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Microsoft ending support for Windows XP and Windows Vista |
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#126 |
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Join Date: Feb 2007
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Are you serious? That's a very risky view to have.
Only time will tell whose opinion is the more accurate. |
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#127 |
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Guest
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 5,914
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Yes, because there will be so few XP users that, like Linux and Mac, it will not be worth the effort....the exploits will be concentrated on 7 and 8 users.
And malware writers are going to target Windows 7 and 8 rather than the vastly less secure and unpatched Windows XP? Dave |
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#128 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: County Durham
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Mine is probably as accurate an opinion as others that I've read in this thread. And as with those, I can't back mine up with credible source references either.
Only time will tell whose opinion is the more accurate. |
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#129 |
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Down South
Posts: 1,791
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Well it won't be yours.
Only when credible proof is provided does it become fact. |
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#130 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: County Durham
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Just your opinion...which you are perfectly entitled to express.
Only when credible proof is provided does it become fact. |
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#131 |
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: the wild world web
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.. If an OS's security issues don't get patched, this then leaves it a target for all the malware and virus writers out there.
I quite imagine much specialist malware never gets detected. |
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#132 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 21,645
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Just your opinion...which you are perfectly entitled to express.
Only when credible proof is provided does it become fact. Is it your belief that these vulnerabilities, once analysed, are not being used by malware writers to target unpatched systems? |
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#133 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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You never answered my question earlier in the thread. Is it your contention that Microsoft were wasting their time (and XP users' time) when they continued to apply software patches to XP, many of which were back ports for vulnerabilities discovered in later versions of Windows?
Is it your belief that these vulnerabilities, once analysed, are not being used by malware writers to target unpatched systems? |
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#134 |
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Join Date: Feb 2007
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You never answered my question earlier in the thread. Is it your contention that Microsoft were wasting their time (and XP users' time) when they continued to apply software patches to XP, many of which were back ports for vulnerabilities discovered in later versions of Windows?
Is it your belief that these vulnerabilities, once analysed, are not being used by malware writers to target unpatched systems? 2. No |
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#135 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
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Not mad, but just find it ridiculous that you think people who can't understand why others use XP online are showing hate. I realise that that smilie was intended to try and provoke. It does sometimes get misused.
You've never met me, never have, and likely never will. If you ever do, I promise I won't make you even look at my evil XP laptop. Wouldn't want you to catch anything ![]() I also find it amusing that some people are so up in arms about people using XP at home - believe me, a lot of companies that we all deal with everyday aren't even using XP but much older operating systems for their systems. Chances are, somewhere along the line, you've dealt with a company using an older operating system somewhere in their system. Maybe you even paid for something using your credit card or debit card. Maybe they're your bank, or you used them for a flight. THAT I'd be worried about. Not little old me writing an essay and sitting on YouTube with my Windows XP laptop. It makes no difference to you whatsoever. None at all. The examples I gave above? They likely do. But I never see anyone complaining about those... (My auntie works for a bank - they're still on Windows 2000. Complain about that, if you want - but I really do not see what my XP laptop has ever done to you. I'm not forcing you to use it, or using it to do anything mission critical. Some people take the Internet way too seriously. The worst that will happen for me, is that somehow, I'll get some god awful disgusting malware that will force me to completely flatten the hard drive and reformat it. And then I'll just restore from my backup and life will be dandy again. And guess what? Nobody dies!) |
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#136 |
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Join Date: Feb 2007
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@ChickenWings
Common sense at last....
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#137 |
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 111
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I'm not forcing you to use it, or using it to do anything mission critical. Some people take the Internet way too seriously. The worst that will happen for me, is that somehow, I'll get some god awful disgusting malware that will force me to completely flatten the hard drive and reformat it. And then I'll just restore from my backup and life will be dandy again. And guess what? Nobody dies!)
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#138 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: County Durham
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And I still can't see why people care what operating system someone else is using.
