Hey, I know this article is a bit old. But I came across this while searching to see if it was still possible to retrieve the updates for XP through windows update. (I know it's no longer supported and no longer has new updates provided)

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/8090/when-windows-xp-support-ends-this-is-how-you-secure-your-pc-and-save-all-updates

There's many more sites with this topic, this is just one.

So my questions are these..

1. Do you think this actually works?
2. Has anyone attempted this that could give feedback?

The reason I'm asking is I have a netbook that needs an OS. Linux just isn't cutting it on it and windows XP is the only thing I have I can put on it. I don't really plan to do any heavy online activities ironically. Just something to put a few games, some music, a few movies, etc. If I do any online type gaming with it, it will just be LAN, otherwise the WIFI will be kept turned off. Some of the games I want to run on it though I cannot seem to get running in Linux, but they did run under windows before on the machine. I do have a media center PC that runs XP still that I've never had any problems with, but again, all I do is watch movies on it copied from my DVD collection.

Also, I'm just kind of doing some research on the topic because I'm sure there are still people out there running XP that simply can't afford to buy a new computer still. I do know a few.

May I ask what's the issue with Linux? There are quite a few distros that are very low on resources and as far as security goes that's the best solution.

For music and web browsing you should be fine and probably will be good even for movies. Games might pose an issue depending on the GPU it's running.

If you want to stick with Windows XP, the guide you linked is a good one. Although I do find it a bit too excessive in points such as "Switch to a limited account", all in the good name of security so I understand that.

What I always suggest to everyone -

Basic and Effective Tools for protection and malware removal:

1. Avast Free Antivirus - Very good AV
2. SpyBot Search & Destroy Free - Malware scanner but also has a passive immunization system, apply once and forget plus it's effective even when closed.
3. SpywareBlaster - Another Immunization tool, run once and forget, reopen once in a while for updates and it's effective even when closed.
4. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Very powerful malware scanner, no other software I use finds this many items and they're not false positives.
5. Ghostery for Firefox/Chrome (Optional but I really suggest using this) - Blocks many popups, advertisement windows, and unwanted trackers. Open a page with and the same page without and you can tell the difference.

6. (Optional) CCleaner - Big toolbox in a tiny package, cleans unnecessary and temporary files, helps you manage startup items and keeps your system running smooth.

It's just me but I wouldn't suggest normal Ubuntu, it lacks a lot of features for newcomers and the desktop environment isn't very resource friendly.

My top choices for low end systems are:

LXLE
Linux Mint Xfce

I'll second SpywareBlaster, Maiwarebytes, and CCleaner. Great tools, all.

You can connect to the internet just fine. I recommend installing XP tin virtualbox and then marking the disk immutable so that any changes are wiped at the end of the session.

But, you are correct, connecting to the internet with an XP machine is just asking for trouble.

This works, but installs updates designed for Windows XP POS (or similar. one of the ones not actually out of support yet). It is unlikely to fix anything major that is wrong in actual Windows XP security wise that comes up, and has the potential (no matter how reasonably minor, it is still possible) to cause issues and problems. Best case scenario for most of what you will get is it does nothing. It then has a small chance of actually helping anything, and then only slightly less chance than that of breaking something.

1. We don't know if it works
2. We have not tried it.

But thanks for the information. We are still running XP on our old PC and this could heIp. We are having difficulties with Windows XP.

I personally wouldn't let my XP get updates intended for POS machines and ATMs…unless there was a chance of having $20 bills spit out of my DVD drive.

Seriously though, I'm currently keeping my XP unchanged but only use the Internet on it for multiplayer games that do not also show ads or third-party windows.

For browsing or gaming with games that show ads, I managed to install Ubuntu on a USB flash drive which I boot off of. It took a lot of trial and error, but it's pretty good now. This is more of a temporary solution for me. (FYI, I used http://www.linuxliveusb.com.

For a more permanent solution, I would recommend setting up a dual-boot so that you can surf when you need to.

Or, you could get something like Toolwiz TimeFreeze to prevent any changes to your computer. Using something like this, your computer would "reset" to its previous state once rebooted. Of course, there's no guarantee...

On two older PCs, I have both Windows XP and Linux Mint side by side. Heck, on one there is even Win98SE, so actually three OSes side by side.

