XP will have permanent zero day expolts.

[Gary]

"The very first month that Microsoft releases security updates for supported versions of Windows, attackers will reverse engineer those updates, find the vulnerabilities and test Windows XP to see if it shares those vulnerabilities," said Tim Rains, Microsoft's director of trustworthy computing.

"If it does, attackers will attempt to develop exploit code that can take advantage of those vulnerabilities on Windows XP. Since a security update will never become available for Windows XP to address these vulnerabilities, Windows XP will essentially have a 'zero day' vulnerability forever."


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/16/microsoft_warns_itll_be_handing_out_zero_days_for_windows_xp/

[Simon]

Didn't we know that already?  The Register has become the Daily Wail of computer journalism. 

[Gary]

Didn't we know that already?  The Register has become the Daily Wail of computer journalism. 

No idea, but it has abit.

[Steve]

I think anyone running XP has to think whether it's worth the risk when updates end, I think a lot will depend on their own and households  Internet usage.

[Gary]

I think anyone running XP has to think whether it's worth the risk when updates end, I think a lot will depend on their own and households  Internet usage.

Considering how easy an upgrade Windows 7 was I would personally have done that ages ago just to get the better protection that OS offers.

[Simon]

I'm seriously thinking of doing an upgrade sooner rather than later.  I've just got to be in the right frame of mind, and have the time to reinstall all my programs again.  Or does the 'Upgrade' option work well enough not to have to do a clean install, and will that remove the task of reinstalling programs?

[zappaDPJ]

There's a number of options available to you but from year's of experience the only route I'd take is to use is format c:\ and perform a fresh install.

Failing that you would need to go XP > Vista > 7 to retain everything including the year's of garbage you've picked up along the way (I have many, many legitimate copies of Vista if you want one). Another option is to use Migwiz.exe, the Windows migration tool which will save all your settings to another device http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd446674%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

That's about it really.

[zappaDPJ]

Didn't we know that already?  The Register has become the Daily Wail of computer journalism. 

We do but that article explains quite well why

[Clive]

I have an old PC running XP but I hardly ever use it these days.  If it went kaput I wouldn't be bothered.  Presumably any shared applications on my Win7 laptops would be protected?

[Gary]

I'm seriously thinking of doing an upgrade sooner rather than later.  I've just got to be in the right frame of mind, and have the time to reinstall all my programs again.  Or does the 'Upgrade' option work well enough not to have to do a clean install, and will that remove the task of reinstalling programs?

I always favoured the clean install, Simon. Start again with a fresh install also since you used/use one of the older Kaspersky AV's which may have put tags on all the files on your pc which in the old days slowed up chkdisk. I would do a complete erase and install. I'd also erase using something like Dariks Nuke and Boot and make sure the drive was as clean as could be.

[Gary]

We do but that article explains quite well why

I guess thats the reason, people who stay online using XP would not only get themselves exposed but would become a threat to others, once that information gets though people will update faster I imagine.