Windows XP

[FarmerPug]

What way do you get round this discontinuation of windows xp and running pp2000, my netbook still runs windows xp and i have it just for pp2000, as well as renault clip and a few other bits of car related stuff. Can it be upgraded to windows 7 and still run pp2000, or do i just need to make sure it doesn't get near wifi?

[rwb]

Microsoft haven't sold a copy of XP for years, all that's happening is that they're stopping doing bug fixes to it too. You don't have to do anything.

[GingerMagic]

I managed to pick up a ' Windows xp sp3 ' disc a month ago which allowed me to sort out my laprop. If you need to borrow it to do a reformat or fix you are welcome to use it.
Kelv.

[trufflehunt]

Just make sure you've got XP + Service Pack 3 installed.

And decent anti-virus software. I've long used Avast Free, though
am currently trying out Bit Defender Free .

[steve_earwig]

Yes, support for XP will end April 8th and after that there'll be no more security updates, no more hotfixes, no more malicious software removal tools, nada. I suspect even the service packs will disappear from Cyberdyne.. sorry, Microsoft's website so you won't even be able to upgrade an earlier version.

This is just Microsoft's way of building obsolescence into their OSs, after all software doesn't rust...

Anyway, it's all irrelevant to those of us running XP on a laptop just for PP etc. if we don't actually plan on going online with them.

I ?think? 7 will run PP, my (meagre) understanding of it is as it's a 32-bit program the Windows 7 version would have to have wow32 on it, which I think comes with professional and above.

[FarmerPug]

I sometimes do use my netbook to go online thats the problem, it sits in the boot of my car so if i ever end up going somewhere and need to use tinternet i would use it. The last time i used it i checked and it had SP3 as well as AVG and some registry cleaner.

My dads old sony vaio is also running xp and he does use it a lot online and for doing work.

[gumby6371]

As stated its the fixes and security updates that will stop, if you're system is in good order make an image for any future reinstalls.

PP2000 generally doesn't like Windows 7 out of the box but works perfectly well on a virtual machine as long as you have a fairly well specced laptop to run 2 OS's in parallell.

You can download VMWare free for home use and its much more stable and less resource hungry than Microsofts version.
I haven't tried Galletto on it yet but autodata will not run on a virtual machine so you'd need to keep an XP install for that if you have it.

The best option if you needed 100% compatability and secure internet access would be a dual boot system with XP and 7 but you're better off wiping the machine first and start from scratch.
There used to be how-to's on Microsofts support site but they may have been removed with the impending death of XP support.

A quick google found this but there will be plenty of help pages out there;
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/80 ... -7-xp.html

Dual boot is probably best for lower spec machines as it's only running the OS you select but I like VM as I can have my 7 install open if I need to google something. I don't have wireless turned on within XP as its not particularly secure and it 100% stops Planet connecting to t'internet by accident.

[ally406]

Pardon my ignorance, but wasn't PP2000 superseded by Diagbox? Last time I bought a Lexia, it came with Diagbox v7 which is natively supported on Windows 7.

If not, and you have to run XP, I really don't think it's that much of a big deal. For a while now the base OS has not been the malware author's first choice, but rather the applications running on it (IE, Adobe Reader, iTunes etc). My advice would be to strip your installation down to the absolute bare essentials. There are guides on how to strip down an XP install, disable unneeded services etc. You will even find utilities that allow you to do an XP install with none of the bundled applications (so no IE or Media Player). Use alternative up-to-date products instead.

Create yourself a standard user account and use that instead of the default account with administrative privileges.

Get some decent AV and firewall.

Most of all, apply some common sense to what you are doing. The weakest link in the chain is nearly always the user, so don't go downloading Transformers 4 from bit torrent

As for virtualisation, "XP Mode" bundled with 7 is based on Virtual Server which was discontinued in 2005. Windows 8 or 8.1 comes with Hyper-V virtualisation built in which is enterprise grade and as good as you will get, if not better. Use something like Start-8 to restore Windows 7 functionality and you won't have to deal with any of that Metro rubbish. Tie down the networking so the VM can't talk to the outside world.