Ask Slashdot: Preparing For Windows XP EOL?

Posted by timothy on Thursday March 27, 2014 @08:42AM from the stock-up-like-y2k dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As most of us working in IT may know, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP on April 8th, 2014. Although this fact has been known for quite some time, XP is still relatively popular in companies and also enjoys noticeable marketshare for home users. Even ATMs are running XP and will continue to do so for some time. A lot of companies/users don't want to change because they see no additional benefit to do a costly upgrade, no reason to change a running system, and they may in some cases be right with their assumptions. So what is the best way to secure this remaining Windows XP systems? Installing the latest security patches, checking firewall status and user permissions etc. should be fairly obvious, as Microsoft Security Essentials may also not receive updates anymore, changing antivirus programs seems a sensible thing to do."

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Re:Is it really that costly? by rudy_wayne · 2014-03-27 09:27 · Score: 0, Troll

but did you really expect your software to work for more than 10-15 years without needing an upgrade? .
Why not? Automobiles can last for 20 years or more with little more than minor repairs and routine maintenance. Musicians routinely use instruments made in the 1950s or earlier. But for some reason, people have bought into the absurd idea that software is obsolete and unusable after a few years.