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Windows XP going away-Browser question.

Jillbeans

Jillbeans

New Member
Yes, I am on WinXP. I had my PC custom made with it (and a floppy drive!) because I was originally on Win95SE with my first PC and I needed a way to get my design files.
My plotter runs fine from it (3 years old now) and I have no problems other than my PC is getting up there.

As we all know, Windows XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft after this coming April. My Avast keeps warning me about it.

I was using Google Chrome as a browser until October, when it went through some sort of upgrade and really bogged everything down, so I switched to Mozilla. It's not perfect (probably because of my almost 8 year old PC) but I prefer it to Chrome.

Anyway, Avast is suggesting that I switch back to Chrome. Would this be a wise move? I can't afford new anything right now, and I like XP since all my stuff runs well on it.
I am admittedly "computer stupid" so please forgive me if this offends anyone.
:thankyou::signs101:
Love....Jill
 
G

GaSouthpaw

Profane and profane accessories.
Personally, I would try to go back to Chrome. It seems they update it constantly in an attempt to stay ahead of the folks who want to use it to steal from you. And I'd save up for a new computer. You can get pretty impressive ones inexpensively these days- particularly from Costco or direct from the dealers.
 
Baz

Baz

New Member
I prefer Firefox over Chrome. But that's because i find i have easyer access to the options settings.
 
L

Locals Find!

New Member
I would get rid of avast. Go with Avira it's a much better program both the paid and free versions.

Firefox is also a much better browser once, you tweak the settings. Which anyone can do with a bit of googling. Plenty of how to guides out their on how to adjust the settings.

Chrome is sluggish, loaded with un necessary features and not very secure. If you would like your privacy tweaking firefox's privacy mode is the way to go.

I currently have mine where it wipes out all cookies, history, and recently closed tabs/ recently closed windows. Everytime I close the browser. This Ensures no one is going over my shoulder and seeing where I have been. I also make sure it doesn't save passwords, user names etc...
 
TammieH

TammieH

New Member
Same here, nix Avast...I have never cared it,

I would use Microsoft Security Essentials and possibly Spybot Search and Destroy for spyware

If you are not comfortable with Microsoft Security, then use Norton

We are still using XP as well, because of our old version of Omega
 
choucove

choucove

New Member
We had been using Avast anti-virus pretty devotedly for years, but unfortunately they have made their software quite bothersome and bloated. Like others out there (AVG, McAfee, Norton, the list goes on and on) Avast now advertises constantly on the free version for you to pay for extra features. It's more bothersome than a lot of actual viruses that we end up removing. Don't get me wrong, it's a great antivirus still, but given the headaches of dealing with it daily, we have instead switched mostly to Microsoft Security Essentials. Alone it's not the greatest solution, but it is incredibly lightweight and easy to use and when used alongside Malwarebytes is a great set of utilities.

I personally prefer Firefox over Chrome. Lately Chrome has added some amazing features and abilities, but at the same time that can seem to cause some problems with compatibility as well as performance. Firefox can also do most of that stuff but is much more lightweight by default it seems. To be honest, though, I think that I notice more system unresponsive or application crashes in Firefox doing multiple tab browsing than I have seen with Chrome, though, so there's always going to be benefits and disadvantages I guess.

My recommendation above all else, though, is get rid of XP before the end of support! When support ends, you will be getting bombarded by very severe security threats, not just your standard malware and fake-alert viruses, but very nasty penetrating viruses and hacking attempts, and Windows isn't going to be fixing or repairing the issues. There will be little or no fixing an infected or targeted Windows XP computer, so even if it may be that you can't afford to replace to a new computer right now, it will be worth it day and night to invest early and upgrade and transfer your data smoothly then having to do it last minute in a rush during your busy production time because your systems is now just completely dead in the water. It will ALWAYS be more cost effective and less headache to be proactive about replacing out trouble systems than it is to be reactive.
 
Techman

Techman

New Member
get your XP machine off the internet.
I have two in the CNC room that run perfectly well.
Get yourself a update WIN machine and test it. I am 98% sure most of your stuff will run fine with it. Yes there may be an exception or two..
Ask around to your friends to get their XP machines out of the dark corners of their closets. Put two or three in your closet. Now you have a couple of backup computers that will last you longer than your equipment.

Dump avast. As mentioned above it has turned into the bloatware and is no longer in favor with the underground geeks.

