Microsoft Will Still Patch Windows XP for a Select Group

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
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Talk about sending out mixed messages: While Microsoft is attempting to scare everyone away from XP and into the arms of Windows 7 or 8, the company will continue to offer Custom Support after regular company support is terminated for anyone willing to pay big bucks for the privilege of receiving patches and fixes to keep the system safe, enabling them to remain with Windows XP.

Those patches will come from a program called "Custom Support," an after-retirement contract designed for very large customers who have not, for whatever reason, moved on from an older OS.
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XP will surely be around for a long time to come but its market share looks to be dropping pretty fast and that's likely to accelerate as April 2014 approaches.
 
They should just sell the XP division off to another company and let them continue it.
 
So, at $200 per license per year, I'd say that is pretty big incentive for a company to actively work at deploying an OS upgrade. There is a large amount of speculation in this article as to whether these fixes could be released to the public -- my thought is that if they are charging $200 to businesses then the answer is obvious. If you were/are still running XP, for $200 you can upgrade to 7 or 8. What is the point of holding out as a consumer where you have no business applications/needs holding you back? Seems a no brainer.
 
There are still a lot of systems being used that will not run Windows 7 or 8. What I am telling these people is to stop using internet explorer. That will be the most dangerous thing to do with it. If you have an old computer with a max of one gig of ram, you are forced to use it. I used windows 2000 for a long time after it was not supported. Windows 8 seems to get along with less memory than win7
 
Ballmer: winning friends & positively influencing people to the bitter end.
 
This is standard service. Corporations will still get support for XP until 2020 or so. Heck, they just stopped support for Windows 2000 in July.
 
Some companies are also stuck using XP and IE6 because they have proprietary crapply written software that wont run on anything else, such as my company. Heck, we can't even update java or everything will break.
 
g-money said:
So, at $200 per license per year, I'd say that is pretty big incentive for a company to actively work at deploying an OS upgrade. There is a large amount of speculation in this article as to whether these fixes could be released to the public -- my thought is that if they are charging $200 to businesses then the answer is obvious. If you were/are still running XP, for $200 you can upgrade to 7 or 8. What is the point of holding out as a consumer where you have no business applications/needs holding you back? Seems a no brainer.
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There are a lot companies that do business over seas that require XP. To make a long story short, I know of a company that just approved a fifty thousand dollar a year expense for this. :eek:
 
g-money said:
So, at $200 per license per year, I'd say that is pretty big incentive for a company to actively work at deploying an OS upgrade. There is a large amount of speculation in this article as to whether these fixes could be released to the public -- my thought is that if they are charging $200 to businesses then the answer is obvious. If you were/are still running XP, for $200 you can upgrade to 7 or 8. What is the point of holding out as a consumer where you have no business applications/needs holding you back? Seems a no brainer.
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The difference between custom support and releasing patches to the public is this: Each patch requires that Microsoft perform Q&A on hundreds of configurations (remember that in addition to hardware you can also choose which patches to apply instead of the all-or-nothing approach) and tests against thousands of pieces of 3rd party commercial software, which is why you occasionally get patch notes saying that there is known conflict with an obscure Brazillian paint program or something.

With 'custom support' Microsoft can avoid 99% of that expense. They talk directly to the people paying for support to know what software and hardware they are running. When conflicts arise between a fix and an existing piece of software (software was breaking the rules but previously got away with it) they can talk directly with the customer to determine the best solution instead of having to engineer and test big shivs in Windows to make the issue transparent.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Some companies are also stuck using XP and IE6 because they have proprietary crapply written software that wont run on anything else, such as my company. Heck, we can't even update java or everything will break.
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Company? more like THE WHOLE COUNTRY'S SYSTEMS ...

well at least the Whole justice system in taiwan for starters...
 
So with a torrent program even though your not paying the big bucks you can have it for free ? lol
 
I support a building of about 850 to 1000 pc's... I have been actively rolling out Win7 64bit on all new pc's since February 2011. In January this year, I was only 50% done. Probably 70 % ish now, and should be around 92% ish come May 2014.

I'm sure my company will pay for the extended support, but once the big wigs figure out the cost ($1,000,000 a year for every 5,000 clients.. and the company worldwide is about 30,000 pc's) they will finally get in gear.

