Support for Windows XP is ending on April 8th, 2014. Are you ready?

Support for Windows XP is ending on April 8th, 2014. Less than 3 weeks away. Are you ready? Is your business ready? If you’re still running a Windows XP computer after Microsoft no longer supports or provides updates for XP, your risking catastrophe. Let me paraphrase from this great article:

“When Microsoft releases a security update, security researchers and criminals will often times reverse engineer the security update in short order in an effort to identify the specific section of code that contains the vulnerability addressed by the update. Once they identify this vulnerability, they attempt to develop code that will allow them to exploit it on systems that do not have the security update installed on them. They also try to identify whether the vulnerability exists in other products with the same or similar functionality. For example, if a vulnerability is addressed in one version of Windows, researchers investigate whether other versions of Windows have the same vulnerability.  To ensure that our customers are not at a disadvantage to attackers who employ such practices, one long standing principle that the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) uses when managing security update releases is to release security updates for all affected products simultaneously.  This practice ensures customers have the advantage over such attackers, as they get security updates for all affected products before attackers have a chance to reverse engineer them.

But after April 8, 2014, organizations that continue to run Windows XP won’t have this advantage over attackers any longer.  The very last month that Microsoft releases security updates for supported versions of Windows, attackers will reverse engineer those updates, find the vulnerabilities and test Windows XP to see if it shares those vulnerabilities.  If it does, attackers will attempt to develop exploit code that can take advantage of those vulnerabilities on Windows XP.  Since a security update will never become available for Windows XP to address these vulnerabilities, Windows XP will essentially have a “zero day” vulnerability forever.  How often could this scenario occur?  Between July 2012 and July 2013 Windows XP was an affected product in 45 Microsoft security bulletins, of which 30 also affected Windows 7 and Windows 8.” 

This is scary stuff for those people running XP after April 8th.

What are your options? Depending on your need or budget you have a couple choices. Anyway you go you have to upgrade your current PC to Windows 7 or 8. The support doesn’t end for those until 2020 & 2023. Here are your options:

• Keep your current PC and upgrade the operating system to Windows 7 or 8. This is the least expensive but may not be the most logical if your PC is older. You can always add more RAM to improve speed and upgrade the hard drive etc. Also your files (pictures, music, and documents) would need to be backed up and recovered after the installation is complete. 

• Replace your existing PC with a new one that has windows 7 or 8 already installed. This gives you a complete hardware upgrade to go along with your newer operating system. Things will run faster, better and longer than your old PC.

• Upgrade your PC to Linux / an open source operating system. If you are asking what “Linux” or “Open “Source” is then this option is definitely not for you. These types of operating system while free to use require technical skills usually above and beyond the average user.

• And finally there is the do nothing option. If your running XP to support programs or devices and have no other way of doing so, then continuing to use XP is a must. I would permanently disable the internet from the machine and allocate it strictly to serving the purpose you need.

How can we help? We are offering a service special for people wanting to migrate from Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7. we will:

• Backup your entire account of user files
• Install Windows 7
• Install all available system updates
• Install antivirus, anti-malware and system cleaner tools with instructions to use
• Restore your entire user account of files
• Pick up and return setup is included as needed
• All inclusive price of only $169 ($199 regularly)

We also have numerous refurbished PC's for sale with Windows 7 & 8 already installed. We can even move all your user files to a newer PC for you. Call for availability.

Call now to setup an appointment (402) 812-5130

Visit www.specialtouchcomputers.com to learn more

Email us at info@specialtouchcomputers.com