Microsoft: Windows XP Users Are Missing Out

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MajinCry

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Don't forget cost.Most, if not all, of the NHS' computers run XP. To be able to run Windows 7 at the same level of performance would require new hardware and new operating system purchases. To do the upgrade would be FAR too costly. What with the country being *in debt* to the banks.Just an example, y'know.
 

csbeer

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I've upgraded 3 of my family members computers to win8 and it has been nothing but headaches. From simple things like using email, opening up pdfs (onenote goes fullscreen and they can't exit out) to printing a simple doc, win8 is so counter-intuitive for non-tech savy people and just mucked things up for those who are familiar with the decades old windows interface (that wasn't broken and working just fine). Personally, I have no problem with win8 but don't like having to waste my time on unnecessary headaches. For those that just want to run 1 program at a time (browse web and check emai)l, a p4 with 512 ram does everything just fine. I'm curious if M$ has run all the costs of forcing people off a beloved OS, I mean so many software companies would kill for that market penetration, but making an OS ain't easy.
 

AndrewMD

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then ms should offer for a limited time to give windows 7 upgrades out for free for windows XP users.
Why? Microsoft is a business. It is not their problem that companies are not willing to update their legacy software to work with modern OSes. If companies are not updating their internal software, what types of other issues are they offloading to their own customers.Poor planning by businesses not able to keep up with their hardware and software needs can also reflect poorly how they manage their business as a whole.Again, not Microsoft's issue to support a OS that is over 14 years old now....
 

csbeer

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I've upgraded 3 of my family members computers to win8 and it has been nothing but headaches. From simple things like using email, opening up pdfs (onenote goes fullscreen and they can't exit out) to printing a simple doc, win8 is so counter-intuitive for non-tech savy people and just mucked things up for those who are familiar with the decades old windows interface (that wasn't broken and working just fine). Personally, I have no problem with win8 but don't like having to waste my time on unnecessary headaches. For those that just want to run 1 program at a time (browse web and check emai)l, a p4 with 512 ram does everything just fine. I'm curious if M$ has run all the costs of forcing people off a beloved OS, I mean so many software companies would kill for that market penetration, but making an OS ain't easy.
 
Don't forget cost.Most, if not all, of the NHS' computers run XP. To be able to run Windows 7 at the same level of performance would require new hardware and new operating system purchases. To do the upgrade would be FAR too costly. What with the country being *in debt* to the banks.Just an example, y'know.

Apart from governments, most companies even in this "recession" have been posting record profits. They have the money to upgrade but instead of investing they would rather save the money to keep those profits up.

It is this kind of thinking that made what happened to Target common these days. Instead of moving to something more secure or fixing a security hole, it is ignored.

I've upgraded 3 of my family members computers to win8 and it has been nothing but headaches. From simple things like using email, opening up pdfs (onenote goes fullscreen and they can't exit out) to printing a simple doc, win8 is so counter-intuitive for non-tech savy people and just mucked things up for those who are familiar with the decades old windows interface (that wasn't broken and working just fine). Personally, I have no problem with win8 but don't like having to waste my time on unnecessary headaches. For those that just want to run 1 program at a time (browse web and check emai)l, a p4 with 512 ram does everything just fine. I'm curious if M$ has run all the costs of forcing people off a beloved OS, I mean so many software companies would kill for that market penetration, but making an OS ain't easy.

I wont get into the Windows 8 thing as I think the problem with it mostly is people stop learning at a certain age and it becomes harder for them to. One thing you could do to avoid headaches is install a third party PDF reader like Adobe and then set defaults to desktop apps. If you have them on 8.1, set it to boot to desktop and pin their most common apps to the start bar. As well you can make it so the Start Screen comes up with a list of all the apps and even tell it to list desktop apps first making it easier on you and them.

That said, most software companies stop support for a product well before Microsoft has for XP. Microsoft is not "forcing" them off but rather telling them they need to move on. Even if they didn't stop support, XP is not nearly as secure as 7 is even with patch support. 7 has more advanced security features built in and a stronger kernel. Same with 8/8.1, it is even more secure than 7.

Sometimes it is better to just move on. Did I wan to let go of my 99 Ford Contour SE when a faulty starter (from Autozone, never buy their crap) fused and burnt out itself and the belt? No, but it wasn't worth the cost to fix and instead I got $1K towards a new car.

