Dencandy Posted December 23, 2008 Report Share Posted December 23, 2008 Microsoft have extended the dead-line for retailers to purchase XP licenses until 30 May 2009 (HERE). I can see this going on and on as there must be enormous consumer pressure to continue to be able to buy a well-established reasonably stable system (XP), rather than be forced to have a new untried operating system (Vienna). Especially after customer's experience of the problematic Vista.If you are buying a computer now, this is also a good reason to insist on having a Microsoft XP installation disk so that you can continue to use it indefinitely into the future. If you buy another machine at a later date you can then transfer XP to it if you are unhappy with Vista or Vienna. You may not be able to do that if you buy a computer now with a customised version of XP, as distributed by Compaq or Dell for example, since these versions usually cannot be transferred to another machine (unlike the XP installation disk). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted December 23, 2008 Report Share Posted December 23, 2008 A few weeks ago I had a new computer built by a local shop, and bought my own XP SP3 disc from PC World on line and supplied it to the shop. I would NEVER buy Dell or any of the other brands. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hb_Kai Posted December 23, 2008 Report Share Posted December 23, 2008 I thought they had extended it a while back or was this the date of the available support? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted December 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2008 I thought they had extended it a while back or was this the date of the available support?Yes, that was free and paid-for support (i.e. assistance) that was extended a few months and years ahead in each case.I've just checked that information & MS said a few weeks ago that free support will be extended to end-April 2009. However now they are telling us retailers will still be able to buy licensed copies of XP from MS until 30 May. Since retailers will be selling it on to customers after that date I'm sure there'll be great pressure on MS to extend free support even further. Support in return for a fee will be available at least until end-April 2014. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 The truth is that if you have a separate hard drive with an Acronis back up on it, support, paid or otherwise is unnecessary. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 How does your Acronis backup get hold of each new security patch that M$ seem to be forever bringing out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 How does your Acronis backup get hold of each new security patch that M$ seem to be forever bringing out?I didn't mention back ups, I said SUPPORT. :lol: Silly Billy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted December 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 The truth is that if you have a separate hard drive with an Acronis back up on it, support, paid or otherwise is unnecessary. :DWhen I had a system crash (due to a hardware failure) a few weeks ago I decided to re-install XP from the installation disk. The reasoning behind this was that I thought that if I re-installed XP from the Acronis image I might well be re-installing some of the problems that I was having even before the crash and also that the image might be incompatable with the new hardware I'd had installed . So I decided to re-install XP from the installation disk. MS Support was needed to re-activate it.I then re-installed additional software from the Acronis back-up, leaving out some programs that I'd hardly used. My computer now runs much more efficiently and boot time is about half what it had been (about 45 secs instead of 90 secs). An imaging back-up utility is extremely useful. I agree. But in my view the most useful piece of software anyone can now have is a genuine copy of the XP installation disk. I'd even go so far as to say, if you don't have a copy of XP, or have only a customised version from a retailer, make sure you get one before they possibly become unobtainable later next year.None of us know what Windows 7 is going to be like, so my thinking is - better the devil we know than the devil we don't yet know... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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