On XP and Win98SE, networking/internet is disabled, they are merely for retro-gaming. Linux is the OS to go online on those PCs because it can do it securely, unlike old Windows.

Best of both worlds.

Is it possible to do this from within the OS or do you have to pull the ethernet cable/deactivate wifi from the modem every time?

LAN cable is connected and WiFi modem is on all the time.

On Windows 98SE, I simply didn't install any network (card) drivers => no internet connectivity. :)

On Windows XP, you can disable (and enable) networking. I don't recall exact names, but something like:

Start Menu => Settings => Network Settings => right click on the network and select "Disable" (or "Enable").

Today I enabled the networking in XP just long enough to update Firefox to the latest version, and get the newest virus database for Avira (Free) Antivirus, just in case. Then I disabled networking again.

From the Linux side, I can do any heavier downloading of files etc. from the internets securely, and then just copy the needed files to either the XP or 98SE partition(s) from Linux, if something is needed there. Linux sees the XP NTFS and 98SE FAT32 partitions just fine, but the Linux partition/filesystem is invisible to either Windows. So you can copy files around from within Linux (between Linux and either Windows), but not from Windows. Or course from Windows XP you can copy files to the Win98SE partition...

Nifty! Thanks for the info. :)

You could also use a text browser or any number of internet browsers that have the option to turn off all plugins/javascript/whatever. But many "modern" websites including gmail will not work on them.

Well the distro of Linux I normally run is about half the speed as XP, I get errors installing and sometimes they won't even uninstall, I just go delete the files manually. Some of the errors I'm sure may be due to the netbook hardware. An intel Atom 1.6Ghz (shows up as two cores but I thought it was single) in an OCZ Neutrino. 2GB Ram with a 128GB SSD, and it has like an intel 945GMA graphics (256mb I think) I think it's called. Maybe if I used the PlayOnLinux to install with extra driver support it would stop the errors. The resolution doesn't help much either if the game requires at least 1024x768 since it tops out at 1024x600. Don't get me wrong, the Linux is fine, I have it on several other computers and have no problems at all. But for this machine in particular, it's just not working in the games department. I've tried normal Ubuntu and it's painfully slow. Zorin OS seems to work best for me, even though it's a modified version of Ubuntu.

I suppose I could use the idea someone else had of doing a dual boot and using the Linux for internet and the XP for the games. As far as the protection goes, I already use Avast and Malwarebytes. Chrome and Ccleaner are also used. Occasionally I will install driver booster to check for any driver updates I may have missed, then I remove it.

I had forgot about LXLE I've used Zorin so much. I might give it a try on it to see what happens. I've seen a lot about Mint also, but haven't tried it yet. I might see if I can find some videos of people using it on a netbook. I've tried puppy Linux before as it was the smallest distro I could find for a very old desktop (back then it was like 50mb), but not on my netbook. Plus, I wasn't very fond of it at the time anyway.

Odd thing is though, even though MS has supposedly stopped providing updates, I still have an old pc with XP on it and every once in awhile it still does a single update.

However, If I keep the XP. I have no plans to do any online gaming, only LAN. Music and movies will all be provided by myself, not going online to download or buy any. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. May use chrome to watch stuff on youtube now and then. And I think that's about it on it. Oh and sync up my Palm OS devices. I still have my Tapwave Zodiac. lol

The account thing seems a little excessive to me also, I think as long as I watch what I'm doing I should be ok. But if there's a better alternative to the OS or something I may have missed as far as staying as secure as possible on the XP, I'm definitely open to the suggestions.

EDIT: I've opted for the Linux. Not sure which distro yet, going to try some different ones until I find one that works better on the netbook. Reason being that chances are I will not be the only user and it is just plain safer this way (I hate setting up multiple user accounts) and hopefully not as much hassle vs not doing certain things and disabling certain features. Gonna try the newer Ubuntu first, hopefully the speed is better than it was before. Also, Intel 945GSE Graphics is what it has. Not sure where the GMA came from? Cryptogram for GAMe perhaps. Still, if anyone has any experience with Linux on a netbook I'm interested in what you've come across and how to correct or make things better. If it helps to recommend a specific version, I've found a link to the netbook's webpage so you know what kind of hardware I'm working with in it.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-neutrino-10-diy-netbook-eol.html

Thanks for all the input!!