Seems to be typical corporate decision making. But I've been trying to be as pro-active as possible, at least for my users. I know I am farther ahead in this switch than any other location in the company.

And to think, a year ago I would get chewed out when so and so dept had some crappy app that didn't work quite right on win7. They are running XP VM's for now when we just couldn't get it to work in 7.

I will be glad to see XP go, 64bit Win7 is fast, stable, can use more than 3.2gb system memory, better support for multiple core cpu's. 64bit apps are significantly faster than the 32bit counterparts.
 
Will they at least provide one final downloadable update that will patch XP up to April 2014 and no further? Or if I try to reinstall XP after April 2014 there won't be any updates to download, even old ones?
 
BBA said:
This is standard service. Corporations will still get support for XP until 2020 or so. Heck, they just stopped support for Windows 2000 in July.
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Well, Windows 2000 is just one year older than XP...
 
iTYPE said:
There are a lot companies that do business over seas that require XP. To make a long story short, I know of a company that just approved a fifty thousand dollar a year expense for this. :eek:
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Try $1mil per year for 66 instances of W2K.
 
They've always had a program like this, and it's super expensive because you basically are paying someone's salary to fix the issue you are having. They aren't fixing every little exploit that comes along, but a specific patch that applies to your situation.
 
g-money said:
So, at $200 per license per year, I'd say that is pretty big incentive for a company to actively work at deploying an OS upgrade. There is a large amount of speculation in this article as to whether these fixes could be released to the public -- my thought is that if they are charging $200 to businesses then the answer is obvious. If you were/are still running XP, for $200 you can upgrade to 7 or 8. What is the point of holding out as a consumer where you have no business applications/needs holding you back? Seems a no brainer.
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Now image you are the one who has applications and needs holding you back... that $200 is nothing compared to the cost of system redevelopment, IF possible...
 
Red Squirrel said:
Some companies are also stuck using XP and IE6 because they have proprietary crapply written software that wont run on anything else, such as my company. Heck, we can't even update java or everything will break.
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Is the person who decided to deploy Java-based software being terminated? 'Cause the inability to update the JRE could lead to everything grinding to an absolute halt due to it being compromised across all those machines.
 
They just built a brand new hospital near me, I went in there recently to visit someone and I couldn't believe it when I saw almost all of the computers running Windows XP. This hospital was built like 6 months ago...

But given that just going to the hospital for an hour can be good for $30k+ in medical expenses, I think they can probably afford the extended XP support....
 
GotNoRice said:
They just built a brand new hospital near me, I went in there recently to visit someone and I couldn't believe it when I saw almost all of the computers running Windows XP. This hospital was built like 6 months ago...

But given that just going to the hospital for an hour can be good for $30k+ in medical expenses, I think they can probably afford the extended XP support....
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Interesting....I (unfortunately) ended up with a family member in the emergency room last night, and made the observation that all the PC's I could see were running XP. This is also a rather new hospital....
 
An enormous amount of hospital billing/patient software only run on Windows XP. Many also lock their pc's down quite heavily so you cant' even surf the web on them...if it works no need to upgrade. If you think the majority of Hospitals have money to burn updating OS/software you are seriously wrong...
 
MrGuvernment said:
Now image you are the one who has applications and needs holding you back... that $200 is nothing compared to the cost of system redevelopment, IF possible...
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System redevelopment is possible. Doesn't matter what software you are running.

As long as the programmers know what they are doing, it can be reprogrammed.
 
GoodBoy said:
I will be glad to see XP go, 64bit Win7 is fast, stable, can use more than 3.2gb system memory, better support for multiple core cpu's. 64bit apps are significantly faster than the 32bit counterparts.
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I had to install Windows 7 32bit for some users, due to older apps that wouldn't work under 64bit.
These apps will hopefully be replace by the end of next year, so I can finally get ride of all the 32 bit systems.

I even installed Windows 7 32bit on some of the old systems that run these old apps, so I could get everyone up to Office 2010. Found that Windows 7 32bit/Office 2010 actually runs better/faster on these old P4's than XP/Office 2003. I'll likely have to upgrade the systems once the apps are replaced, but by then everything will work on 64 bit.
 
