Derek Lum Blog

The end of support for Windows XP: the action plan for estate agents

As of this week, Microsoft has stopped supporting Windows XP meaning that machines as young as five years old are no longer supported, potentially causing problems for many agencies still using these models. Derek Lum of Cleartarn discusses the options going forward

Should you keep calm and carry on using XP

XP may have worked well enough up until the support switch off, and if you do not access the internet using the computer, then it is definitely safe to carry on using the old operating system. However, problems may arise if you are transferring files to and from other machines. If this activity is essential, then you must make sure that the files have been virus checked before transfer, as it will be impossible to maintain up to date anti-virus software on an XP computer with no internet access.

Should you keep calm and install the best anti-virus software available

This option assumes that you are maintaining an internet connection, using available antivirus updates. Choosing this route may work, however setting up a restricted user to login to the computer may be beneficial in the long term. The new user should have their permissions set so that they cannot install new software as this will reduce the scope for viruses to infect the computer.

The demise of Windows XP has been a long time coming so there has been plenty of time for people to identify security holes in the operating system and of course, any hacker determined to do damage now has the perfect opportunity to unleash mayhem now support has ceased. Anti-virus software may be able to protect against this inevitability for the short term, but it is impossible to predict how hackers may develop their access routes to XP systems.

Should you panic and upgrade to Windows 7 or 8

This certainly works, but is an expensive solution. If the existing Windows XP machine has substantial memory and disc space and a sufficient processor then in a basic sense, this can be a low cost option. However, incorporating much-used programs such as Microsoft Office, Outlook etc. will cost significantly in upgrades. That being said, some costs could be mitigated by migrating to free web-based applications such as Gmail and Outlook.com.

On the other hand, you could invest in a brand new Windows 7/8 computer. Unsurprisingly, this is the most expensive route; however the safety and long-term benefits are clear to see. For business critical systems where the latest versions of software are required, this is the most sensible and viable route to embark upon.

What other options are available

An alternative low cost route that we have successfully trialled is installing the Linux operating system on a Windows XP machine and then installing Google Chrome as the preferred browser. Chrome is our personal preference, but the default Firefox is equally as effective. Linux is free and largely unaffected by the virus problems encountered by Windows because of the way it has been designed.

There are many versions of Linux and for computer novices Linux Mint is an excellent choice. Linux Mint comes with Libre, free software that will open and allow editing of Microsoft Office files for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and more.

There are email systems that can be implemented on Linux; however the simplest option is to use webmail - where you can configure custom email addresses such as me@mycompany.com (I'm sure that one will have been taken already!).

The final benefit of installing Linux is that it will improve the speed of your computer. Many XP systems I have come in contact with recently have been starting to show their age and this solution can stop the rot for the time being.

*Derek Lum is Managing Director at Cleartarn Limited, website and content management experts