Thread: Microsoft counts down to XP death

Microsoft counts down to XP death
Mike James
Thursday, 21 April 2011

A new end-of-support countdown gadget focuses the mind on the fact that XP is being forcibly retired. It is a wake-up call to think hard about the unpleasant situation and consider the alternatives.

The all new "Windows XP End of Support Countdown Gadget" is now available from the Microsoft download site. To quote the site:

Looking to get off Windows XP? Use this handy gadget to count down the number of days until Windows XP End of Support (EOS) in 2014.

It installs as a desktop gadget and it slowly ticks away the time that XP has left to live. Clearly Microsoft thinks that this is something for you to contemplate and if you make the gadget bigger it gives you a button to press to visit a website that will help wean you off your dependence on old technology.




Of course being a desktop gadget it will only work on Windows 7 or Vista so you can only view the countdown if you have actually solved the problem and moved on from Windows XP!

Microsoft is very eager to get users off XP and onto Windows 7 but the only pressure that they can apply is to deny the older operating system the advantages of its new technology - notably IE 9 and Windows Media Player. It has even extended this denial of support to Windows Vista in that IE 10 will only run on Windows 7. Of course this also has the obvious effect of driving users to run Firefox or Chrome both, of which make no such distinctions between old and recent generations of operating systems.

One of the huge advantages of adopting an open source operating system is to avoid such nonsense as the forcing of obsolescence on technology. For example, upgrade to the latest Ubuntu, say, isn't an issue because it is free and if the hardware won't go there you can just stick with the old version, safe in the knowledge that developers aren't actively trying to find reasons to make their latest offerings not run on it.

Then there is the small matter of the activation codes and the activation servers that Microsoft has to provide to make it all work. Windows XP is the first such Microsoft OS to reach the end of support state. Given you can no longer buy XP will it still be OK to activate newly installed copies once support ceases? It seems unlikely that Microsoft would turn off the activation service close to the end of support but what about ten years after that?

Currently if you have a copy of Windows 98, 95 or even earlier you can install it if you have the right hardware. This might not be the case with XP - and what does this mean for digital history?

So as you watch the count down to XP's death tick by think about the problems created by using software that actually belongs to someone else...



More information

Download the Windows XP End Of Support CountDown Gadget

i-programmer.info

I get the sneaky feeling that they might end up delaying.

XP has been dead for two years, nobody noticed!!! Go Apple!!!

Who needs IE 9 or even 10 or 11?

Originally Posted by Koojo

Who needs IE 9 or even 10 or 11?

Microsoft.

Originally Posted by zingerhk

XP has been dead for two years, nobody noticed!!! Go Apple!!!

This dodgy copy is alive and kicking

XP is the best OS to date, better than Ubuntu, and the other loser, MacOSX

Originally Posted by Butterfly

XP is the best OS to date, better than Ubuntu, and the other loser, MacOSX

Bwahahahah.

Fuck me, you can't even troll properly.

^ XP is so stable, it's quite amazing. Try running an office suite on Ubuntu, and see how long it takes for it to crash.

WinXP == Best OS of the century

doesn't happen often so when it does I guess it is worth noting .

I agree with Butters , windows XP is rock solid for me .

Defrag and reg clean along with Crap Cleaner and I'm set .

I reckon 7 shits all over XP from a great height.

Originally Posted by Fondles

I reckon 7 shits all over XP from a great height

yeah, if you are a MS retard

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Originally Posted by Fondles

I reckon 7 shits all over XP from a great height

yeah, if you are a MS retard

I guess I must be retarded then.

Originally Posted by Fondles

reckon 7 shits all over XP from a great height.

It does, yes.

Originally Posted by Fondles

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Originally Posted by Fondles

I reckon 7 shits all over XP from a great height

yeah, if you are a MS retard

I guess I must be retarded then.

I don't think so fondles. Maybe a little retarded for trying to talk sense to Butters.

XP and Office never crash. Funniest fucking thing I've heard.

I can think of a dozen magically appearing problems with fonts, the startup folder, registry entries, even normal.dot that will crash office on XP faster than Butters latches onto a spare cock.

^ weren't you the idiot who needed to use the "Search" function on Win7 to carry out simple function tasks ?

oh the irony of your expertise

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I can think of a dozen magically appearing problems with fonts, the startup folder, registry entries, even normal.dot that will crash office

you must be referring to MacOS X, well known problems

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

XP and Office never crash

yes, if you don't surf for kiddie porn and don't get all those nasty Russian virus, it's exceptionally stable

Office XP or Office 2000 crashing WinXP ? don't think I ever saw it happened, maybe occasional hang application but that's it

Originally Posted by Butterfly

^ weren't you the idiot who needed to use the "Search" function on Win7 to carry out simple function tasks ?

oh the irony of your expertise

Butters, I really wish I knew what you were on about. I use the search function, oddly enough, to search. Kinda what it's for, mate.

If I remember rightly, it was your babbling about control panel objects being grouped stupidly, and I had to point out that rather obvious pull down to select "Show icons".

You aren't just retarded, you have Alzheimers.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Butters, I really wish I knew what you were on about. I use the search function, oddly enough, to search. Kinda what it's for, mate.

If I remember rightly, it was your babbling about control panel objects being grouped stupidly, and I had to point out that rather obvious pull down to select "Show icons".

You aren't just retarded, you have Alzheimers.

God mode in windows 7 is awesome, it basically creates a control panel folder on the desktop which has every single windows function inside of it, no need to go searching for anything as its all in there.

God mode in windows 7 is awesome, it basically creates a control panel folder on the desktop which has every single windows function inside of it, no need to go searching for anything as its all in there.

It's on my desktop, Fondles, couldn't agree more.

^ of course it is, retard function for clueless users

you should run Google Desktop on your PC while you are at it, like that you could consult your emails, open files, and do all kind of things that you couldn't do without the search function

Originally Posted by Butterfly

^ of course it is, retard function for clueless users

you should run Google Desktop on your PC while you are at it, like that you could consult your emails, open files, and do all kind of things that you couldn't do without the search function

More clueless ramblings. What ARE you on about?

I used XP pro since day one...and never had problems. Just picked up a new box with Win 7 and so far so good. Vista was the real fuckup...a shop talked me into buying a notbook with Vista loaded and after two weeks I took it back and made them retrofit the frigging thing to XP...they were pissed off at me, but that was the deal.

Originally Posted by koman

I used XP pro since day one...and never had problems. Just picked up a new box with Win 7 and so far so good. Vista was the real fuckup...a shop talked me into buying a notbook with Vista loaded and after two weeks I took it back and made them retrofit the frigging thing to XP...they were pissed off at me, but that was the deal.

Koman,

FYI Windows Mobile 7 is the mobile version of Vista. It seems M$ never learn.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by Fondles

reckon 7 shits all over XP from a great height.

It does, yes.

For many things, agreed.