Windows XP End of Support - April 8th, 2014
 

Microsoft is ending support for Windows XP on April 8th. That means no more patches or security updates/virus definition updates from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windo...ofsupport.aspx

I assume that many on this forum (like myself) have a dedicated machine running XP because of compatibility with early 2000's video capture cards. If that's the case, I would recommend downloading all of the Windows XP updates from Microsoft and getting ready to keep your XP PC disconnected from the internet starting April 8th (if you have it connected currently).

Just wanted to throw this out there!

- Jim

http://download.wsusoffline.net/

Run it on April 8th, and create a patch DVD.

Mine is probably 5 years outdated. :)

NJRoadfan, would you have any interest in slipstreaming a disc for several of us? I've never had good luck at it, so I've never bothered. I use XP Pro, and yes my discs are legitl! (Not that it would be that hard to get an unauthorized copy from torrents.)

Not that it really matters, I guess. XP SP2 is the suggested version -- not SP3. That alone is "outdated" in the eyes of MS.

Haha, I actually didn't realize SP2 was recommended... or I forgot. I've been using SP3 with my ATI AIW without issues (so far).

Anyway, the XP I'm using was installed from a slipstream'ed USB installer... I made it a while ago, but if NJRoadFan doesn't have one already I was planning on doing it sometime after April 8th anyway.

My XP copies were all ISO's downloaded from the MSDN Academic Alliance back when I was in college. (On a side note... they had a bug where if you selected a different language, it would give you a different license key... and they had like 10 available languages so I have a ton of XP keys haha).

My own XP discs are all slipstreamed to SP3 with extra storage and network drivers. Makes life a lot easier installing on AHCI machines. I usually run the WSUS disc afterwards. You can try nLite for slipstreaming in post SP3 updates, but I had a bad experience with the tool back in the day and refuse to use it. The Windows installs would never work right whenever I tried an nLite built disc. Weird stuff like setup bombing out with a missing file and such.

Updates may not 100% cease for XP in April. Windows Server 2003 has until July 2015 and XP based Embedded POSReady2009 is good until 2019! I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising folks back port the patches to XP.

If you want to slipstream, nLite is a great free tool. You can even add custom install packages so you can do an unattended, complete installation of Windows XP. I have used it to build custom install disks from my (legit) XP installation media. http://www.nliteos.com/

Another safe option is to run XP in a virtual machine and to disconnect the network connection in the VM settings. I am assuming that you have a sufficiently powerful computer to handle this (most modern systems are more than enough), but if you need a specific motherboard to support an AGP ATI AIW (for example), then this slipstreaming a custom XP and keeping it disconnected from the internet is likely the best option.