Windows XP going off market in June: What it means

[2005EM2]

Microsoft originally announced over a year ago that Windows XP would be going off the market in January 2008. XP was later given a brief stay of execution, to June 30, 2008. That deadline is fast approaching, which has led to much panicking from people who aren't quite sure what XP's "going off market" means, exactly. People are still as confused as ever. So let's take a stab at clarifying, once again, what's going to happen by answering some frequently asked questions about XP's imminent disappearance. Will Windows XP really no longer be on sale after June 30? Sorry for the double negative, but no. All this means is that Microsoft will stop selling the OS. Finding a computer with XP preinstalled will likely be very difficult, as well. However, you'll still be able to find copies for the foreseeable future, and likely the unforeseeable one, too. See for yourself: You can find copies of just about any Microsoft product, including ancient versions of Windows and even MS-DOS, by simply searching online. But hang on to your current copy of Windows XP. You may need it down the road if you don't want to move to Vista. Will I be forced to upgrade to Vista soon? No. But it will get harder and harder not to, especially since new software and peripherals are likely to stop working with XP. That could take years. Will my XP machine stop working in June? No, but Microsoft will stop releasing non-security software updates to the masses on April 14, 2009. But let's be clear: XP will continue to "work" even after this point. Will Microsoft shut off product activation for XP after June? No, that would be crazy. While no one has said this will happen, it's conceivable that Windows could shut down product activation for XP at some point. But that would only happen after XP reaches its end-of-support term (when all support plans expire). The good news for you: That happens on April 8, 2014, which should be plenty of time to get the kinks worked out of Vista-or switch to a Mac, Linux, or anything else. Bottom line: Your copy of XP will work, totally legally, for at least six more years. What about this exception for Windows XP Home Edition I hear about? Doesn't apply to you. Microsoft will continue to sell XP to makers of ultra-cheap laptops like the Asus Eee PC until 2010 because they just can't run Vista. But it is not going to make XP Home Edition available as installable software to end-users. What about after 2014? Well, that's unclear. But it's possible XP will stop being installable at that point. Microsoft's official policy is that these dates have "no affect [sic] on how long you can use a product," which may imply product activation will work forever. However, two things come to mind: 1) Even the most die-hard XP enthusiast will probably be ready to upgrade at that point (as XP will be nearly 15 years old, and your PC will be dead by then, I'm sure). 2) Even if Microsoft shuts off product activation, the hacker community will certainly make dozens of tools to let you continue using XP with abandon. Fret not. Can I install XP on a PC that has Vista already on it? Yes. You can delete any partition with any OS on it (and reformat it) during the installation of XP. If you're feeling brave, you can even run both OSes at the same time by setting up a dual-boot machine. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/252...S7KVYIoSRqMJA5

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[Unevolved]

Some good information.

Personally, I really don't understand all the fear of Vista that's out there. I think, in large part, it's due to Microsoft's hesitancy to make an operating exclusive. Technically, you can install Vista on a computer that has absolutely no business running such a high-demand operating system. Take Apple, for instance. It's impossible to install OS X on an old Mac, because the OS won't work with processors that don't use x86 programming. If Microsoft would do that, there would be no problems with Vista. Like, I'm running Vista on a laptop with a 2 GHz Dual-core processor, 2 Gb of RAM and a 160 Gb HD. I had more problems with XP than I do with Vista, simply because I have the hardware to back it up. It's kind of like boosting a 3-cyl Metro. it works great under low demand, but once you start asking a lot of it, it's not going to last very long.

[DieMaster]

if theres not a scar eof vista i wana know why my fathers work that has over 300 computers switched to vista at a cost of over $200K ( they also bought new machines) and with in 4 months switched back to XP due to the costant crashing and unstability.

i'd be willing to give it a shot but i wana keep my XP.

also vista is FREAKISHLY huge and VERY powerfuly hungry on recorces. it takes over 32megs of ram just to run not counting programs. XP only takes 8megs.

[pheaton]

It's still difficult. There are compatability issues.

My job has thousands of computers, some of them have some jank old software that is still used and had to be upgraded or replaced to get it to work with XP. Now that it's working, nobody wants to have to kick out all that money again to make those programs work with Vista.

Plus you think Vista is a resource hog on it's own, put it on a corporate domain with over 1000 nodes and see what happens.

