Windows XP April 8, 2014 deadline is just over two months away and there are still over 29 percent systems running the operating system. If you are using one of these systems, following are the things that you need to take care to remain secure past the end of life date.
Web Browser
Web browsers can be dubbed as one of the gateways through which malware can enter your system. If you are still using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, we recommend that you migrate from the browser. You can either use Chrome for Windows XP or Firefox or install the highest possible version of Internet Explorer on your system and start using that. Both Google and Mozilla have assured that their browsers for XP will continue receiving updates past the end of life date.
Email client
Still stuck with Outlook Express? You better not be and if you are, now is the time to jump ship and opt for Mozilla Thuberbird or opt for an all-web based email from either Google or Yahoo or Outlook or some other service that you may prefer. We didn’t mention Outlook 2003 as that version of Microsoft’s Office productivity suite is also set to expire on April 8, 2014.
Security Software
If you are using a free antivirus client, we recommend you either make it a practice to regularly scan your system and update the definitions or migrate to a paid version that provides much more advanced options that will cater to your security needs. Microsoft will continue updating the definitions of Security Essentials for Windows XP for an additional year to enable users to stay secure even past the deadline and migrate to other platforms in an organised way, but we recommend you to have additional antivirus software as well.
User accounts
You should make it a practice of avoiding the use of Administrator account on Windows XP and use user accounts with limited rights. Only use the administrator account while performing administrative activities and as and when possible do such tasks while you are disconnected from the Internet.
XP is still the most stable Windows operating system. Everything is made for it! People should not be forced to switch from something they are used to.
Luckily the company XpExtend is offering a solution to help keep everyones’ systems up-to-date.
At XpExtend dot
com