The Post XPocalyptic World

Featured article by Michael Slabodnick, the Customer Community Manager, SysAid Technologies

April 8^th, 2014, the day when the world faced the Xpocalypse.  If you were using a Windows XP computer at that time, did it explode?  Did red letters start flashing across the screen that your workstation was about to meet its demise?  Probably not.  As many people found on April 8^th, their Windows XP computers continued functioning as usual.  It then shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that from our benchmark results, on average, companies are still running Windows XP on 38% of their workstations.  To be fair, there are a lot of embedded systems out there that are perfectly happy with existing on Windows XP.  The 12-year-old OS can be found on many different devices, including digital signage equipment, point of sale systems, and even 95% of ATMs in the United States.

If you own Windows XP as a personal computer, an easy solution is simply to buy a new computer or to upgrade your OS.  Unfortunately, those in the IT trenches don’t always have the luxury of an upgrade.  While most general productivity applications out there support Windows 7 or higher, often times legacy software can make an upgrade difficult and costly and with limited IT budgets and resources, updating an application, or even migrating to a new one, may not be feasible.  While I encourage everyone to upgrade those XP computers to Windows 7 as soon as possible, here are a few tips and options for continuing with XP and minimizing the risk:

1. Pay Microsoft for support

While certainly not an inexpensive option, there are many groups out there that are paying Microsoft for extended support while they migrate from XP.  The IRS and UK Government made headlines with the news, so Microsoft is prepared to help…for a price.

2. Increase security

Since Microsoft will not be releasing new patches for XP, with the exception to fix a major Internet Explorer flaw, it’s time to be extra vigilant about security.  Make sure XP computers have up-to-date firewall and antivirus software.  Many third-party security applications are continuing support for XP, so there’s no reason to not be protected.  Also, if there’s an XP computer on your network, make sure your other non-XP workstations have updated security.

3. Isolate the XP workstations

It’s not fair that XP now has to be treated like it’s a carrier of the bubonic plague, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.  If possible, isolate XP computers from the network and only allow necessary traffic.  This means blocking unused network ports and limiting access as required so legacy software still functions.

4. Move into the virtual world

Virtualization is a great way to quickly and easily support legacy software.  A virtual computer can be isolated to prevent network invulnerabilities, and it’s even possible to create a virtual copy from existing hardware.  Besides, a virtual image can be easily backed-up in the case of a problem.

5. Say goodbye to Internet Explorer

This is more of a general tip than an option for living with XP.  While every browser has security flaws, Internet Explorer on Windows XP tends to have more vulnerabilities than the rest.  Now that IE won’t be updated, it’s a good time to make a switch to a new browser.  I personally like the sandbox security of Google Chrome, but Firefox and Opera are also fantastic options.

Even though XP didn’t cause a collapse of the world’s economy, there are still risks with maintaining an unsupported OS.  While the end of life for XP isn’t much of an issue at this time, as more security vulnerabilities are found for Windows 7, hackers will be testing them on XP to find exploits.  If you’re not able to move away from the beloved XP OS, at least stay informed with the recent security holes to know how your company can be affected.