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cloaked_wolf
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:46 pm Posts: 10022
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Not really newsworthy so figured I'd stick it here. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/38 ... final-year |  |  |  | Quote: Businesses flagging as Windows XP enters its final year
Businesses are leaving it too late to prepare for a migration from Windows XP before Microsoft pulls support in a year's time, according to research from a software management company.
XP has proven to be the most durable version of Windows ever, still running on 39% of desktops 11 years after its launch, according to Netmarketshare.
Mainstream support for the operating system ended in 2009, with extended support - including critical security updates - set to expire on 8 April 2014. Despite the looming deadline, research from migration specialists Camwood found that the majority of companies have failed to start the move. "Only 42% of companies have started to migrate, despite Microsoft’s warning of a recommended 18-30 month window for successful migration away from XP," the company warned after questioning 250 company directors.
The company also found that many businesses planned to continue running XP after the deadline, when security updates will be switched off. "Perhaps most worryingly, nearly one in five IT decision makers currently running XP plan to continue using Windows XP after the end of support, putting their business at risk of cyber attacks, security breaches, theft and exploitation following the withdrawal of free security patching," Camwood said.
Other specialists agree that time is short. "Organisations that are not yet off the starting blocks or only a little way down the track are highly unlikely to complete before the Microsoft deadline," said Sumir Karayi, CEO at IT consultant 1E.
"Whether the delay is because they misunderstood the sheer scale of the project, or that they are coming across myriad technical hurdles – from application reinstallation to gotchas around device drivers – which they never encountered before, it means they cannot confidently predict when they will finish the project or how much it will cost them."
Microsoft says that although Windows XP will continue to run after support comes to an end, there are security risks as the company will no longer provide security fixes, leaving PCs vulnerable to "harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software, which can steal your personal information".
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_________________ He fights for the users.
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:19 pm |
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cloaked_wolf
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:46 pm Posts: 10022
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We still have XP and a lot of hardware is from 2004 or as late as 2008. They all run XP Pro and, worryingly, a lot of the software we use utilitise IE6 so without new software (£££) we may well be stuck on XP for a long while yet. Factor in that each trust and GP surgery have different software, this adds up financially.
_________________ He fights for the users.
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:22 pm |
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steve74
Doesn't have much of a life
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:43 pm Posts: 1798 Location: Manchester
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Mostly up-to-date Macs here, although we have about half a dozen Windows PCs, all of them run Windows XP Pro. Will hopefully have a budget of sorts next year to replace them, but can't count on that. Also, depends on software upgrades too and whether Sage is compatible with Windows 8, more research required nearer to the time. At the moment, no money to upgrade anything, so pointless worrying about it yet.
_________________ * Steve *
* Witty statement goes here *
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:24 pm |
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oceanicitl
Official forum cat lady
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 8:04 am Posts: 11039 Location: London
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Most people are still on it. We're in the middle of Windows 7 / Citrix roll out. I've been using Win 7 for ages now but still have my XP machine as back up in case I have trouble remoting on.
_________________Still the official cheeky one 
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:32 pm |
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JJW009
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:58 pm Posts: 8767 Location: behind the sofa
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I'm the only "No" vote so far! There is one XP machine in the office but it's been turned off for months. It's basically decommissioned awaiting either "recycling" or a full rebuild and upgrade to 8 pro if it's needed again. However, we do daily use a W2K work station, and that's unlikely to change in the near future. There is also a W2K server but that is being decommissioned any second now. Hmmm. I just thought. I'm actually not sure about the PC in accounts. I know it's pretty old 
_________________jonbwfc's law: "In any forum thread someone will, no matter what the subject, mention Firefly." When you're feeling too silly for x404, youRwired.net
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:48 pm |
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ProfessorF
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:56 pm Posts: 12030
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We only updated to XP SP3 last year, although internally Firefox is (thankfully) the preferred browser.
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:23 pm |
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l3v1ck
What's a life?
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 10:21 am Posts: 12700 Location: The Right Side of the Pennines (metaphorically & geographically)
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I wish our work would upgrade. Our in house software desperately needs more RAM than XP 32bit allows. All the laptops we have are 6-7 years old. Last time I was offshore out took me four hours to do fifteen minutes work because I was waiting for the laptop to respond to my inputs.
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:30 pm |
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Linux_User
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 3:29 pm Posts: 7173
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Yes, but we're switching over to Windows 7 (and IE8) and Office 2010 later this year.
At least one of our business-critical applications is entirely dependent on IE6, so we've had to pull in specialist support to make it compatible with IE8.
Last edited by Linux_User on Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:43 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:08 pm |
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jonlumb
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:44 pm Posts: 4141 Location: Exeter
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Not really. There's one very antiquated laptop that gets dragged out very occasionally in order to access and even more antiquated Access database, but all other machines are on 7/8 now.
_________________ "The woman is a riddle inside a mystery wrapped in an enigma I've had sex with."
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:14 pm |
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pcernie
Legend
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:30 pm Posts: 45931 Location: Belfast
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We still use it for a few things (Vista mostly though), and I've got a battered netbook running it too.
_________________Plain English advice on everything money, purchase and service related:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/
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Mon Apr 08, 2013 9:52 pm |
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big_D
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:25 pm Posts: 10691 Location: Bramsche
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We use mostly Linux and Windows terminal servers, with thin clients. For those that need local power or who travel, they are all on Windows 7, Windows 8 or Max OS X with Parallels and Windows 7 or 8.
I tested our own software (an ERP software for SOHO customers) and it works fine in conjunction with Windows 8 and Office 2013.
At home, we are 100% Windows 8 on the Windows side and Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Lion on the Mac side - none of our hardware is Mountain Lion compatible and the Mac mini and iMac run like complete dogs with Snow Leopard and Lion and I'm considering downgrading them to Tiger or Leopard...
_________________ "Do you know what this is? Hmm? No, I can see you do not. You have that vacant look in your eyes, which says hold my head to your ear, you will hear the sea!" - Londo Molari
Executive Producer No Agenda Show 246
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Tue Apr 09, 2013 6:55 am |
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JohnSheridan
Doesn't have much of a life
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 9:10 pm Posts: 1057
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No - the company set a plan for 2011-12 to completely go through our desktops/laptops and replace them so now everything runs on Win7. Also replaced all the servers with Server 2008 so quite a big project. Are we going to Win8 - no way! Have to drag us there screaming 
_________________
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Tue Apr 09, 2013 7:45 am |
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davrosG5
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:37 am Posts: 6954 Location: Peebo
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A mixture of XP Pro SP3 and Win 7. Everyone got upgraded to al least IE8 in order to run the new intranet recently. As a regulated workplace new software rollouts in the labs, including the OS, have to be validated and this is very much a non-trivial task. Some of our older hardware is still using Win 95  due to age and validation issues.
_________________ When they put teeth in your mouth, they spoiled a perfectly good bum. -Billy Connolly (to a heckler)
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Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:31 am |
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bobbdobbs
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:10 pm Posts: 5490 Location: just behind you!
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At our labs they had to bin some old hardware because it would only run on win 95. It only cost them £250k 
_________________Finally joined Flickr
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Wed Apr 10, 2013 8:10 am |
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hifidelity2
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 1:03 pm Posts: 5041 Location: London
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XP here and no plans to change as far as I know
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Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:10 pm |
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