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Keeping XP Secure

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday March 05 2014, @03:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the unplugging-the-network-cable dept.

Appalbarry writes:

"Microsoft is about to abandon Windows XP to the wolves. Fair enough it's ancient. However, there are still going to be a lot of XP boxes out there, and a fair number of them are unlikely to ever get upgraded until the hardware dies.

My question is: what's available to help make this old OS stay reasonably secure and safe for the people who can't or won't abandon it?

Over the years I've been through Central Point Antivirus, Norton, McAfee, AVG, stuff like Zone Alarm, and of course the various Microsoft anti-malware offerings. But since moving over to Linux I really haven't kept up on the wild and wonderful world of Windows security tools.

Suggestions?"

 
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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 05 2014, @02:07PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 05 2014, @02:07PM (#11424)

    - Remove/uninstall/disable the 'accessories' like windows media player, IE, windows picture and fax viewer. Replace them with stuff like VLC, Firefox, and IrFanView.
    - everything else you should be doing to stay secure RIGHT NOW.
    - as long as Adobe, java, etc. products keep updating on XP, stick with them. when they stop updating, find alternatives or live without them.

    After 13+ years of service and patches, the core OS should be fairly secure if normal security measures are taken. I think XP has reached a maturity level where it no longer really needs any updates from MS. It's fate is now in the hands of the likes of Google, Mozilla, Adobe, Oracle, and hardware vendors. As long as those parties keep releasing and updating for XP, long-live XP!

    With that said, I predict there will be pressure/incentives issuing from Redmond for those companies to abandon XP.

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