This is exactly what I did. I have the best outcome of all.
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
I do not like chrome or any google product for that fact, I dont trust it. Im still running avast and its not bloting my macine doen BUT i will admit they have more "junk" than they used to. You have to learn to tame it. As far as microsoft essentials no. Norton, NEVER. Both of these are intrusive programs, norton is the worst IMO.

If you want your machine cleaned well I would reformat it and make sure you back everything up. When it starts back up it will be a great machine. i usually reformat once a year.
 
L

Locals Find!

New Member
cmykpro said:
May I ask why exactly? Frankly Chrome is one of the most secure browsers out there and Google is extremely anti-big brother.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/takeaction/unwarranted-intrusion/
Click to expand...

Why would you think anything is secure with google? Did you not know that Google signed a contract well over 5 years ago with the department of defense to share all search information and access to all records on it's servers with them to assist in countering terrorism?

Do a bit of research. It wasn't exactly main stream news when it went down, but I have contacts that were involved in putting together that operation.
 
cmykpro

cmykpro

New Member
Locals Find! said:
Why would you think anything is secure with google? Did you not know that Google signed a contract well over 5 years ago with the department of defense to share all search information and access to all records on it's servers with them to assist in countering terrorism?

Do a bit of research. It wasn't exactly main stream news when it went down, but I have contacts that were involved in putting together that operation.
Click to expand...

If any of us believe that any source of electronic information is truly "free" then we are obviously living under a rock. My personal belief is that Google is the most viable source of the closest thing to electronic freedom we have today. Could I be wrong? Absolutely.... But you know what they say about opinions....
 
P

player

New Member
I use Avast Free, Superantispyware, Ghostery and Firefox. I am having no problems. I am not too concerned about XP after the support stops.

I did get a w7 PC last year and I run both, but my XP machine less lately. There is a USB connecting cable called Wormhole and you can plug 2 computers together and transfer data, remote control each other etc. It is a very useful thing for migrating.
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
cmykpro said:
May I ask why exactly? Frankly Chrome is one of the most secure browsers out there and Google is extremely anti-big brother.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/takeaction/unwarranted-intrusion/
Click to expand...

man you need to read up on your google crap. I wouldnt trust these bastards with anything. Have you never noticed how you can google something and you see what you googled popped up on every page your on. Google is the antichrist.


microsoft, norton, google I dont trust any of them. Windows I love gotta have it but when microsoft comes out with crap to "help" me run smoothe I steer away from it. Jill do you run updates? i know alot of folks on here love some updates I think they are worthless
 
P

player

New Member
DuckDuckGo is an alternative to Google search. Zero tracking and they never save so they have nothing to give to the NSA.
 
bob

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
Speaking from hard-wrought experience never as in ever use the machine that drives your equipment for anything else. Keep it absolutely and completely off-line and it will just sit there chugging away dutifully year after year.

That being the case you need two machines. One to drive your equipment and one for everything else. Interconnection is simple such that the file system of your shop machine is assessable with your everything else machine.

My computer configuration is a 12 year old XP beater out in my shop and a nice 1Tb Windows 7 machine in my house. These two machines are hard-wired to a router. There's many ways to inner-connect them, this was the way that was convenient for me.The XP machine has no internet access, the W7 machine does.

The Windows 7 machine has a network drive configured that is the entire C drive on the XP machine. Unfortunately, with an XP/W7 connection it cannot be reciprocal. On top of that I use a VNC [Virtual Network Computing] product [TightVNC in this case] to allow either machine to access the other's desktop.

I have Flexi and Corel installed on both machines and the Flexi hasp key is installed in the XP machine. I do all of my work on the W7 machine, save it to the network drive on the XP machine, and print/plot/whatever from there. This has been my set up for many years now and I wouldn't have it any other way. The XP machine will keep on thunking away until it finally dies. I back it up religiously against that day. When it occurs I'll deal with it.
 
round man

round man

New Member
If your xp computer is still working for you why replace it? if you take it off the internet it will continue to work just as good if not better even if microsoft discontinues support for XP,.....If the machine is getting old be sure to back up your files to cd's or another drive but Curtis'
advice is very good,...just disconnect it from the internet and keep on using it,...,meanwhile you can look for another machine to use for your other stuff and the internet,....used machines are cheap in todays world of disposable tech,....
 
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