Microsoft extends anti-malware support for XP

[TMTex]

Microsoft had said that it would stop all support for XP in April 2014, including anti-malware support. Now, they've announced that they'll extend anti-malware support through July of 2015. Now, it's not quite as critical for everyone to upgrade.

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/softwa ... rt-1215734

Of course, with China trying to get MS to continue to support XP well into the future, MS might even go further. We can hope.

 

[Miss M]

Hmmmmm... that's very interesting!

With it applying only to anti-malware definitions, and not to holes being plugged in the OS, do you think that my current security would be enough to carry XP for a while?

I am behind a router. I use Avast antivirus and Comodo firewall.

Occasional sweeps with MalwareBytes or SAS.

This combination has never failed me. I came to this after having infection problems with Norton/Symantec. That, and how invasive and huge it was. :evil: <br /><br /> __________ Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:11 pm __________ <br /><br /> I had figured that I'd need to build my mom a new system this spring, as she has an ancient XP machine... and I need to upgrade the XP school computer. Win7 had just come out when I built this computer, and I am NOT Microsoft's new-OS guinea pig. I let everybody else test it first. :lol:

By the time I built the other computer, Win7 had been out for almost a year, so I put it on there. I like it, actually even more than XP, which I didn't think possible. Is my affinity well-placed?

I am not interested in the least in Win8.

 

[TMTex]

You're way ahead of the curve compared to the average user, Miss M, so I'd bet you're fairly safe. The OS can't protect us from the bad guys, even in the best of times. It's our own vigilance that keeps malware at bay.

My favorite tools are "Hijack This" and "Malwarebytes Antimalware". I've seen quite a lot of stuff that Malwarebytes can't handle, but in the vast majority of cases, I can manually kill malware with Hijack This. Rootkits would take up another thread by themselves though.

Having a router will do a lot to protect you as long as you set the password. I like to change the name of mine and hide the SSID on the wireless as well.

My favorite OS is Windows 7, but I also like 8 for its performance. I think W7 will be with us for quite a while, so it's a good alternative to 8.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Hmmmmm... that's very interesting!

With it applying only to anti-malware definitions, and not to holes being plugged in the OS, do you think that my current security would be enough to carry XP for a while?

I am behind a router. I use Avast antivirus and Comodo firewall.

Occasional sweeps with MalwareBytes or SAS.

This combination has never failed me. I came to this after having infection problems with Norton/Symantec. That, and how invasive and huge it was. :evil:

__________ Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:11 pm __________

I had figured that I'd need to build my mom a new system this spring, as she has an ancient XP machine... and I need to upgrade the XP school computer. Win7 had just come out when I built this computer, and I am NOT Microsoft's new-OS guinea pig. I let everybody else test it first. :lol:

By the time I built the other computer, Win7 had been out for almost a year, so I put it on there. I like it, actually even more than XP, which I didn't think possible. Is my affinity well-placed?

I am not interested in the least in Win8.

We are similar to Miss M, I use Trend Micro, but use Malwarebytes and SAS regularly to look for things that may be missed. Need to check into Hijack this....thanks for the tip. We also have a router and firewall.

 

[Gone]

Third party antivirus and firewall applications will be enough initially, once the XP security updates stop. Sooner or later, someone will come up with a way of compromising XP regardless of the third party applications you run, so anyone still using it should be thinking ahead to upgrading to Windows 7.

Windows 8, in my not so humble opinion, sucks. 8.1 isn't much better, and in a couple of ways is worse. NOBODY should capitulate to M$'s attempt to make people log into a Microsoft account to use their operating system. The only justifiable reason for Windows to phone home on a regular basis is for updates. Some would add "authenticity checks", but personally I don't agree with that behaviour either. Having to log into a Microsoft account so that Microsoft can verify and track who is using a computer at a given time gives them far too much information about you. You're no longer an IP, you're a name, address, IP, being monitored whenever Microsoft wants (which if the recent NSA revelations can be any indicator probably means "all the time").

So, stick with Windows 7 until we see what Windows 9 (or whatever stupid name they give it) is like. Even Microsoft devs are calling the failures of Windows 8 "the new Vista". :lol: The speculation at this point is that Windows 9 will give the user better ability to isolate the desktop from the "Metro" crap, and to run "Metro" apps within the Windows environment. This would solve a lot of problems for people with real computers rather than mobile touchscreen devices.

This might be overly optimistic. It seems the higher up the ranks of Microsoft you go, the more of these you encounter: ancake:

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Reading these techno-threads keeps me humble cuz I have no clue as to what y'all are talking about.

I think I need an aspirin now. :doc:

 

[DogCatMom]

Reading these techno-threads keeps me humble cuz I have no clue as to what y'all are talking about.

I think I need an aspirin now. :doc:

Hmm...not having met MSD in person, sometimes these "aw shucks" messages remind me of the Southern saying: "Any time someone starts off by saying 'I'm just a country boy, but...,' hang on to your wallet!" :wink:

Being able to moderate / remove duplicate posts / be diplomatic on the Internet / still post here after the recent disruptions is a fairly sophisticated set of skills. I need (emotionally) many aspirins every day, but that's just b/c I hate Windoze of any kind and my employer requires that we use it for company-related work. Bleah.

However, even DH's and my home Macintosh has anti-malware utilities loaded on. Nothing is safe anymore, and nothing *has been safe* for quite a while! (Linux users: how is life in Linux-space?)

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Hmm...not having met MSD in person

We can remedy that some day if there is a show in your neck of the woods! Maybe we can find you an Angora after all. Just don't forget your wallet.

Being able to moderate / remove duplicate posts / be diplomatic on the Internet / still post here after the recent disruptions is a fairly sophisticated set of skills.