Next up is hardware. Our computers are scheduled to be replaced every 5 years. Meaning that Vista is going to hit and we are going to have a lot of computers out there that will just run it like a nightmare.

We're not oblivious though, we are testing it and trying to work it out, but there will be some issues.

Finally this going off the market stuff isn't as much of an issue for us. What's going to force us to change is the end of support, aka the end of security patches.

What's going to kill companies is when 2003 Server gets killed off.

[modoman]

vista isn't too bad. i was hesitant to buy my laptop because of the hassle of putting xp on it... but considering xp pro is still $100+ anywhere i could find, i figured i'd give it a shot. it's quarky in small ways so far, but nothing that's frustrating. i certainly wouldn't use it in a corporate environment yet, but give it a year or 2 and it should be no problem. remember xp sp1 when it first came out? it was buggy and difficult... i suppose the only difference is that it's slightly more challenging to get programs designed for xp and older to work on vista, but so far i haven't had any problems that a free update/patch couldn't solve. even my 10 year old music program works fine without a patch :P

of course, my laptop would be twice as fast as my desktop if xp was on it... and my desktop was top of the line 2 years ago

[Unevolved]

Yeah, obsolete happens quick, doesn't it?

There are a few things I've found that sped up Vista a bunch, both for internet and just for general usage.

-Make sure no unnecessary programs are set to boot up with the OS in the msconfig setting window, that'll slow the computer down a BUNCH.

-Turn off drive indexing on the main harddrive (The one the OS is installed on). For some reason, that makes it run faster. Doesn't make sense, but I'm using about 10% less RAM now.

-Turn off TCP Autoscaling and pipelining if you're using Firefox or a browser other than IE (which you should be).

Just some thoughts.

[Tragedy]

Originally Posted by modoman

vista isn't too bad. i was hesitant to buy my laptop because of the hassle of putting xp on it... but considering xp pro is still $100+ anywhere i could find, i figured i'd give it a shot. it's quarky in small ways so far, but nothing that's frustrating. i certainly wouldn't use it in a corporate environment yet, but give it a year or 2 and it should be no problem. remember xp sp1 when it first came out? it was buggy and difficult... i suppose the only difference is that it's slightly more challenging to get programs designed for xp and older to work on vista, but so far i haven't had any problems that a free update/patch couldn't solve. even my 10 year old music program works fine without a patch :P

of course, my laptop would be twice as fast as my desktop if xp was on it... and my desktop was top of the line 2 years ago

Agreed. I run 650MB average memory usage when running 1 computer game using vista pro. When the desktop is idle, my average is 320MB. If I had XP installed, it would be much lower. Vista is ok, if you have 2GB, or more to support it. Even then, thats not enough for high performance.

[M_Mullins]

Originally Posted by Tragedy

Agreed. I run 650MB average memory usage when running 1 computer game using vista pro. When the desktop is idle, my average is 320MB. If I had XP installed, it would be much lower. Vista is ok, if you have 2GB, or more to support it. Even then, thats not enough for high performance.

Thats my main problem with Vista, its too clunky, meaning you have to spend more and more money just to get the same performance levels.

[CiViCPrAnInG2k1]

welcome to 2 weeks ago???

[Unevolved]

Originally Posted by CiViCPrAnInG2k1

welcome to 2 weeks ago???

What?

[CiViCPrAnInG2k1]

OLD NEWS... lolol

[Unevolved]

But our discussion isn't.

[CiViCPrAnInG2k1]

yeah.. i guess..

well back to topic... alot of people have loved and comfortable with XP.. that's why Vista is so hard to accept. this is always the case when you're doing something new.
i remember opening Office 07 a month ago and i HATED it.. it was stupid at first. but now that i use more of it, i kinda like it.

Vista is alright, just give it time. they will tweak it here and there and once all the cons have been addressed, it will be a good O/S.

[modoman]

well, the best way to go about vista is to not use it until you are buying a new machine. if i put vista on my older amd, despite how nice a rig it is, it's just not good enough to not make vista suck. since i have a brand new laptop that is amazingly fast, vista isn't too shabby. though, i can't add media player to my quick start list under the windows button... it freezes up.

[CiViCPrAnInG2k1]

yeah vista isn't too shabby with the right specs... gotta have at least 2GB of RAM to make it work nicely.