...what do I do?

I currently have 6 desktops and 3 laptops running XP Pro. Another laptop runs Win7. Come April 2014, MS support for XP will cease.

All my computers either came with XP installed, or they had a valid COA which allowed me to install XP. I've kept up with the upgrades, and they all seem to work fairly well.

Keep in mind, I don't spend a large portion of my life web-surfing or generally looking for trouble (i.e., possibly dodgy websites). It seems to me that the biggest possible downside of no more support for XP is in the security area. It's possible that hackers, knowing that MS will no longer bail people out, might want to "flood the market" with new viruses and so on.

Of course, the market share of XP has probably dropped to below 50%, and the stuff they really want to get at is probably running on Win7/8 machines, so maybe the effort will not happen.

At any rate, I don't intend to lay out lots of money to just keep doing what I'm doing. Heck, I ran 98SE well beyond its sell-by date and never had any problems. Of course, the internet was a bit safer then and dialup limited your exposure.

Anyhow - for those of you still running XP, what are your plans come next April?

PS - if possible, differentiate between what your company will do with the machine you use but they own, and what you plan on doing with your own personal machine(s).

IMHO most of the vulnerabilities will come in third party apps like Java, PDF reader, Flash, Firefox, Chrome and IE - as long as you keep those up to date, you'll be ok. And as always, keep an up to date malware scanner running and be on the lookout for announcements about vulnerabilities and what you can do to prevent them.

37.17% as of last month

I don't see it as an issue at all. When was the last time you actually needed XP support? Even if you have not done an update in years, your systems would probably be running just fine today if you used any caution at all.

Microsoft would like us to believe the world will end, so better update NOW!

My plan is basically to just keep on truckin' until such time as it becomes too unwieldy/dangerous. As of now, my usage patterns are such that an upgraded OS will not do all that much for me, so I'm in no hurry.

Was just wondering what others make of the situation. I get the feeling that businesses will force the move to at least Win7 (everywhere I worked before took a pass on Vista) and the users will have no choice, although after using both, I don't see much advantage in Win7 over XP, except possibly for some esoteric applications.

For your own personal machine, if you bought it recently, it probably already has Win7 installed, so no issue there. Some of us, though, keep using older machines for various purposes and would see no reason to upgrade unless the whole thing turns pear-shaped.

I have a bunch of thin clients that run XP-embedded, and a couple that are run straight XP. I'll probably upgrade the ones running XP to Win7, though only if I can find drivers that support their hardware. The XPe machines I'll keep as XPe. The rest of my computers are already on Win7, though I have no immediate plans to upgrade any to Win8,

Some decision are hardware driver driven:

I still have one machine on my network running 98SE with parallel port outputs to a still working tabloid size laser printer and a XY pen plotter modified to use Sharpies. It is stable and during weekly maintenance and B/U it is rebooted.
The plotter is great for superimposing change orders onto drawings with different colours. To replace the tabloid printer with the multiple input and output options is over $4k+

I will keep at least one XP box for it is running drivers for my Nikon 9000 Scanner.

No need to buy new fruits every time there is a new crop.

I'll just continue to visit sketchy websites and hope for the best. Someday my laptop will go up into flames and ill buy a new one which will have a newer version.

Cool.

I had an E-size plotter running at one time. It was a Calcomp and this one used Calcomp's own language; couldn't handle HPGL. Fortunately, the Calcomp User's Group had a free utility to convert, so I could use it.

It only had a serial input, so I used some old 386 running Lantastic-Z - I'd dump the files to him (oooh! Parallel port! Fast!). He'd do the conversion and drive the plotter while I got back to work. Some plots took hours.

Lots of people use older computers for various things; phone service, print servers, etc. Don't need the speed, just compatible hardware. And, of course, systems that can talk to one another.

Curious about that tabloid laser. I picked up an HP 5SI a few years ago that handles 11x17. Stumbled across it for $35, as I recall, and added their ethernet adapter. It now sits on a cat5 cable and prints for everybody.

Two weeks ago, I picked up a bare-bones computer on a whim. Turned out to be a [email protected] GHz, two CD/DVD/R/W drives, 400W power supply, etc. Stuck in some of my memory and up it came. Good COA sticker, too.

Oh yeah - the price. Twenty-five cents. Try that with an Apple.

In 2007, I was in the exact situation, 6 desktops and 3 laptops... I remember 2007, because for Christmas of that year, I got my first Mac - 24" iMac.. Never used a Mac before then.. Fast forward to 2013, I have two iMacs, two MacBook pros, and a MacBook Air.. It was all gradual as I phased out my PCs.. I still have 2 pcs with XP on them, but they haven't been turned on in probably 9 months..

Mine is a 4MV with 2000 ltr size tray, 500 tabloid tray and bulk envelope loader. On the output side it has the 10bin sorter which you can make multi copies to separate bins or different print job to different bin. Each bin had a security locking door.
Got it free when clearing up a tenant who had left in distress.
I tries four NIB ethernet adapter from eBay in it and none worked properly so I just use an older 98SE box as the printer server.

25cents? You can't buy an apple at Whole Food for that price

When Calcomp discontinue pens for my plotter, someone shared on the user group the sharpie conversion.
^^^ to the "user groups"

If it ain't broken, don't touch it!

I have 3 desktop and only 1 of them still running XP, but it's set up to dual-boot, default to Win7 and OS is on its own drive. I will probably do a full backup & image it, then do a fresh & clean install (again) before next Spring as I use it for diagnostic & to run backward compatible software, including a color scanner. I put away an older custom-built desktop with barebone XP configuration, just in case. Most of them, I'm running Win7 (laptops & netbook) but one is running Vista, needed for certain software and as backup server & storage.

As others said, I don't see problems running XP (updated to SP3 w. all the patches current now) as long as the HDD's are working & there is no need to re-install the OS (drivers are sometimes hard to find - saving them to off-site storage whenever possible) and security isn't my main concern as long as the XP machine isn't connected to the web.

Still supporting client's PC running Windows 98/ME and 2000 as they have truely old, old accounting software with dot-matrix printing requirement on fanfold paper. $S support for those ended long ago. Most desktops can be tweaked to upgrade & run Win7 with minor investments & hardware upgrades - I'm always checking out FRB or pre-owned PC with Vista & W7 COA/licenses, as they are sometimes dirt cheap (around $100 from Microcenter with local in-store pickup) Not all apps need the latest CPU & 8GB DD3+ memory to run.

Nice thing about Dell & HP is that many parts can be swapped easily or with minimal costs to fit them inside a newer casing. Agreed on the notion that if it ain't broke, don't change or mess around with it.

The value of ancient Windows PCs is holding steady. I just sold a 10+ year old Toshiba "laptop" (XP Pro SP3, tiny memory, no wireless) on ebay for $80.

^ +1 Yulp, I know. The other sites is Dell Auction & sometimes, TigerDirect - bidding prices can get out of hand, mad crazy high b/c those hardware/cases & setup are hard to find these days.

Got 2 "old" Dell Latitude D4xx in reserve, previously upgraded & they are decent with a docking station - not going to sell them. Could be very useful to clients in case of emergencies & recoveries.

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I have deleted a bunch of off-topic posts. The user in question is no longer able to see the Tech forum.

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One option is to move to an open source solution like Linux.