You've never met me, never have, and likely never will. If you ever do, I promise I won't make you even look at my evil XP laptop. Wouldn't want you to catch anything ![]() I also find it amusing that some people are so up in arms about people using XP at home - believe me, a lot of companies that we all deal with everyday aren't even using XP but much older operating systems for their systems. Chances are, somewhere along the line, you've dealt with a company using an older operating system somewhere in their system. Maybe you even paid for something using your credit card or debit card. Maybe they're your bank, or you used them for a flight. THAT I'd be worried about. Not little old me writing an essay and sitting on YouTube with my Windows XP laptop. It makes no difference to you whatsoever. None at all. The examples I gave above? They likely do. But I never see anyone complaining about those... (My auntie works for a bank - they're still on Windows 2000. Complain about that, if you want - but I really do not see what my XP laptop has ever done to you. I'm not forcing you to use it, or using it to do anything mission critical. Some people take the Internet way too seriously. The worst that will happen for me, is that somehow, I'll get some god awful disgusting malware that will force me to completely flatten the hard drive and reformat it. And then I'll just restore from my backup and life will be dandy again. And guess what? Nobody dies!) |
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#139 |
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: the wild world web
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What I find fascinating is that Dell Secureworks said that the US and UK were worst affected with Cryptolocker.
Quite obviously it is mainly Windows, but really they never said which of those 1700 UK PCs were XP, 7, Linux or even OS/X. |
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#140 |
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Cheshire
Posts: 4,398
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And I still can't see why people care what operating system someone else is using.
You've never met me, never have, and likely never will. If you ever do, I promise I won't make you even look at my evil XP laptop. Wouldn't want you to catch anything ![]() I also find it amusing that some people are so up in arms about people using XP at home - believe me, a lot of companies that we all deal with everyday aren't even using XP but much older operating systems for their systems. Chances are, somewhere along the line, you've dealt with a company using an older operating system somewhere in their system. Maybe you even paid for something using your credit card or debit card. Maybe they're your bank, or you used them for a flight. THAT I'd be worried about. Not little old me writing an essay and sitting on YouTube with my Windows XP laptop. It makes no difference to you whatsoever. None at all. The examples I gave above? They likely do. But I never see anyone complaining about those... (My auntie works for a bank - they're still on Windows 2000. Complain about that, if you want - but I really do not see what my XP laptop has ever done to you. I'm not forcing you to use it, or using it to do anything mission critical. Some people take the Internet way too seriously. The worst that will happen for me, is that somehow, I'll get some god awful disgusting malware that will force me to completely flatten the hard drive and reformat it. And then I'll just restore from my backup and life will be dandy again. And guess what? Nobody dies!) The older machines will be tightly locked down using software like AppSense Application Manager or Avecto Previlege Guard, that conditionally allow execution of applications based on signature and a few other bits of criteria. Some of this stuff is so specialist I'd be surprised if more than a handful of people here have heard of it. This is in addition to the normal behind enterprise firewalls or have no internet connection at all, group policies, running as non-admins, etc, etc. I personally do not care what OS anyone uses but don't justify a consumer using XP by saying big important companies still use it. It is more or less a certainty that a good number of unknown vulnerabilities will start being exploited once support officially ends. On top of that developers will stop checking their software works on XP so you're going to be stuck back on older versions that could also have known and actively exploited vulnerabilities. You say it makes no difference but even DS has been known to serve up malicious adverts and I would bet they were preying on low hanging fruit, which a lot of XP machines are about to become. I personally would encourage anyone to upgrade, if you have bought your laptop/PC/whatever in the past 4 years or so it should run Win 7 with no problems. |
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#141 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
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@ChickenWings
