Escaping from Windows XP before the deadline

[NateS]

By the way, if you are trying to escape from Windows XP before the deadline for loss of Microsoft support of ongoing patches against potential exploits, and don't want the hassle of having to reinstall all your third party programs after hunting down all your installation IDs, I will pass along this tip:

While there are a lot of free programs out there, including two from Microsoft, which will move your data and settings, I could find not one free program which will move all your programs.

BUT, LapLink is discounting their $60 PCMoverPro version, which does move all your programs too, down to about $24 in an instant download for XP owners only. I bought it and installed it and it worked like a charm! (The one thing I thought it missed I was wrong about as explained in another thread.)

Go to this page:

http://www.laplink.com/pcmoverexpressxpeol

and scroll down until you see:

PCmover Professional for XP Users Only

I have no connection with this company or this product except as a happy user a couple days ago.

Best wishes, Nate

[knothead]

Do you know the deadline for changing from XP...?

[kona0197]

It's much easier to just use the build in migration tool the Microsoft uses, and it's free.

[NameGoesHere]

Do you know the deadline for changing from XP...?

April 8th of this year (about a week). That doesn't mean that XP will suddenly stop working on the 9th, Microsoft will simply no longer support it (outside of very expensive premier support contracts that generally start around $200k/year and go way up from there). So no more fixes of exploits to keep you safe from malware.

Anyone still on XP is 3+ versions (depending on how you could the major subversion releases like big service packs and 8.1, but at least three full named versions) out of date now and running on a 13 year old operating system. Yep, your OS is a teenager. It REALLY should be upgraded. Of course, that hardware could be 13 years old too (XP was the current OS for quite a while though so it could definitely be newer and still have come with XP), check the requirements for whichever OS you are moving to (hopefully getting fully current to Win8 since your upgrade tendencies may keep you on this one for quite a while too) and you may be better off buying a new(er) machine altogether.

Just my thoughts.

[Denial Dave]

Lions & Tigers & Bears- OH MY

please... Windows XP will be just fine for use for checking e-mail, checking sleepyhead data and all kinds of programs.

Migrate from Internet Explorer to Chrome and your internet connections will be safer... Then continue to use a virus scanning program with a firewall and everything will be fine.

The world will not come to and end on April 8th.. A stream of thiefs won't be knocking on your internet door trying to get in.

yes, you should consider getting a new computer if yours is very old and incapable of running some of the newer software that is available.

[Wulfman...]

I hadn't heard anything about Laplink for many years.......until just recently.
I used to use a similar program called "Fastwire". I still have two of the parallel/serial transfer cables from back in the DOS and early Windows 95 days. I used them very often (with the Fastwire software, which I also still have).

Anyway, I'm planning on sticking with XP for as long as I can. All of my application software works very well with it and I'm not very anxious to spend more $$$ on software. One nice thing is that I won't have to spend much time each month doing MS updates to my computers.
I purchased new computers in 2010 that are (at least) compatible with Win 7. Last August I purchased a couple of spare drives for them and in February I finally bought two sets of the Win 7 32 bit OS. I'm going to take my time installing it and hope it will be more compatible with XP than the 64 bit OS.

According to the "trade journal" Tech Republic, there was a fairly recent survey taken and 37% of the respondents are planning to stick with XP. I guess I'm not alone.


Den

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[Islandwoman]

I still have one old computer on XP and won't give it up until I can't uses it at all. I finally switched to Windows 7 because of some software issues. If anyone is leaving XP for another OS skip right past Vista. My husband has it and has nothing but trouble. I have Windows 7 and it works great. Daughter's family have Windows 8. They have a touch screen and the grandkids use it but I recently removed a Trojan from their system and found it next to impossible to get into the necessary "tools" menus and anything else I needed. For me it was not intuitive. I will avoid it like the plague until an update allows classic view without touch screen. Perhaps that has already happened. I first worked with system 4.0 on PET computers(ran computer room in local public elementary school when they were donated to school) No windows, no internet, no color. This was just before the first Apple desktop computers came out and those were donated to our school). This was in the very early 80's. Then early Microsoft etc., until I retired about 6 years ago. Early Microsoft research(very small) a few blocks from our house and the neighborhood kids used to scale the dumpster fence for boxed software and sold what the could not use like lemonade on the street.

[RogerSC]

I've found that internet data backup, I use Carbonite, is just fine for this. Once all your data is backed up in Carbonite, just restore it to your new machine or new OS. Easy, and you have the backup in case something happens, which makes really good. Carbonite has a "continuous" backup mode that is always backing up stuff that you change, so your backup is always up to date when something happens. I'm using this, and don't notice any impact on my everyday computer use. Other than knowing that if my computer fails, I haven't lost anything important to me.

The other thing is that when you change OS's, you're going to want to redo your settings, not apply settings that were appropriate for a different OS. So, chance are, just transferring your data is what you want to do anyways when migrating to a new OS. I've gone both ways, used migration tools and used the backup program that I was already using, and find that using the backup program does the job for me.

One more thing, there was some "ransom" malware going around a while ago, that would encrypt all the data on your computer. Then you were supposed to send them money to get them to decrypt it. The easiest way to deal with that one is also to have an up-to-date backup, however you manage it. So you can restore it if your data gets destroyed without having to pay someone else to get it back *smile*.

Up-to-date backups are very useful!

[Wulfman...]

