[struggling artist]

Hi all,

I'm just about to buy xp for my new pc - can anyone tell me how much longer microsoft say they will support xp for? And is the support time different for home and pro?

Thanks!

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Mainstream support will be ended April 2009. From then until April 2014 they will still release security updates, and it will be possible purchase an extended hotfix agreement for non security updates.

More information can be found at Microsoft's Lifecycle Information page

[MichWasHere]

Mainstream support will be ended April 2009. From then until April 2014 they will still release security updates, and it will be possible purchase an extended hotfix agreement for non security updates.

More information can be found at Microsoft's Lifecycle Information page

[struggling artist]

thanks MichWasHere! do you know if it's any different for xp professional?

[MichWasHere]

Home and Pro both have the same dates.

[struggling artist]

Ok, thanks for your help!

[1101doc]

Just my 2cents worth.

XP Pro is considerably more robust than Home, and has advanced networking and configuration abilities. You may not feel you need them now, but I've discovered that as my computer experience matures, I like the features of Pro better. (I have both systems on machines in my home.)

Price is often the driving factor in making these decisions, but I suggest that the extra $ is worth it. It will not be long before XP is no longer available for "new" purchase. Yes, "support" will be available till '14, but it will not be possible to purchase a new XP license after the offerings made this year are gone.

I have just learned from a Microsoft MVP that once SP3 is released, Microsoft will offer XP SP3 CDs with license. I intend to purchase a couple of "Full Retail" boxed XP SP3 CDs for my future needs.

The much less expensive "OEM" versions of XP belong to the motherboard upon which they were first installed. They are "married" to the machine, and often there is no way to activate them on a different machine. Yes, a phone call often works, but there is a limit.

A "Full Retail" version of XP belongs to the person who purchased the license. It can be removed from one computer and installed and activated on another.

I encourage you to "Go Pro," and also to get the "Full Retail" version.
I think it is the best way to project XP into the future.
Unless the new "Windows 7" really "knocks my socks off," I intend to stay with XP indefinitely.

[struggling artist]

Hi 1101doc,

Thanks for your helpful input. Hmm, I'm a little confused now though, the research I've done tells me that apart from networking and a few other things (which I don't need) Home and Pro are exactly the same. Can you tell me what you mean when you say "pro is considerably more robust"? I am very new to computers technology so please make it simple!
Also, do you know when the SP3 editions will be available? The dilemma I have, apart from price, which does figure, is that I have a company building my new pc right now and I have to tell them probably today what OS I want them to install. They only offer an OEM version. Maybe I will have to go with the cheap OEM version for now and think about getting the retail one with SP3 later on. Drat, bad timing, should have waited a while!
Let me know what you think asap cos I have to talk to the company about my decision.

Struggling artist

[1101doc]

I guess my choice of "robust" really intended to mean that it does everything that XP can do while "Home" is considerably more limited.
Here's a comparison by Paul Thurrott: http://www.winsupers...xp_home_pro.asp

I still vote for Pro:
It is better to have features and not need them
than it is to need features and not have them.

[Neil Jones]

I still vote for Pro:
It is better to have features and not need them
than it is to need features and not have them.

What sort of an argument is that?
If you need Domain Support, you don't go and buy XP Home, in fact you'd have checked this before you bought it. Hopefully.

More rather it is better having XP Home which is cheaper than having XP Pro which adds a bunch of things that a home user is never going to use anyway. Show me a computer in a typical home that uses a domain server. Remote Desktop is easy to add to XP Home, its called PCAnywhere and it's really quite good. Dual processor support - you don't need it now we've got dual-core. Nothing on the previously posted list is essential to a computer that sits in a back bedroom and downloads stuff from the Internet. Why spend twice as much again for a bunch of bits you're probably never going to use and you can bolt them on later with other software anyway?

[Ztruker]

Neil, one big thing, for me at least, is that Home only allows Simple File Sharing. This means there are files on my computers that I would not be able to access. Using Pro and NTFS permissions, I have full access from all 3 computers to every file on all 3 computers.

This may not be a requirement for all home users but more and more have multiple computers and file sharing has become a necessity.

Dragging stuff to/from the Shared Documents folder is not the answer either.

[struggling artist]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your views, I think I'm going to stick with xp Home for now as I'm mainly using the pc for design work with photoshop. If I discover I need other things at a later date I'll just have to add them then!

Would still like to know if any of you know when xp with sp 3 is going to be available, and until when...?

[1101doc]

More info and links in this thread: http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=31990

[struggling artist]

1101doc - many thanks for all the links about sp3, very useful!