"presumably the continued use of XP is because of .. some rubbish software that hasnt been updated for years which requires XP "

Have you considered the possibility that some organisations have actually looked at the return on investment they would get by moving beyond XP, and decided that it isn't worthwhile for their foreseeable needs in their foreseeable future?

Y'know, the same kind of business logic that sensible organisations use when making non-IT related decisions - does this investment demonstrably help us do business cost-effectively? Or is it just an ego boost for the IT Director, his budget, and his certified Microsoft dependent team?

When's end of life for Windows XP Embedded anyway? There's no successor for that yet, as far as I know, so it seems likely that there will be continued updates for XP in one form or another for quite a while yet.

I still use XP on two or three boxes and it will remain that way on at least one of them as some of the software that I run simply will not run inside Win7. That software will never be updated so unless a viable alternative becomes available, which I doubt, XP will remain in service.

Add the cost for a Win7 upgrade license and you get the over £100
Now add on the hassle of a complete system reinstall

Edited by Oldjim (Tue 10-Apr-12 10:12:15)

I don't see an imperative to change on existing hardware. Another poster puts the position quite clearly - as long as you have reputable apps, good firewall and antivirus there's no real need. Ad that to the fact that not all the older systems work with W7, and W7 is such a change in a lot of ways (not beneficial), and I'll be keeping XP.

Isnt that the difference between kit already installed with XP on it and new installations which come with Win 7 preloaded (normally) and then need to reimage with XP?

Corporate users tend to want a consistent environment which is part of the reason why the take up of Vista / 7 was slow. Now they see the support ending and are putting upgrade plans in place so that all their kit is consistent on Win 7 rather than XP.

Having to reimage a brand new PC with Windows 7 on it with XP is madness and puts extra money in Microsoft's pocket as they get paid for the Windows 7 image as shipped plus the corporate licenced XP image.

With a decent spec PC with Office 2010 etc Windows 7 is just so much better - it works (and it took me a long time to accept that - Vista didnt!).

So the memory upgrade was a red herring! I agree; if you are happy with XP, and you can live with the implications of no security updates, then stick with it.

Personally I prefer to run a modern, secure operating system on a modern computer. I can stand the cost of an upgrade every four or five years (which cost me all of £35 for Windows 7). But it's not for everyone. I still see cases of people running Windows 95.

I haven't seen 95 in a while but I do know of two DOS users. They are both tied to it by obscure software that won't run under emulation.

I will rely on a top flight internet security package and updates of Java, Flash, etc. to keep it safe
Do you really think any Windows OS is a secure operating system - think again

Edited by Oldjim (Tue 10-Apr-12 11:45:47)

I'll bet there are still some Windows 3.x systems out there doing the stuff for small clubs and societies. I know I got rid of a 3.1 system from our local church's office less than 2 years ago. I still have all the files from it - just in case .

Do you really think any Windows OS is a secure operating system - think again

They are as secure as any desktop OS - and have been demonstrated to be more secure than OS X, for example. Widows 2000 Server (or it might even have been NT) was one of the first OSs to receive a security certification from the US Government.

But do I think that XP is as secure as Windows 7? No.

Do I think that XP without further security updates will be protected by a firewall and anti-virus package? To some extent, Yes, but not completely. There is no substitute for security updates to the OS itself.

I would hope that, by now, most of the security holes in XP have been found, but the bad guys are very clever.