When will MBAE Non-Beta version be available? XP concerns.

[rwharold]

I have MBAE Beta version 0.10.2.0100. When will the FINAL version be available? My operating system is Windows XP SP3 32 bit. I am very concerned about Microsoft's stopping support on April 9. Will the combination of MBAM, MBAE, and Norton Internet Security be able to protect my computer after Microsoft support stops?

[John A]

My opinion is that no matter what security products you have on XP, after April 2014 XP will become increasingly vulnerable to attack.

Most AV vendors have said that they will provide support for XP for another year or so, but sooner or later that support will stop.

Firefox & Chrome browsers will continue to be updated on XP for at least another year, so if you choose to continue to use XP it makes sense to use them instead of Internet Explorer.

[Wilpower]

Well I also use xpSP3 for some situations with W8.1 on my production machine.

I have read everything from Immediate Security Breech opinions to people having the opinion that all the hype is MS generated and the Security concerns are way over stated.

Which ever opinion one is inclined to believe, the fact cannot be forgotten: xp is outdate technology. It is what it is.

[rwharold]

Thank you for your reply. At least you have made me feel a little better about continuing to use my 3+ year old computer with XP SP3. Unfortunately, I am 70 years old and I am living on Social Security and simply can not afford to buy a new computer at this time. I will have to keep using it until it finally dies a natural death. I will just pray that MBAM, MBAE, and Norton Internet Security (NIS) will be able to keep me protected. If an infection or attack is not caught and does occur, perhaps MB Chameleon will come to the rescue. Also NIS has a Repair Tool called Norton Power Eraser which is "supposed" to fix missed infections or threats. Comments?

[John A]

Also practice safe browsing and safe email use. Be very wary about downloading/installing free software from the internet etc.

What I have done to my old XP netbook is dual booted XP with UBUNTU - very simple using WUBI (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide). Then I use Ubuntu for email and browsing, and disable XP's internet access, just using XP for Word processing, pictures etc. I continue to have MBAM Pro and MBAE running on XP just in case.

[hake]

Use any browser except Internet Explorer and set Internet Properties security to High, for the Internet zone at least but preferably for all four zones.  I found that Trend Micro's RUBotted stopped working when I did this with the Internet zone.  QED: other less reputable software can also exploit the underlying support software for Internet Explorer, this being an integral part of the XP operating system.

[ritchie58]

Another aspect to consider if one wants to continue using XP after April is to "keep all your non-security related third-party software updated" with the newest builds too, not just your security programs. Sometimes software vendors will put out a new version because of specified or unspecified security vulnerabilities.

[John L. Galt]

Patch, patch, patch and update, update, update.  Always good words to live by.

[hake]

PatchMyPC is a useful tool and free.  I won't actually allow it to update software but it is very valuable as an 'at a glance' guide to what has changed.

[Francois_Blais]

I use Secunia PSI to check my if PC is fully updated.

Run it once a week.

[John L. Galt]

I run it once a month to catch things I might have missed, but I use so many other tools for program updates that PSI more than once a month is over kill.