Microsoft: End of Support Notice

[Mike Jackson]

In case you missed it, I received this notice from Microsoft today:

We would like to make you aware of important news regarding certain versions of Windows that could affect your computers and servers. On July 13, Microsoft support—including the release of new security updates—will end for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Professional. It is also important to note that support for Windows Vista Release to Manufacturing (or RTM, as it is commonly referred to, which indicates the original version without any service packs installed) ended on April 13.

I checked and two of my XP machines already have Service Pack 3. One still has SP2, so I will need to upgrade it soon to keep up with updates.

You might want to look over your systems.

Mike Jackson
co-administrator

[Mark Summers]

I find it interesting that Dell will still offer Windows XP with
their new systems if you choose. Makes me wonder if
Winows 7 is living up to itself. I know Vista went down in flames.
I would be happy staying with XP. Does anybody out there like
7?

Mark

[Mike Jackson]

Mark,
You can still run Windows XP, but you need Service Pack 3. They are not going to support Service Pack 2 anymore. SP3 was a free update from SP2. I just clicked the small yellow shield in the lower right task bar and ran the update.

I have Windows 7 on my main machine. I like it a lot!

Mike Jackson

[Mark Summers]

How is Windows 7 on resources Mike? I think I heard Vista
was pretty heavy on the system resources. can't help but
wonder with all the bells and whistles that the new operating
sytems have if it doesn't make machine a bit slower.

Mark

[Mike Jackson]

Hi Mark,
I bought a fast machine with a fast video card and lots of hard drive space, plus 12 gigs of ram. So, it works fine....plenty snappy!

I bought Windows 7 Ultimate which has a few extra features I like. This is a 64 bit system but I still run a lot of my older software in 32 bit.

If I understand it correctly, we used to have a 3 gig limit for the entire operating system and all the programs. Now, we can let the system use up to three gigs and each program use up to three gigs while still in 32 bit mode. I am still waiting for several of my favorite Photoshop plug-ins to become 64 bit, so I am running it in 32 bit all the time now. To be honest, I can't see that much of a difference whether PS is running in 64 bit or 32 bit mode. In theory, if in 64 bit mode, the system would use its chunk and then a program like Photoshop could have the remaining portion of the 12 gigs.

I'll be happy to run my XP machines a while longer with SP3, but when it is time for something new, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new Windows 7 machine.

Mike Jackson

[Danny Baronian]

I'm always hesitant to upgrade OS especially on a windows platform. Windows 7 is the exception, it was fast, easy and seamless to install, and automatically configured my system with few minor exceptions. I installed Win 7 Pro and would not consider anything less as features for other versions require more time and effort to set up and maintain.

My CNC programs run considerably faster on Win 7 64 bit, even though it's not yet fully 64 bit compatible. Running 32 bit programs are slower, but after digging on microsoft forums found a way to configure the program to run natively in win 7. Once configured, it ran as fast or faster than in XP, but it's hard to tell w/o running them side by side.

With 8 gbs of memory, it's never used more than 25% running the most memory intensive programs that render graphics and code for a CNC, and with a quad core processor allows the machine to work at it's maximum.

Over all it's an impressive OS, networks and printers were set up automatically, including multiple PC's and mac's. That in itself always took time to accomplish, and pre XP took another software program.