very high resolution) screen, which matches or exceeds the per-square-inch resolution on my ancient Dell Latitude C800 and C840 laptops. (The newer laptop screens are wider than my C8n0 UXGA laptop screens, and have more pixels horizontally to compensate; hence the WUXGA descriptor.)

The E6500 apparently is no longer a current Dell production. I chose it anyway because the current E-series products (E6520 and E6530) apparently have somewhat (maybe I should say slightly) lower resolutions than the E6500, and I'm a fussbudget about that. The E-6nnn series laptops have a track-point (pointing-stick) in the middle of the keyboard, which I'm used to.

So I will have lots of time to gradually setup my new-to-me E6500 (I've already upgraded from the Vista it came with to Win7sp1), before I need to abandon my C840 running WinXPsp3.

My strong suggestion is to start preparing for the death of WinXP real soon now, because my experience (from moving from Win2kSp4 to WinXPsp3) is that either upgrading a laptop's operating system or replacing a computer with a new operating system on a truly new or new-to-you computer inevitably is a major time sink.

Incidentally, Windows8 is getting some awful reviews at Infoworld (along with some complimentary reviews). Its interface is very different, e.g. no start menu. For me, who has been thinking and writing on keyboards since the eighth grade (we called them typewriters then), the "touch screen" replacement for a start menu is a tragedy. Hopefully, by the time that MS kills Windows7 support in 2020 (I think), either MS or a third party will have re-introduced a start menu into Windows8.

Another consideration is that many geek/gurus recommend never adopting a MS operating system until at least one service pack has been issued.

Roger Folsom