Well yes... but that doesn't have much to do with technology and only take a couple of simple steps, and diplomacy and being a mod aren't techy things at all.

There are a lot of things I'm good at (and I KNOWS it! :twisted: ) which could result in cranial swelling which means I would have to buy a new cowboy hat... so reading all of this techno-stuff (and color genetics!) keeps me in my old comfy hat. :cowboy:

The color genetics I will be able to get if I put my mind to it because it actually interests me and will better my breeding program when I venture into more colors. But I have no interest presently to learn about computers, so it wont happen. I'm kind of stubborn that way.

Fortunately, Firstpup is our resident IT guy and he helps me. He taught me how to resize pictures in Paint and recently helped me take screenshots. However, the poor kid has to show me a few times before I finally can remember all of the steps.

 

[Miss M]

My favorite tools are "Hijack This" and "Malwarebytes Antimalware". I've seen quite a lot of stuff that Malwarebytes can't handle, but in the vast majority of cases, I can manually kill malware with Hijack This. Rootkits would take up another thread by themselves though.

I have used Hijack This a number of times, but never without specific supervision. I enjoy cleaning up infected machines and setting them running well again, and I've turned a number of times to the volunteers at MajorGeeks, and I have run Hijack This under their direction. Usually, it's only to verify that I've got the machine clean, because I know they know way more than I do.

(Since we moved away from Florida, I haven't had many machines to fix. Took me a little while to get a word-of-mouth reputation over there... guess I just have to be patient.)

Rootkits are scary. :nightmare:

Having a router will do a lot to protect you as long as you set the password. I like to change the name of mine and hide the SSID on the wireless as well.

Okay, I have not set the password on my router. I guess I need to dig out my manual. I don't know networking much at all, and that's the kind of thing I'm afraid to do, because I'm afraid everything that I've managed to bumble through to get it to work... will quit working.

That's why I have yet to figure out how to set up my network so that I can print from any computer. I'm afraid I will expose everything on my computers to the internet.

I'm all wired here. I don't do wireless when I can do wired. I don't know what SSID is (Server Side ID? :shrug: )... I'll have to look that up.

My favorite OS is Windows 7, but I also like 8 for its performance. I think W7 will be with us for quite a while, so it's a good alternative to 8.

I didn't figure they could get rid of Win7 very quickly, even with Win8 out... it's not that old, and not everybody likes Win8.

Is Win8's performance better than Win7? Because I'm impressed with Win7. Not that I know a lot about those things. But I do go to BlackViper's site, BleepingComputer, and ...um... (can't remember the name of the other one) to keep it running lean and mean. I don't like having a bunch of stuff loaded that I hardly use.

Third party antivirus and firewall applications will be enough initially, once the XP security updates stop. Sooner or later, someone will come up with a way of compromising XP regardless of the third party applications you run, so anyone still using it should be thinking ahead to upgrading to Windows 7.

I had wondered if this was pretty much it from the article. It's basically saying that they will continue to support their antivirus/antimalware for XP, not that they're supporting XP, right? So whether you use their antimalware, or Avast, AVG, or whatever, the OS will continue to become more and more vulnerable. I will proceed with the upgrades as planned in light of this. But maybe I don't have to be in a tremendous hurry... just get it done soon.

Windows 8, in my not so humble opinion, sucks. 8.1 isn't much better, and in a couple of ways is worse. NOBODY should capitulate to M$'s attempt to make people log into a Microsoft account to use their operating system.

Holy cow... it does this? :fainting: NO. I'm not going there. If further versions of Windows continue this, I'll finally give in to my friend who has been bugging me to try Linux for years. :?

Even Microsoft devs are calling the failures of Windows 8 "the new Vista". The speculation at this point is that Windows 9 will give the user better ability to isolate the desktop from the "Metro" crap, and to run "Metro" apps within the Windows environment. This would solve a lot of problems for people with real computers rather than mobile touchscreen devices.This might be overly optimistic. It seems the higher up the ranks of Microsoft you go, the more of these you encounter: ancake:

"the new Vista" *snort* :lol: I had a feeling... they came out with it so fast, it seemed. And it wasn't ready for anything, and nothing was ready for it. And it was so different, nobody could figure it out. I guess it wasn't as buggy as Vista, but as far as usability goes... I counseled a friend's daughter who wanted my thoughts on a new laptop to specify that she wanted Windows 7, NOT Windows 8. I explained why -- that she was familiar with Windows, and she was going to have a hard time figuring 8 out. She ended up with a Windows 8 machine anyway, and then admitted she should have followed my advice. :roll:

I don't like touchscreens. Or maybe they don't like me. :|

Of course, I was the one who was initially suspicious of the idea of a hard drive (how does it remember stuff when it's turned off?), then wondered what the usefulness of a mouse could be, and thought the idea of an OS GUI was weird. Why would anybody need that? What's wrong with DOS? (Not that I remember how to do much in DOS anymore, but I'm familiar enough with it to easily follow instructions. To think... I used to write programs! :weep: ) Then I resisted moving on from Windows 3.11... :lol: A lightning strike finally got me off of it. :?

Reading these techno-threads keeps me humble cuz I have no clue as to what y'all are talking about.

I think I need an aspirin now. :doc:

:lol: Yet you have taught me a couple of things about the forum in the past, even though I've been here longer!

 

[ckcs]

Talking about XP just reminds me of how slow my aging desktop is. We sell on ebay for a living and it drives me nuts when I am listing because I have to wait constantly for the computer. My laptop uses vista and it is pretty quick but I don't use it for work. My wife has the best computer in the house, hers just runs circles around my desktop. I will be upgrading mine this year though.