Windows Vista, and soon Windows 7, will dominate operating systems sales for PCs. Windows XP has seen a good life, but what life is left in the old dog? We will look at the viability of continuing to use Windows XP in this article.
First off, Microsoft support policies are a determining factor in how much life is left in a given operating system. Microsoft, knowing that people have XP entrenched in corporate environments, has pushed back discontinuation of licensing for new PCs until June 2010. Windows XP has also found a home in the current trend of Netbook-class machines, which gives it a life too.
For a look at the support lifecycle, go to Microsoft’s website where you can see the time table for XP’s remaining life. Support for Windows XP SP2 looks to close out in April 2010. Most documentation however, shows that Microsoft will provide patch-only support until April 2014.
Next, let’s look at how you can keep your Windows XP running well during the next 5 years of declining support. Obviously, if you or your company is planning to keep existing hardware, drivers and software will function fine. You might want to backup drivers in a safe place for a potential reisntallation. I would be wary of new hardware that might not have Windows XP driver support in the near future.
Microsoft is providing Internet Explorer 8 and other mainstream products like Office 2007 and Windows Defender for Windows XP as well. However, you should expect newer software products that Microsoft introduces not to work under Windows XP. In corporate environments, this may not be an issue as software changes happen slowly.
Look at your hardware. Simple things like memory modules and hard drives are good investments for a system you want Windows XP Pro to run on for another 3 years. The hard drive in particular is a source of slow downs and failures that often cause headaches. 160 GB SATA or IDE drives are cheap and run better and faster than the OEM drives in place now. ArrowQuick as an IT service provider can image an old drive to a new drive in less than half a day.
Weekly maintenance is your friend with older systems. Do backups or get ArrowQuick to put you on our off-site CrashPlan program. Keep up-to-date antivirus and malware protection. Do Microsoft critical patches and updates automatically if possible. Do the Microsoft Disk Cleanup or have ArrowQuick install CCleaner for a more thorough cleanup. Defragment your hard drive on a regular schedule. ArrowQuick recommends JKDefrag or SmartDefrag as great tools.
Lastly, look at your memory (RAM) in the system. The recommended 512 MB my be inadequate to keep the system running well. Look at dual channel capabilities for your memory and put in 1GB or as much as 2 GB if needed. In addition, ArrowQuick can look at the paging file for Windows XP to see if memory performance is a serious issue to be addressed in your computer system.
Lastly, remember that Windows 7 will contain a Windows XP Mode which is actually virtualization of the older operating system to maintain compatibility with older applications. So when a new PC is in your future, give ArrowQuick a call and we’ll help you out with those decisions.
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