Windows XP is dead! (sort of)

April 8th is the date that Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP and Office 2003. This does not mean that Windows XP is dead, but it does mean that you can’t get support from Microsoft telephone support, and Microsoft won’t be releasing any more security or stability updates.

For a business, this means that you are at risk. If a hacker has found a vulnerability in Office 2003 or Windows XP, in the last year, they will have sat on the knowledge, jut waiting for the day that Microsoft will not release a fix.

This does not mean that Windows XP and Office 2003 suddenly stop working. It does not mean that Microsoft delete all their knowledgebase articles or existing patches from being downloaded. It does not mean that you can’t hire a person or a company who has skills in XP to help you if there is a problem.  Your old systems will still work, still perform the same operations – however there is the (somewhat likely) risk that these antiquated systems could become an attack vector in to the rest of your environment.

Resolving the Windows XP death

If you recognise the risk, then what can you do about it?

• Easy, expensive, clean. Replace the whole computer – with one that runs Windows 7, Windows 8 or Linux. Then use Office 2010, 2013 or Google Apps
• Slow, risky, dirty. Perform an in-place upgrade of the computer. It can’t be used whilst it’s being upgraded, keeps all the old data and installed programs (and all their rubbish), and if it fails, you will have to wipe the computer and try again.
• Complex, expensive, risky. Purchase network level security such as Fortinet, or intrusion detection systems. However, this does not protect from USB threats etc.
• Easy, expensive, best. A solution that I particularly like is VMware Mirage – a system that also solves the remote PC problem. It synchronises all computers back to your datacentre, then will send out changes to PCs. It was specifically designed around the migration off XP.

VMware Mirage to migrate off Windows XP

Have a look at VMware Mirage as a solution for your Windows XP and Office 2003 woes.

Some benefits include;

• Migrate remote computers – including those who never come into an office. The Mirage agent can be sent as an email, dropbox file or on USB – once installed and configured, the remote computer is then backed up to your central repository and can be managed remotely.
• Slow uplinks to remote offices – many businesses will have a small office with slow links. Mirage can set a Branch Reflector (can be a user’s PC) that will optimise the use of slow or busy links by aggregating all upward and downward changes – to and from a user’s PC and the datacentre.
• Automatic roll-back – if something goes wrong, the user’s PC returns to a working state.
• Data backup – the first stage of a migration is to replicate all the user’s data back to the central repository – and data can be recovered by the user
• The user can continue to use their old XP installation whilst it is being prepared for upgrade to Windows 7 – they get a balloon notification recommending a reboot, and then 20 minutes later the computer is Windows 7…

I would love to hear your experiences in the comments below.