Common sense at last.... ![]() ![]() It's sometimes easy to forget on here that DS users on the whole are not illustrative of larger society in pretty much any regard, really. It seems many people on DS get a new mobile phone every 24 months, a new computer/laptop every 2-3 years, and are generally up to date with their technology gizmos and gadgets - there was a thread on here the other week with users counting how many electrical items they had plugged in in their living rooms, for example, and it seemed like everyone had multiple computers, tablets, mobile phones, TVs, DVD players, Bluray players, Sky boxes and PVRs, games consoles etc. etc. Which is lovely for them, I'm sure - but not everyone is like that. Some of us use stuff until it stops working or stops working well enough to be worth the effort any more - my parents for example have a fridge/freezer for example that is 27 years old, and still works fine, so the topic of replacing it has never come up. Some people on here would be getting rid of it after 8-9 years for no reason other than they can and "why not". I'm not in love with XP - but it's working alright for me for what I use it for right now, and I have no reason to believe it is going to stop doing so in April. So I'll replace it when I have some extra/spare cash around, or when it stops working/stops working well enough to be worth the effort. Not because someone on an Internet forum is all high and mighty. People that keep talking about security issues need to read some of my earlier posts. My laptop is probably safer than your modern/new one - all executable files blocked by group policy (.exe, .msi, .bat, .cmd, etc.) so I can't install stuff intentionally or unintentionally without making a conscious effort to log in to a different user account, change group policy, refresh group policy and then run the installer. Auto-run is also disabled on all devices. Which leaves stuff like Flash/Java exploits... but Java isn't installed and Flash and Javascript is blocked by default on a "click to enable" basis with a small whitelist. My anti-virus updates multiple times a day and does a full scan on a Sunday evening. I do not open spam e-mails, haven't done so since I was about 14 and I do not download programs/music/videos/etc. on here. Fair enough if you have no idea what you're talking about - ignorance is bliss, as they say. But I take a conscious effort with taking care of my computers and I daresay my machine is probably safer than 90% of computers that belong to DS users. In April, security updates for Windows XP will stop. Exploits that haven't been patched by then will remain open indefinitely - but good luck anyone getting enough access to my computer to be able to do anything with them - you'd have to be pretty good - and let's assume you do get access - and you delete/encrypt all my files, and brick my laptop. I'd be like "oh dear" for a few minutes before I banged in the re-install CD*, reformatted it and restored from backup. Also to the user saying stuff about my computer being a part of botnets etc. - like I said, good look anyone trying to do that with me - it would require someone gaining access to my computer, and seeing as how I can't run any executable files or install any programs, that makes it difficult. The only real way would be through stuff like browser exploits, and with Java not installed and Flash etc. blocked by default it's even harder. If that did happen - which I doubt it would, but let me humour you - I'd simply do the same as the above. I tend to do a reinstall every 9-12 months or so anyway. I can't say I'd be worried too much about the effects it would have on other people, either - I thought I'd made it clear in my other posts that I don't tend to give people I've never met a second thought - whether it's in regards to what operating system, what colour they paint their walls or whether they happen to receive spam e-mails from computers that are part of a botnet, etc. Just doesn't even enter my head; I have better things to think about. Good luck with the scaremongering, though. (I hope you have shares in Microsoft or a laptop manufacturer or something - please tell me you're not doing this because you genuinely do really care about what OS other people are running? ).* = I say re-install CD but I actually have my own created image on a USB stick that I use instead so I don't have to re-install all the updates from 10 years ago, etc. |
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#142 |
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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![]() ..In April, security updates for Windows XP will stop. Exploits that haven't been patched by then will remain open indefinitely - ... Not that it mattered, as it does not exactly specialise in protecting us from zero day exploits. |
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#143 |
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Sandy Heath, Beds. UK
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I'm not in love with XP - but it's working alright for me for what I use it for right now, and I have no reason to believe it is going to stop doing so in April. So I'll replace it when I have some extra/spare cash around, or when it stops working/stops working well enough to be worth the effort. Not because someone on an Internet forum is all high and mighty.
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#144 |
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Cheshire
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People that keep talking about security issues need to read some of my earlier posts. My laptop is probably safer than your modern/new one - all executable files blocked by group policy (.exe, .msi, .bat, .cmd, etc.) so I can't install stuff intentionally or unintentionally without making a conscious effort to log in to a different user account, change group policy, refresh group policy and then run the installer. Auto-run is also disabled on all devices. Which leaves stuff like Flash/Java exploits... but Java isn't installed and Flash and Javascript is blocked by default on a "click to enable" basis with a small whitelist. My anti-virus updates multiple times a day and does a full scan on a Sunday evening. I do not open spam e-mails, haven't done so since I was about 14 and I do not download programs/music/videos/etc. on here.
