I want my XP Pro back!!

Download and install this..

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements

It's free!!

Will give you the traditional more familiar desktop back, will even boot to it, bypassing those silly tiles.

Pfft, security updates? If you believe that garbage you're destined to always be at the mercy of panicked marketing departments. Most people I know stopped listening to those fake security warnings at the turn of the century.

There have been 3rd party tools to keep hackers out long before microsoft's "security updates" stopped. I feel sorry for good folks who believed them and are stuck in a non productive cycle of panic, despair and frustration for nothing. In all my years as a professional computer technician I've never heard of anyone being hacked via one of the "supposed" exploits.

Securing any system is a walk in the park. You don't need "security updates" to keep you safe. It's a furphy and there will be 3rd party software being created for eons to come as long as there are XP users out here and trust me...we're not going anywhere and XP will be a safe and stable operating system for many many more happy productive, unfrustrating years to come.

Don't believe the hype.

Your sarcasm aside:I know it's difficult to listen to but the reality is that all the people you mentioned above have very strong agendas to push the false belief that a real risk exists for XP users. I don't have my finger on the pulse of every XP computer user's settings but I do have my own extensive experience and I've been at the coal face since 1997 so I know a thing or two about the realities of computer use on a larger scale than most.

There are no special tools you need. They are already packaged and have been available since last century. The scare campaigns have got (good) folks like you so panicked that you're probably imagining a million hackers are all trying desperately to get into your machine right this very second - they aren't but even if we accept that ghosts actually exist they are not getting through. Not in my experience anyway and like I said; I'm not a casual user. I'm the most intense computer user/fan I've ever met. I'm on here all day every day and have been since Windows 95 and I've seen nothing to be alarmed about that normal every day off the shelf protective suites can't protect me against.

As for the tools, it's no mystery, a good and updated anti virus suite (I use a good free one that's kept me safe and un-attacked for years), I use a very popular paid Malware protector (I paid a few bucks once, years ago) and I do the occasional scan with Spybot S&D if I suspect anything but it never finds any serious risks. It only ever finds tracking cookies which aren't a security issue as far as I'm aware. I have all these on instant update regimes and I haven't heard a peep from anything for years and years and years.

So again, I'm not sure what ghosts you're afraid of but I'm very confident that given my personal experience, uncommon knowledge (compared to most users anyway), unequivocal evidence, extreme exposure and massive 3rd party anecdotal history that these ghosts don't really exist and it was just Microsoft pushing trees over then yelling that trees have fallen and we all have to protect ourselves from falling trees.

I have no security concerns whatsoever and as for performance (except in gaming of course) my XP machine is still faster than any modern OS powered machine I've encountered so far. I'm staying and in my learned and experienced view I see absolutely no reason (let alone evidence) that I "need" to get off XP any time soon.

The biggest risk is trying to steal free software, music and movies which are just virus delivery systems and in that case I think the thief gets what they deserve - after all they invited them onto their machine - they didn't "exploit" they way in due to any inherent weaknesses in an old robust OS like XP but as far as the big scary "bogy man of exploits: is concerned - I've not seen any personal evidence of such a risk and every OS from Vista onwards has been nothing but a productivity squashing exercise in keeping Microsoft alive and relevant.

I mean if I'd ever seen anything attractive or useful in any of these new operating systems I might have been tempted to upgrade but I haven't. Each one is worse than the last and it didn't take me long to realise that there's really no reason to ever upgrade unless you want to. Not unless you're a gamer, or there's some new thing that won't work because it needs some feature only found in the newest OS (haven't found anything like that in my life yet) or are unreasonably paranoid. The biggest risk comes from downloading viruses and a new OS won't protect you any better than XP in that case anyway.

I know it's difficult to ignore their hype but really, I've yet to be convinced that for me any new OS can protect me any better than a well secured XP (I use Pro) installation and I'm not suffering a massive drop in productivity for no good reason. I know that's not what many want to hear but it's the true reality and it pains me to see so much disruption occurring in people's lives for nothing.

Patrician, He is simply WRONG! The fact is that there have NEVER been such programs for ANYTHING. WHY? Because computers DON'T have wisdom and, even if they did, sometimes things can't be done by themselves. ALSO, HOW is a computer to know what it is to do? So people scan malware sites, look at bugs, APIs, and methods. They try to collect viruses to try to, as best they can, fix such things. It isn't perfect, and they miss a lot. THAT is why they are so frequently updated, and why new viruses appear.

As for the CURRENT antivirus programs for XP? EVENTUALLY they will dry up. It could take years. It may be 3 months(unlikely to be that soon), or 10 years(unlikely to be that long). It will probably happen within 5 years. But software WILL have to dry up. When that happens, all that will be left is to reverse engineer, etc... Microsoft generally doesn't let out their source.

So don't think anyone has been able to magically do what so many people have tried to do over about 40 years. In theory, it just isn't possible. Computers don't have the intelligence, ability, or knowledge. Humans don't have the persistence, infallibility, attention, and imagination to do things that far ahead. BESIDES, THIS way, they can keep charging you FOREVER!

Steve

Maybe I am just more demanding of my computer, or have more expectations. NOW, my i5 6GB laptop is working reasonably, but sometimes it is a DOG, doing the SAME thing with NO main programs listed as running. GRANTED, it is 8.1, but I have had the SAME problem going back to 3.1. And it can crash at any instant. Granted, I can't remember the last time it did, but EVERY one has crashed. I know it isn't just me. On a customer computer, outlook often crashes and I have to bring up the task manager to kill background processes to get it started. Sometimes I HAVE to reboot.

Steve