[xtrslots]

This day was going to be coming soon. It is time to give up XP regardless of how much you love it.

Tuesday, April 10 marks the end of "Mainstream Support" for Windows Vista, moving it to an "Extended Support" phase that lasts through April 11, 2017, and Windows XP and Office 2003 have begun their countdowns to total extinction in two more years. From http://www.networkworld.com/communit...ort-we-know-it

When Microsoft cuts the chord on XP in two years it will effectively leave millions of existing Windows-based computers vulnerable to continued and undeterred cyberattacks, many of which hold the potential to find their way into consumer, enterprise and even industrial systems running the latest software. From http://www.networkworld.com/communit...rity-nightmare

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The ongoing security problems are going to be a serious issue ... When Microsoft cuts the chord on XP in two years it will effectively leave millions of existing Windows-based computers vulnerable to continued and undeterred cyberattacks, many of which hold the potential to find their way into consumer, enterprise and even industrial systems running the latest software. Although most of the subsequent security issues appear to be at the consumer level, it may not be long until they find a way into corporate networks or industrial systems, Miller says. Even scarier, Sarwate says many SCADA systems for industrial networks still run a modified version of XP, and are not in a position to upgrade. Because much of the software running on SCADA systems is not compatible with traditional Microsoft OS capabilities, an OS upgrade would entail much more work than it would for a home or corporate system.