Windows XP: Final Breath

By Ken Parks, March 30, 2014

After 12 years of their most successful operating system (O/S), Microsoft is giving up on Windows XP as of April 8, 2014.

To this day, nearly 33% of companies, individuals, and education systems still use Windows XP. Why not? It's reliable and stable, for the most part. Even AT&T was using Windows XP into the beginning of 2013 with their eventual conversion to Windows 7.

I have it on the old PC along with the ability to boot Linux (Ubuntu). It is reliable and yet only good for 32 bit applications. The apps that use 64 bits need to run on Windows 7 or 8.1 in order to successfully implement the fullness of these O/S's.

So, April 8^th is the day of reckoning; Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP. If you have a virus or a malware attack, going to Microsoft will be futile. Being a multi-decade computer geek, I usually find ways to resolve virus and malware issues. But for the commoner, it might be best to upgrade to the new O/S and new hardware.

Recently, a new computer was built in the confines of my home. “Patriot,” a super computer was to run Windows 7. In addition, this beast of a machine has 16 TBs of disk drives, a Hex-Core processor (Intel i7 4930) running at 3.4 Gh), a Solid State Drive (SSD) of 240 GBs ,and an H100i sealed water-cooling system. Some call it “overkill.” I call it fantastic.

But when it comes to the old PC, it will remain as is, a Windows XP machine. It won't recognize the memory upgrade, and it won't accept 4GB drives. Sure it's slower and won't support the latest technologies such as USB 3.0 and the fast drives, but it's reliable and stable. And that to me counts the most.