Windows 7 and 8.1 (both of which have now passed their own End of Life dates) use a large amount of code inherited from WinXP. In fact, experts suspect that Microsoft itself may have inadvertently contributed to hackers discovering previously unknown WinXP vulnerabilities.

The reason for that dire prediction is that since the end-of-support date, Microsoft no longer provides security updates to fix the vulnerabilities that, even after more than a dozen years of use, are still being regularly found in WinXP. Doing this would require that our volunteers learn new ways of doing things that won’t be nearly as convenient as they are used to.Īfter doing a lot of research, I developed a plan that mostly involves sticking with WinXP, but that also relies to a small extent on the use of Ubuntu for performing critical web-based functions.

Switch to a free and well supported open source operating system such as Ubuntu Linux.

This involves learning how to live with a greatly expanded vulnerability to malware (viruses and the like) and hacking.

Continue to run Windows XP even though Microsoft no longer supports it.

There seemed to be only two realistic possibilities: So, I investigated possible alternatives that would allow us to continue running our applications without costing us more money. But none of the new Windows versions will run on them, and buying new hardware is just not something our budget will permit at this time.

Our vintage (read old) computers are perfectly adequate for our purposes. Upgrading to Windows 7 or 10 is simply not an option for our small church.

Laptop with xp os