Sometimes you have to move on.
 

Camikazi

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Yeah. Sorry. Just checked on Dell's web site. I don't see Windows 7/8/8.1 drivers for my laptop (I suppose I could upgrade to Vista).
Your problem is you went to Dell for drivers, the manufacturers will only give you drivers up to the point they want. Beyond that OS point they will no longer give driver updates even though they exist. They do this to lower the work they have to do (they usually mod the drivers) and to try and get you to buy a new computer. I am using a Dell Precision M65 from 2006 with Windows 8.1 and it has all drivers and works perfectly, the way to do it is to find the drivers from the part makers and not from the computer maker. Although with Windows 8.1 I really didn't have to find anything since all drivers were found automatically (Windows 8 is good at that).
 

beoza

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I do agree people and businesses need to move on. Windows XP had a great run, but it's time to put it out to pasture so to speak. Doing tech support what I have found, and this is just from my own interactions with clients is that people are resistant to change. People get "set in their ways" they don't like it when things change on them. What needs to be done on the consumer end is either bundle the Windows 8/8.1 for Dummies books with each new PC/Tablet or offer it at a discount, because Win8 has very little in the way of tutorials, even the OEM like Dell, HP, Acer, Asus...could make a short tutorial video and place it on their respective sites. They wouldn't have to cover all of their devices just offer the basics on how to use the OS, then provide links to more advanced features in their notes.
 

Camikazi

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I've upgraded 3 of my family members computers to win8 and it has been nothing but headaches. From simple things like using email, opening up pdfs (onenote goes fullscreen and they can't exit out) to printing a simple doc, win8 is so counter-intuitive for non-tech savy people and just mucked things up for those who are familiar with the decades old windows interface (that wasn't broken and working just fine). Personally, I have no problem with win8 but don't like having to waste my time on unnecessary headaches. For those that just want to run 1 program at a time (browse web and check emai)l, a p4 with 512 ram does everything just fine. I'm curious if M$ has run all the costs of forcing people off a beloved OS, I mean so many software companies would kill for that market penetration, but making an OS ain't easy.
Have you actually tried running online videos on a P4? It's not something that can be done well, hell even some first gen core CPUs can't handle it unless the GPU is very good for the time. A Pentium D machine I have here can't run most any YouTube videos smoothly unless I lower the res and make sure it is a small window, if I make the window big it becomes a slideshow. Even some non-video websites will go slow and take forever to render on P4s and you think they are perfectly fine for what they do?
 

Wolfshadw

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If you can't find at least windows 7 drivers, probably time to move on.
Yup! Feel free to purchase that new laptop for me. This is probably the only thing I don't like about computers. I've got an X1800XL All-In-Wonder TV Tuner Card that became useless when Vista came along. Now I've got a laptop which I use primarily for finances that is about to become much less secure.
 

JD88

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Why does Tom's keep running these Microsoft PR press releases? Microsoft doesn't care in the least if your PC gets infected by some scary "virus". What it does care about is whether those 26% (which account for several hundred million people) buy sparkling new copies of Windows 8 at $100+ a pop.
 

Papa Bruce

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It is interesting to here IT types talk about moving on or upgrading as matter of fact. I run a small one person business. My computers are all about ten years old, I have replaced some drives, pushed some ram, but believe it or not each of those thing were an Expense. (notice the big E) we are talking how many tanks of gas or Romin mania at home for this months dinners.Moat of those computers in XP are owned by big individuals and small, not companies. I have always been amazed at how IT professionals seem so casual about spending to JUST add some new ram or other hardware and update your OS. My busines is the help people as a health professional, not spend month as as working out bugs a beta tester. If I want to go in a quickly and get MT work done but then have to wrangle an OS, a two minute job turns into an hour and a half of (pardon) pudding me off.I understand upgrades and moving on, but computers are a tool for me, not the focus of my work. Until IT people get there heads out into the light that our focus is the work we do with computers and not the computers themselves, they will be cluless why business are reluctant to change.
 

dacquesta1

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Your reluctant to change because you refuse to spend money to upgrade. WTF is adding ram to a 10 year old computer going to do? Make it faster? NOPE. Sorry but when laptops can be had for 300 that will suite you just fine, don't be mad you spent 80 bucks on that ddr1 ram with a 10 year old cpu and chipset.
 


