Are You Ready to Upgrade from Windows XP?
Microsoft will discontinue its free support for Windows XP starting on April 8, 2014. Windows XP was first introduced way back on December 31, 2001 and ever since it’s been the dominant operating system for about 12 years. It’s been estimated that about a quarter of levitra directions all computers worldwide are still running this outdated operating system. As XP nears the end of its lifecycle, if you’re among that odd 20 to 25 percent it’s a good time to start planning for your network’s upgrade path to the next version of Windows.
Windows XP lacks many of the security features that have become standard in Windows 7 and Windows 8. This was most spectacularly highlighted in 2009 when Chinese hackers were able to access highly sensitive proprietary data at Google by breaking into an XP machine. This intrusion, dubbed Operation Aurora by security experts, cialis 5mg was also able to exploit Windows XP vulnerabilities on 30 other large U.S. companies.
How Cyber Attacks Exploit XP Vulnerabilities
As of this April, Microsoft will no longer be providing security updates and so Windows XP systems will become even more vulnerable to hackers, viruses, and other security risks. Also, all XP-related automatic fixes, updates, and online technical assistance will no longer be available. As Windows XP approaches its end-of-life an increasing number of third party applications and devices also won’t be compatible with this OS. Backward compatibility for XP will become increasingly rare.
The simple act of migrating
a network’s PCs to a more recent OS is often the most cost-effective way of thwarting cyberattacks. And this usually costs a lot less canada viagra than other more glamorous advanced cybersecurity initiatives such as monitoring, anti-malware, third-party firewalls, or hacker jamming methods. Often an up-to-date operating system with the latest routine system security patches is the best way to defeat cyberattacks, virus, or other intrusion attacks.
Internet security experts warn that hackers are amassing skeleton keys to gain plavix remote access to ancient XP machines. And once having gained access to a network they can then move onto other non-XP machines. So even if one computer plavix with warfarin on your network remains on the Windows XP platform, hackers can exploit this network weakness of having an XP access point. Hackers need only look at the new security patches offered for Windows 7 and Windows 8 to realize the vulnerabilities of any unsupported operating system.
So What’s the Best Way to Avoid Intrusion Attempts?
If you’re unable to upgrade to a newer OS, security experts advise that XP machines not be connected to the Internet nor to the rest of your network. Programs on such machines also shouldn’t need any regular updates or network-related patching. Flash drives — another major source of infections — should also be disabled on these XP machines. Many of these precautions are simply not viable for multi-user PC networks such as at most classroom labs, libraries, internet cafes, and hotels.
Windows 7 is quickly becoming the next go-to Windows upgrade for current XP users. About half of all computers world-wide are already running Windows 7.
Workaround for Continuing Use of Windows XP on Public Access PCs
But there is another alternative available for public access network management for does cialis lower blood pressure those who due to cost constraints are simply unable to upgrade to a newer, supported version of Windows. Many administrators of these shared computing environments are planning on retaining their XP systems even while they leave them connected to their local networks and the internet. Their workaround to the security issues cited above is to use a third-party instant restore application. Many such freeware utilities are available. The most popular of which is probably Reboot Restore Rx. Commercial auto-reset options such as Deep Freeze, Drive Vaccine, and RollBack Rx should also be considered. In a nutshell, such restore-to-baseline applications return the common use computers to a pristine system state on every reboot. Reboot Restore Rx is a freeware alternative to SteadyState and is very popular with non-profit institutions. Steady State was a freeware reboot-to-restore utility provided by Microsoft but was discontinued in 2011. The freeware Reboot Restore Rx also compares well with Deep Freeze.
Among what is the difference between viagra and cialis the available commercial restore-on-reboot utilities Drive Vaccine is the most popular. Drive Vaccine is an automated reset utility that returns all the network PCs back to a perfect system state that the system administrator predefines. Since Drive Vaccine comes with a free enterprise-level management utility, it’s easy to centrally manage cybersecurity policies, patch the machines with the latest Windows and program updates, and stay up-to-date. Drive Vaccine is also fully compatible with Windows 7 and Windows 8. Drive Vaccine also allows you to disable USB flash drives to prevent other security threats. Another alternative is Deep Freeze.
The #1 Personal Instant Backup Utility for Windows XP Systems
For those users who still have Windows XP on their personal machines the fastest and most painless way to recover from any software-related issue is to have RollBack Rx installed. Even if you acquire a virus, malware, or OS stability issues, with RollBack Rx you can quickly revert your system back to any one of multiple restore points (or “snapshots”) with a simple reboot. RollBack Rx is a quicker and more comprehensive competitor to Windows System Restore. Windows System Restore (or even Reset and Refresh in Windows 8) takes up from a quarter to a half of the hard disk space to create its restore points, only backs-up Windows System files, and automatically starts deleting older restore points. Each RollBack Rx snapshot takes up less than 1% of the harddrive’s capacity, backs up everything on up to four internal harddisks, and lets you micro-manage the snapshots.
Both Drive Vaccine and RollBack Rx are also available for http://pharmacy24hour-online.com/ Windows 7 and Windows 8.
