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Windows XP holdouts are even more danger than ever after Microsoft abandoned anti-malware support for the ancient platform.
Redmond overnight stopped providing XP support for new and existing installs of its Security Essentials package.
The run-as-needed Malicious Software Removal Tool has also been axed, while support for patching ended in April last year for those who aren't paying large wads of cash to stave off an upgrade.
"Please note that since the above real-time protection products have limited effectiveness on PCs that do not have the latest security updates, your PC will still be at risk for infection," Redmond says.
"We strongly recommend that you complete your migration to a supported operating system as soon as possible so that you can receive regular security updates to help protect your computer from malicious attacks."
Netmarketshare.com data shows XP is alive and kicking
Windows XP's market share still beats its loathed successor Windows Vista, MacOS and Linux on the desktop.
The operating has a 12 percent market share or 180 million users, according to netmarketshare.com , putting it in third spot just behind version 8.1 representing 13 percent of installs, and version 7 with a whopping 61 percent of installs.
Are you still running Windows XP? What about your company?
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by throckmorten on Thursday July 16 2015, @01:46PM
Not according to my personal experience. Windows Update has been giving me Security Essentials updates for months.
Are you confusing support for the OS with support for MSE on XP?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:41PM
Not according to my personal experience. Windows Updates on XP stopped giving me Security Essentials updates in April of last year. At the same time, whenever I boot-up, a message box pops up from MSE telling me 'this OS is not supported'. However, every month, Windows Updates on XP gives me the monthly version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool. That is the only update it has given me since April of last year.
I'm really not too worried about anti-virus on this particular PC. it is an old laptop connected to my TV and used as a low-tech htpc. I rarely do anything on it other than the following: use the original Meedio 1.4 and the latest VLC to play video stored on my local LAN. actually i've had a FireTv box with Kodi installed for a couple of months. this laptop hasn't been used since.
However, if i wanted to use this old laptop for casual web-browsing, email checking, word processing...i feel more secure using XP (with all 13 years of Windows Updates that came out for it), the latest Pale Moon browser with Adblock installed, and the latest LibreOffice. I feel more secure about that setup than any Linux or any other version of Windows. After 13 years of being a prime malware target, XP is battle-hardened if you use good, up-to-date third-party software on it and you aren't a click-o-maniac.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday July 16 2015, @05:04PM
> I'm really not too worried about anti-virus on this particular PC. it is an old laptop connected to my TV and used as a low-tech htpc.
> I rarely do anything on it other than the following: use the original Meedio 1.4 and the latest VLC to play video stored on my local LAN.
So it's an unsecure box connected to your files on your LAN...
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday July 17 2015, @01:54AM
now they have started automatically putting video from your computers camera onto Bing Video automatically, "exposing" you.