XP Home can be as good as Pro ...

... maybe

Anyway, at the risk of opening a can of worms, I'd say closer than some think.

I've not been visiting here for a while and have missed plenty. Been doing some catching up. I found this thread interesting and would have added a post on how to do it in Home, but not allowed cos thread too old.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=329584&highlight=xp firewall

I got it working as described with the use of these tools, which are certainly mentioned elsewhere on Wilders, but probably worth drawing to the attention of any die-hard XP Home users needing a boost. Currently still available for dl:

-http://download.pcwelt.de/area_release/files/34/90/34902E559CB7C99C6BECFADF0BE40788/pcwGPInst.zip-
-http://download.pcwelt.de/area_release/files/47/89/4789766DF4A2E9DF9556D59AF23966A8/pcwXPProme.zip-

An interesting thing is if you install group policy, then prome, make the mods, then revert it to Home - the changes stick! no doubt due to registry changes.

 

Just curious, are those third-party tools any different from manually editing the registry?

 

Almost certainly, if you could isolate the registry changes made to Pro in a given instance, you could do the same in Home. But these reg changes are often opaque, and you would need an expert Pro user to export them from the registry and then test. Best eg would be tlu's implementation of SRP. What a masterpiece!

 

XP has security flaws addressed in Windows Vista and carried forward into Windows 7.

In usability terms, its still the best operating system Microsoft ever produced - a shame this lesson didn't sink into the heads of the people around Steve Ballmer in designing Windows 8.

 

The only real differences in useability is UAC, which is a step in the direction of giving people the security they complained previous versions did not have. You can have ease of use or security. You cannot have both with no effort.

...and XP Home is as good as XP Pro. Both pretty useless 12 years after original release.

 

Support for Windows XP ends April 8 | 2014

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/endofsupport.aspx

 

Aside form the fact that it doesn't mean that WinXP will disappear from the face of the Earth, this has absolutely nothing to do with Home/Pro comparison.

As for Home being as good as Pro, there are other differences, like the presence of Security tab in Pro (which can be solved in different ways, but some of them are not entirely easy to use, orthodox or even compliant with the EULA ).

 

Just spreading awareness that XP Support will end. Like Win 98SE users, many will forge on forever regardless of support.

Not intended as being a thread spoiler.

 

All that will happen in 2014 is Microsoft support will end for Windows XP. But you can run it forever after that date. Just keep up on your AV and you should be good to go!

 

Sure, you'll be able to run XP forever but without security updates. Your AV will definitely protect you - but on a 11 year old operating system.

Again, just spreading awareness of running an old OS.

 

some people just don't like it when other people run a OS they do not approve of

 

Some people are just reminding users of the fact that the OS will lose support from the vendor. There will be unofficial support from elsewhere like MSFN forums (which is great) but it's just not the same.

Then, there's the issue of XP missing out on modern security features/mitigations such SEHOP and ASLR. You can get by and be free of malware with your security setup(s) but they are just not the same. Keeping up with AV isn't enough.

A good read:
http://www.insanitybit.com/2013/04/09/windows-xp-abandon-ship/

Of course, as usual - it's your hardware. Whichever OS one goes with, that's anyone's choice.

 

Expect most of them to drop XP support very shortly after Microsoft does.

 

It will but I doubt it will be "very shortly". There's still market share worthy enough to earn the extra bucks.

 

Getting quite a bit of use here with Xp Home.

Matters not to me if they do or don't. AV free and Malware free for five plus years now.

 

"Some people are just reminding users of the fact that the OS will lose support from the vendor"

I think we already know this, I will stick to my statement that some people just don't like it if you don't run what they approve of

 

I strongly suspect AV Vendors will extend Support spanning a longer period of time than MS support as there are many that will hang on to Windows XP.

You've got to provide full AV support for all running OS out there, regardless of MS support.

PM an ESET Mod if you would like more detail.

 

I hope security vendors don't extend support, It's the only way to get a lot of these hard-headed people off of dead software. /can of worms opened

 

Why? Anything that can run on Windows 95 can still run on Windows 8. All you miss in new software is new features and possible bug fixes. Most people are happy with the software they have - and if Windows XP works for them, they no reason why they have to upgrade.

 

I expect that XP support will continue for any products that are current at the time. They will not just cut it off in April but as these product expire and new versions are released they likely won't officially support XP with the newer version. It will take a couple of years for this to happen. I meant a short period of time in contrast to the life of XP, which will be 13 at that point.

And yes, I'm sure ESET will support XP for a while as I think they are still supporting back to version 4 if not 3. But outside of these forums I don't know a lot of people that even know who they are. I expect that Norton and Kaspersky will be quick to eliminate XP from their 2015 product lineup. Avast will probably support it for a while. I guess we will see.

 

I do my own support so this "hard-headed" ~Removed~ will stand his ground or maybe go to Linux one day

 

I agree!

 

You also miss massive security updates.

 

Good for you, no need to get mad..you're still hard headed You'd be far better off going to Linux honestly. Your system, your problem, lol.

 

I plan to do backup of windows XP SP3 with Macrium Reflect pro