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from the we-need-to-get-them-to-buy-the-new-version dept.
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: 2) by Hairyfeet on Thursday July 16 2015, @07:28PM
So its really a case of "and nothing of value was lost". You look at every AV shoot out the past couple of years? MSE scores at the bottom, in fact many of them use MSE as the floor of their tests and tear apart any AV that scores less than MSE!
So lets not try to spin this into "Big bad M$ abandons poor old wittle XP users" because if you are running some old busted ass XP and are depending on MSE to save you from bugs? You might as well be using magic beans to protect your PC as it really ain't gonna stop shit. And if you are on XP? DROP IT ALREADY for fucks sake! Its 2015, that OS came out when the average PC was a 400MHz P2 with 128MB of RAM, it has patches on top of the patches its patches have gotten, and I hate to burst the Luna fans but it was NEVER a great OS as it had serious design flaws like expecting everybody to be admins which made it a security nightmare. This of course does not apply if you are running XP X64, as that is just Win 2K3 X64 workstation which is a different animal altogether.
But seriously folks its 2015, let XP die already. I've run Win 7 on a 1.8GHz Sempron with 1.5GB of RAM from 2003 so if it is powerful enough to be of any use in 2015? Its got enough power to run Windows 7. You say you are poor and can't afford a copy? As a citizen of the net please take my advice and just snatch a copy of Win 7 off the net, its really not hard to do. Hell I'll even tell ya what to look for, "Windows 7 all versions pre activated" or if you have really old hardware you might want to try "Windows 7 Tiny" which is a stripped down gamer edition which only uses around 140Mb of RAM, great for really ancient boxes. Better that you snatch a copy than add another XP box to a botnet somewhere because of how easy it is to infect that ancient OS and as a bonus? You can run any of the great free AVs like Avast, Anvir, AVG, or Comodo and you wont need the sucktastic MSE!
Oh and in the interests of full disclosure I run MSE at home on my main rig....but since its a gamer box that only plays games and YouTube vids? It really doesn't matter how sucky it is as a real time AV so I just use it to scan patch files, like I used to use ClamWin back in the day. I have malwarebytes as a backup and have my browsers in low rights mode with the DNS running through the Comodo Secure DNS servers but with it really only being for my games I'd rather have an AV that doesn't hurt my FPS than have anything comprehensive. One positive about MSE is while it doesn't do much (never seen it actually catch anything real time in tests at the shop, it'll happily let malware ridden topsite pages load without a care in the world, it really only works when it actively scans a file, just like ClamWin) it doesn't use enough resources to even notice its there and it doesn't slow down games trying to scan their DLLs. So if all you want is a passive file scanner? MSE can do that, but that is about all it does.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 1) by lgw on Thursday July 16 2015, @09:13PM
But seriously folks its 2015, let XP die already. I've run Win 7 on a 1.8GHz Sempron with 1.5GB of RAM from 2003
Rumor has it that Win10 has a smaller footprint than Win7. I'll believe it when I see it, but given the free upgrade form Win7, it might be time to modernize across the board.
like I used to use ClamWin back in the day
I misread that at first as "ClownWin". I could guess what sort of software ClownWin would be, but I want it!