Since 2011, I've acquired four 500 GB Seagate GoFlex external USB drives to backup my data on. They run about $50 each. I also have 500 GB drives in my computers.
I would NEVER use (or recommend to anyone else) a service like Carbonite. There's already too many security risks with data out on the Internet. Sending one's personal files "out there" is just incomprehensible to me.


Den

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[djhall]

Lions & Tigers & Bears- OH MY

please... Windows XP will be just fine for use for checking e-mail, checking sleepyhead data and all kinds of programs.

Migrate from Internet Explorer to Chrome and your internet connections will be safer... Then continue to use a virus scanning program with a firewall and everything will be fine.

The world will not come to and end on April 8th.. A stream of thiefs won't be knocking on your internet door trying to get in.

yes, you should consider getting a new computer if yours is very old and incapable of running some of the newer software that is available.

Agreed! I'm a full time computer support tech for small businesses and my client base includes at least 50 workstations still running XP, and many of those have no plans to upgrade unless Microsoft announces that manufacturers will no longer be allowed to do Windows 7 downgrades (then they will upgrade to 7 just to prevent getting stuck with 8 if their computer finally dies). Anyone still using a computer that came with XP isn't really pursuing cutting edge computing!

What WILL happen is that more and more software companies will stop testing and supporting their software on XP. For many that won't be a big deal as XP users are obviously not keen on upgrading unless they have to, but anyone with a line-of-business application they need to keep current will likely find themselves unable to do so without upgrading their OS at some point in the next few years. People with security compliance requirements (HIPPA, mortgage companies, credit card processing, etc) will also find it difficult to justify the decision to place sensitive data on an unsupported OS. But for the most part, those of us who need to upgrade have, and those who haven't generally don't need to, so life will go on. However, Microsoft HATES that 30% of the world's Windows computers are still running XP instead of upgrading to 7 or 8, so there is a major scare campaign underway designed to convince people they need to upgrade.

[Goofproof]

No computer operation system was secure when you bought it, they are leaking ships that require 24/7 patching, because their are people out in the real world, 24/7, drilling holes in them to get in, that isn't going to ever change, now they will spend time drilling Windozes 8.2 and shooting holes in the Cloud.

Only a fool would upgrade a operating system without a reformat. I keep at least two drives in the computer, C&E. C holds the operating system anc programs I use, E holds storage of data, I also use a 16 gb flash drive to hold sensitive data I use, and mirrored on the E Drive.

I have 9 TB, yes TB, of storage on USB External Drives.

I use Avast Free, for my protection, they update daily automatically. The only downside, you have to renew it yearly no downside, just a bother...

I use Firefox as the browser, got scared of Chrome, heard they share info with others...

I'm not scared of any OS, except ME and Vista, they started out Junk and stayed that way. I vaule the upkeep of my computers, while I can repair them myself (I built most of them), It still takes 20 to 30 hours to get one up and running the way I want. I use 53 programs on it that have to be reinstalled.

I use virtual OS to do other things I can't in Win 7. JIM

[kona0197]

No computer operation system was secure when you bought it

Except Linux and Unix.

I use Avast Free, for my protection

VERY bloated program. Systems with little memory will not run Avast very well. Avast still beats using Norton and McAfee. I would never recommend those two to anyone.

I'm not scared of any OS, except ME and Vista, they started out Junk and stayed that way

Windows 8 and 8.1 are junk as well.

[Goofproof]

No computer operation system was secure when you bought it

Except Linux and Unix.

I use Avast Free, for my protection

VERY bloated program. Systems with little memory will not run Avast very well. Avast still beats using Norton and McAfee. I would never recommend those two to anyone.

I'm not scared of any OS, except ME and Vista, they started out Junk and stayed that way

Windows 8 and 8.1 are junk as well.

Never used Linux or Unix, except to repair spme Windows systems lockout problems. They won't do what I need (real software).

Don't agree about Avast hogging the memory, I run 32 bit, 2 gigs memory and have 3 or 4 programs working most times, driving 2 24 inch monitors, most people don't come close to loading a system that hard, never crashes, OS uptime since install 14 months this time. I download and process 1 to 3 gb a day, but now my android does a lot of the downloading, the processing is on the Windows machine. I also use Avast on my android, if bloat was a problem, it would choke.

Norton is the worse, it even wants to rename your computer Others I have used have let me down in the past, three years on Avast, 4 computers never a crash, doesn't interfere much with the programs. Jim

[idamtnboy]

please... Windows XP will be just fine for use for checking e-mail, checking sleepyhead data and all kinds of programs.

Checking email means internet connection, and internet connection means being vulnerable to attacks.

Migrate from Internet Explorer to Chrome and your internet connections will be safer...

Safer, but not safe.

Then continue to use a virus scanning program with a firewall and everything will be fine.

The problem with that plan is that internet security providers will soon stop offering malware signature updates, let alone significant program updates. I made a change from Win 2000 to XP years ago shortly before Win 2000 support ended because my preferred internet security software would no longer run on 2000.

A stream of thiefs won't be knocking on your internet door trying to get in.

Yes they will be, because they are there now, and have been for years. Several years I set up a new computer at church with a modem for internet connection. In the few minutes between connecting to the internet and getting an antivirus program installed, the computer was attacked and malware loaded.

No, the XP world will not collapse imminently, but its security foundation will be crumbling quickly.

[idamtnboy]

No computer operation system was secure when you bought it

Except Linux and Unix.

And IBM OS/2. At least it was more secure than Windows. MS quit supporting OS/2 because IBM engineers did not agree with MS's desire to let software access directly the underlying OS calls to hardware. The end result is the continuing security issues with MS s/w.