Re using WinXP w/o support...I was discussing this and the emb software angst the other night with a computer tech professor. I was told to continue using XP until my computer turns it's toes up! But was advised to make sure I have a good anti-virus (he rec'mnds Avast, and most importantly, he said to set up a "limited user acct". As he explained, malware cannot insert itself when you are using limited acct instead of administrator acct. So I have now a limited AND administrator acct. I can log in w/limited and do almost everything I want to do--and when something is not allowed by the computer, I simply log out and log in again to the administrator account. He said for me to not think I had to rush out and buy new computer. WHEW! Four old laptops and my desktop should last me a long time for my emb software programs that are not compatible with the 64bit processors. Oh, one of these days I will replace the desktop when it begins to ''crawl'' instead of ''run''...but hope it will be a while! I hope this will ease some concerns re the new Windows system.
Because I have never worked on a computer with Avast that did not have a virus on it -- I would recommend a much higher rated anti-virus program like Eset, Kaspersky, or Bitdefender. However, your system is still exposed to problems. The holes in the operating system will allow attackers to access your computer -- possibly even with the antivirus.
