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Microsoft patches Windows XP to stop foreign hack attacks

froggyboy604

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Last month, Microsoft took what it called the "highly unusual" step of patching older Windows versions like XP against the WannaCrypt ransomware virus. It's doing the same in June to protect against attacks that are potentially even more sinister. "This month, some vulnerabilities were identified that pose elevated risk of cyber attacks by government organizations, sometimes referred to as nation-state actors or other copycat organizations," security manager Adrienne Hall wrote in a blog.

If you have versions without extended support, including Windows XP, Vista, 8 or Server 2003, you'll need to download and install the patches manually.

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It is good that MS is still fixing Windows XP security problems instead of abandoning users. But, I feel MS should of fix many of these problems years ago since some users may already become victims of hackers before the patch got release.
 
This is what, the second or third time they patched XP? Seems they won't ever drop support for it.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
This is what, the second or third time they patched XP? Seems they won't ever drop support for it.
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I think it is the third time, or more.

If you pay Microsoft $200 per year for the first year of extended support according to Microsoft gooses Windows XP's custom support prices as deadline nears , Windows XP is still supported on a computer where you or your company subscribe to Extended support.

But, the regular free patches and updates are no longer being release as often for regular users of Windows XP unless there is a very serious security problem.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
yes, because it is still the best OS and some programs still only work for XP.
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I agree, there are some programs which only work on XP. A lot of the times hardware driver software are abandoned by the software makers once very few people are still buying the hardware like a printer, and as a way to make people buy a new printer when their old printer is no longer compatible with Windows 7 and 10.
 
Perhaps. We bought a simple HP deskjet 1000 printer some time ago, and it works perfectly with Windows 10. Personally I love it. 64 bit etc. It seems to use memory better and is just more robust. I never thought I'd say that, as I loved XP. hehe
 
zoldos said:
Perhaps. We bought a simple HP deskjet 1000 printer some time ago, and it works perfectly with Windows 10. Personally I love it. 64 bit etc. It seems to use memory better and is just more robust. I never thought I'd say that, as I loved XP. hehe
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I have an old HP laser printer which is no longer compatible with Windows Vista, 7, and above. It still has some laser printer toner in it, so I take it out, and connect it to a Windows XP desktop to print. Laser printers' ink/toner dries faster, and print faster.

A lot of newer Windows 10 computer are built with more RAM like 8 GB of RAM, so it maybe less noticeable if Windows 10 does not use RAM well, or use RAM very well because a lot of computer these days come with a lot of RAM.
 
This was only inevitable in time! Think about it, with M$ announcing dropping support for Windows XP, I bet many a hacker stepped up their game to find new vulnerabilities in the software that hadn't been and wouldn't be patched. But M$ have to do this and release a patch for it in an update even though they have officially announced no longer supporting it. Simply because it's their system and they have to do this to keep people protected. And I would imagine that this will be a constant cat and mouse game for a while yet and they'll still keep rolling out updates and patches for it long into time yet!
 
Hey if you still have Windows freakin' XP in 2017, then you deserve to get malware. WXP is incredibly outdated, and I think a simple upgrade to Windows 7 SP1 would be enough stability for the next couple of years. I have had it since 2010 or so, and I can't really say anything bad about it. I tried W8 and W10, but they have removed a lot of the things that made W7 great, and changed stuff like advertising in the mini games. Like, what the hell was that about?
 
I used 7 for awhile. But I like 10 even more, esp. since it was free and I can use my Windows 7 key to re-install 10 from scratch whenever I want. :grin:
 
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