I just have to laugh at these stories of companies being so completely reliant on software that was so shittily written that they will only run on this specific version of a propietary operating system that is no longer being supported without massive expense to the company. Which, assuming any of these stories are actually true, the company will HAVE to pay if want support for their mission critical garbage (and if they DON'T pay it then its not mission critical, and thus there was never a justifiable reason to keep XP around to begin with).

If companies really need to keep XP around let them, its there choice. However, I really, REALLY hope that the people responsible for that expense have at least been fired. Seriously, you don't want to keep developers like that around.
 
Ya, most companies it all comes down to in house software or systems no longer supported, or the vendors of said systems want so much money for new versions it is not worth it.

If it ain't broke...dont' fix it.

Would you rather money go to a new X-ray machine, or windows 7 licenses for something most people dont' use anyways..they just use what ever application they need to do their job and that is it.
 
cyclone3d said:
System redevelopment is possible. Doesn't matter what software you are running.

As long as the programmers know what they are doing, it can be reprogrammed.
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It is always possible, but isnt always cost justifiable, whether in house or 3rd party. Sometimes there are other priorites. Many companies do not employee enough developers and developers, like I.T are usually under staffed, over worked and expected to make miracles with little to nothing for resources.


King of Heroes said:
I just have to laugh at these stories of companies being so completely reliant on software that was so shittily written that they will only run on this specific version of a propietary operating system that is no longer being supported without massive expense to the company. Which, assuming any of these stories are actually true, the company will HAVE to pay if want support for their mission critical garbage (and if they DON'T pay it then its not mission critical, and thus there was never a justifiable reason to keep XP around to begin with).

If companies really need to keep XP around let them, its there choice. However, I really, REALLY hope that the people responsible for that expense have at least been fired. Seriously, you don't want to keep developers like that around.
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Perhaps it wasn't poorly written, perhaps it was a 3rd party which after using them for 10 years went out of business?

Perhaps they do have new versions but the licensing model is far too expensive, or upper management is just to cheap and does not see the benefit in getting this newer version of the current one works?

Perhaps the developers don't have a choice so why fire them? Developers are not usually the one who dictate what software a companies uses and if they are, the company should be shut down, Developers are there to work, a CTO / Product Manager should be dictating what is used and handled.

Curious what you do for a living? as these stories are very true across the board...

Also think for things like hospitals it is not the individual hospital that decides what systems it will likely run, sure there is a board that pretty much dictates what systems are used across a state if it is not a privately owned hospital and how it has to interact with other hospitals.

I have a team of 3 developers and i know how it works for new software, the upper's all want the latest and greatest idea's done and finished for tomorrow, while all the existing stuff gets to sit by and slowly break, and not until something directly effects something critical does anything get done, and then it is usually a patch job because Upper mgnmt thinks ther are more important things to get done.

It is the politics of business... it is unfortunately how %99 of business are run, and while it sucks, it is hard as heck to change some people's train of thought.
 
BlindedByScience said:
Interesting....I (unfortunately) ended up with a family member in the emergency room last night, and made the observation that all the PC's I could see were running XP. This is also a rather new hospital....
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Assuming that those systems are running Windows Embedded, they are good to 2017 there. I don't have a problem with XP still being used in situations like that but hopefully they are not online.
 
I wonder if it would be possible for someone to compile all of these fixes at some point into an "unofficial service pack 4" or similar.

Because I know I'm still going to run into people using XP even 10+ years from now, same as I still run across people using Windows98, etc.
 
GotNoRice said:
I wonder if it would be possible for someone to compile all of these fixes at some point into an "unofficial service pack 4" or similar.

Because I know I'm still going to run into people using XP even 10+ years from now, same as I still run across people using Windows98, etc.
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Yeah, when I did support I had people calling wanting me to fix their equipment. First thing I did was ask what OS they used. If it was Windows 98 I politely told them that OS was EOL and not worth fixing. If they didn't know and I got to their house and it was 98 I told them the same thing. Refused to touch that after a period of time due to that fact it was a crashy mess but also because those are the cheapest people I ever knew...I'm not wasting a couple hours and then they turn around and scoff at the bill. May seem harsh but time is money...
 
people will provide something to hack together all the patches that leak out but as said, this will likely be custom support, it wont be regular security patches, but a "per needed" patches.
 
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