Fair enough if you have no idea what you're talking about - ignorance is bliss, as they say. But I take a conscious effort with taking care of my computers and I daresay my machine is probably safer than 90% of computers that belong to DS users. Disabling Flash/Java is only a small part of the problem, JS and CSS parsing is complicated and is a major source of vulnerabilities in all major browsers. You may think you're safe because you only visit sites you trust, but there such a things Cross Site Scripting. This allows malicious scripts to be injected into otherwise safe sites and this has affected quite a few big companies including ESPN and the BBC. Quote:
In April, security updates for Windows XP will stop. Exploits that haven't been patched by then will remain open indefinitely - but good luck anyone getting enough access to my computer to be able to do anything with them - you'd have to be pretty good - and let's assume you do get access - and you delete/encrypt all my files, and brick my laptop. I'd be like "oh dear" for a few minutes before I banged in the re-install CD*, reformatted it and restored from backup.
Also to the user saying stuff about my computer being a part of botnets etc. - like I said, good look anyone trying to do that with me - it would require someone gaining access to my computer, and seeing as how I can't run any executable files or install any programs, that makes it difficult. The only real way would be through stuff like browser exploits, and with Java not installed and Flash etc. blocked by default it's even harder. If that did happen - which I doubt it would, but let me humour you - I'd simply do the same as the above. I tend to do a reinstall every 9-12 months or so anyway. I can't say I'd be worried too much about the effects it would have on other people, either - I thought I'd made it clear in my other posts that I don't tend to give people I've never met a second thought - whether it's in regards to what operating system, what colour they paint their walls or whether they happen to receive spam e-mails from computers that are part of a botnet, etc. Just doesn't even enter my head; I have better things to think about. Quote:
Good luck with the scaremongering, though.
(I hope you have shares in Microsoft or a laptop manufacturer or something - please tell me you're not doing this because you genuinely do really care about what OS other people are running? ).Owning shares in MS or laptop companies wouldn't help you now. Vista came out in 2006 and Win7 in 2009 (8 maybe) so none XP kit has been sold for nearly 8 years. Long enough to cover most peoples refresh cycle and big corporates will have volume licenses in place with MS so they're not about to shell out more money. It is a good time to own MS stock but that's more to do with the impending change in senior management. Have you consider trying Ubuntu as a cost effective and more secure alternative? |
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#145 |
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Join Date: May 2005
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It's much like driving a 13 year old car. Yes, it might work fine, but don't fool yourself that it's as safe as a newer car. Drive it at your own risk.
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#146 |
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Join Date: Jul 2008
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I don't think thats the best analogy Stig, I drove a friends 15 year old Merc E300TD today on a 300 mile round trip. It has been well looked after and I felt as safe as houses.
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#147 |
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Join Date: May 2005
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You might have felt it but a new Merc would be safer than a 15 year old one.
In contast I hired out a new VW Up last week with an automatic and shift up and down arrangement. I just left it in drive and it was dangerous when trying to overtake on the M1, put your foot down and you have to wait 3-4 seconds and then it would go. Anyway straying off topic now, sorry. |
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#148 |
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Sandy Heath, Beds. UK
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I don't think thats the best analogy Stig, I drove a friends 15 year old Merc E300TD today on a 300 mile round trip. It has been well looked after and I felt as safe as houses.
Any OS which by default logs all users in as Administrator with no password is inherently unsafe. |
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#149 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 7,975
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Quote:
XP on a PC is more like a 13 year old Alfa Romeo than a Mercedes.
Any OS which by default logs all users in as Administrator with no password is inherently unsafe. I suppose you are right about no log in as Admin and did change it for a while but reverted back. I know all the reasons why reverting back is not a good idea but it is much more convenient ..... not having to log in and not having to log in as admin to run a program I've just downloaded. The same can be said for UAC, if I upgrade to 7 or 8 (which means a new computer in my case) I think I'd probably switch it off. I believe you can train it up with a whitelist of things that are allowed to run but even so I'd find it annoying downloading something from a trusted site and then getting the UAC prompt. How have I got away with it for so long running as Admin with no UAC to help me ? I would agree with a lot of what ChickenWings is saying, we can't all rush off and buy Win 7 or 8 especially for the likes of myself who would need a new PC, also put a new user on a new pc with McAfee installed and they will soon be infected with something ... I know as I was that person 14 years ago. I accept that when the XP updates finish in April that my machine will be less secure and will be on the lookout to upgrade. |
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#150 |
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: the wild world web
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You might have felt it but a new Merc would be safer than a 15 year old one.
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