Comp-U-News from Comp-U-Talk
March  2014

The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.

- Robert A. Heinlein


 

The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Ok, so maybe the sky isn’t falling and maybe the world isn’t ending but Windows XP is dying.  The funeral is planned for April 9.  If you are looking for reasons to upgrade, here are three to consider:

 

Productivity:  Newer versions have features to help you work more efficiently.  Aero Snap, in Windows 7, will automatically maximize a window when you drag to top of screen, minimize when you drag to bottom of screen, or size to half screen when planted at either side, greatly simplifying the manual arrangement of windows you have been preforming in XP.

 

New Technology:  XP is over a decade old.  New devices are no longer designed to support XP.  Just about every week, we have to explain to someone why the new printer they purchased won’t work with their old XP system. 

 

Infection Rates of various operating systemsSecurity:  XP is at greater risk now and will be virtually defenseless when Microsoft stops supporting it on April 8.  Security experts predict the cybercriminals are hoarding XP flaws.  The reason:  once support ceases, they will unleash a bunch of exploits against those flaws.  Basically it becomes:  Support Over - Game Over!

 

And look at these statistics, released by Microsoft.  When exposed to similar volumes of potential threats, XP has an infection rate nearly double that of Windows 7 and  650 percent greater than Windows 8.

 


Stay Safe,

 ~Janet