Would be nice but I doubt it would work. People don't read much these days nor does reading comprehension tend to exist.



How long have you been buying consumer electronics? The day you buy it, it is out of date as something better comes out. I bought a Galaxy S4 and less than two weeks later they had a better one with a higher clocked CPU and faster LTE capabilities.

As for your card, I do miss the AiWs but that is more AMD not supporting the GPU with drivers, not Microsoft. The oldest GPU that they actually support is the HD 5000 series officially. They do drop some drivers for older (HD2K-HD4K) but I doubt they will continue.

That is normal. Hardware gets older, the market share for it starts to lower therefore they have no real reason to keep adding time, money and resources to make drivers for hardware that almost no one has these days.



Why is it PR? Microsoft does actually care somewhat as they need to keep clients happy so they will buy their future products.

Overall MS makes a great product lineup for networks and businesses and they need to make sure customers are happy with the product that way they can guarantee a future purchase.



If you have a IT department that doesn't take your needs into account, you need better IT.

Secondly, you also have to look at it from an IT perspective. There are more viruses, vulnerabilities and security holes. That means for an IT department that has to deal with XP there are more possibilities of issues and time.

As well there is support issues. Even about one to two years ago hardware manufactures started to stop producing drivers for their hardware on XP. That means if a part goes out and the only replacement of this needed part only have 7 and later drivers, then you are pretty much screwed.

It is what it is and I get when companies cannot afford to but some of them make the excuse.
 

LORD_ORION

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They should have waited until Windows 9 to pull the plug, most people I know still using XP cannot stand Windows 8, and refuse to upgrade to it... What's that? Windows 7? Now that these XP users are in the position of losing support for their older OS, it is now on their radar that Win7 support will end before Win8.Total Marketing fail.
 

nss000

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Scr*w M$ , their IT pimp$ & trophy wives; make them bleed from their eyeball$ .... install & run Xubuntu Linux (free as beer) on your XP box and never look back!
 


Windows 7 support ends in 2020, 8 in 2023 with the 8.1 update. XP is ending in April.

Even if they move to 7, it will still be 6 more years before support ends. That's plenty of time to utilize the OS. If they actually moved to 7 when SP1 hit they would have gotten 9 years of use out of 7 with 10 out of XP.
 

JD88

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This is true, but Microsoft still hasn't added the Kernel and security improvements that are present in Windows 8 to Win 7. I really don't understand this considering it's an operating system that Microsoft supposedly still supports. The argument that older PCs couldn't handle the new firmware due to hardware limitations is void since Windows 8 is actually lighter on system resources. The only answer can be that Microsoft wants money and actually cares very little about it's customers, their security, and the performance of it's products.
 

ignignokt4u

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When furniture companies figure out how to force you to replace perfectly good furniture, they will do so -- as often as they think they can. And most of the people in this forum will, apparently, be angry at those of us who DON'T want to throw out our existing furniture every time we're told we need to do so.If we're unhappy that the new furniture we have no choice but to purchase also looks ugly and works in ways that are incomprehensible without special training, then we'll also, apparently, be chastised for being averse to change.Whatever happened to businesses providing the products that customers actually want? MS has gotten so huge that they now think they can instead just tell us what we're going to have. The only customer choice seems to be "have a computer or don't have a computer." It's working -- for now -- because they have such a huge market base. But it won't work forever. Witness how much market share MS has lost to Apple and Android devices in recent years. MS will either remember what makes a successful business, or they will cease to be one.
 

vlaframboise

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Why not a SP4 for XP. Knowing it would cost a lot to MS to do that, they could sell it, maybe 75$ for 5 years extended support per computer, I know many many bunisess that need to stay to xp for software issues that would me more than willing to pay for that. MS could make a huge chunk there, change is not always a good thing, my excel 2003 (office 2003 enterprise) does not need to change, it's already super practical as it is, why relearn everything, an other place where some money could be found for extended support. A very well know company .... Electric is installing servers in nuclear facility all around the world running windows 2003 server, ALL things are not meant to evolve, things CAN last 25-30 or more of life cycle, nuclear power plant are supported by them for 50 years meaning that, somehow, in 25 years from now, a Windows 2003 server could be replaced by ... an other Windows 2003 server! and the electricity would still be produced!
 
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