Just to let you know, for those who still rely on good old Win XP:

MicroSoft has anounced to stop their support for Win-XP = no more updates per April 8, 2014.

Which means that by then they will have supported this OS-version for about 12,5 years (launch date Oct 25, 2001). Not that bad.
As their next serious major release Win-7 (Vista always was considered an interim product) was launched Oct 22, 2009 we might hope it lasts till mid 2022 :-)

We've got still 2 computers with XP. One isn't connected to the internet at all so that shouldn't be a problem at all. The other one is a dell laptop and is still used a lot and connected to the internet, does it really matters that there's no more support?

not sure but I would count on

 - no more security updates
 - no more driver updates = no support for recent / new hardware
 - no support for recent / new software (Office 2015, Poser 2015, Vue 2015, ...)
 - no more respons from the MS Helpdesk
 - and eventually: no more MS webpages to download Service Packs, Knowledge Base patches, etc

In return, XP will be even more stable than it's now :-)

• no more security updates

That may cause a problem, but XP is so old, perhaps hackers will loose interest.

• no more driver updates = no support for recent / new hardware

No problem, old machines, so they will not be updated with that stuff.

• no support for recent / new software (Office 2015, Poser 2015, Vue 2015, ...)

I'm sure that on those Poser 8, OpenOffice and so on will run fine for years. I'm not in the habit of updating everything just because there's a new version. If it doesn't offer anthing I need, then I'll don't update at all.

• no more respons from the MS Helpdesk

I never called them :-)

• and eventually: no more MS webpages to download Service Packs, Knowledge Base patches, etc

In case of crash that may be a problem indeed, but it may still take a while until everything is gone.

In case they crash and can't be recovered, it's time to upgrade or move to new machines.

This was announced several years ago. 

"End of support refers to the date when Microsoft no longer provides automatic fixes, updates, or online technical assistance. This is the time to make sure you have the latest available update or service pack installed. Without Microsoft support, you will no longer receive security updates that can help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal your personal information. "

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle

Over 1/3 of Windows users still use XP.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9242052/Windows_XP_s_user_share_nose_dives

I didn't know there were so many XP users still. Seems like MS will be facing the same problem in years to come.... everyone moving to Windows 7 and not 8. For me personally 8 is like Vista, don't even touch it or your in trouble.

I still use Win XP....Think its the best OS Microsoft ever made. Other comp is Win7 which is very rarely turned on....Have no intention of updating the system...

You should consider updating systems beyond XP, once a hack/vulnerability is exposed that is relevent to XP it will not get patched and that means you could be compromised, there is some nasty ransomware kicking around and those kind of programs will jump on unpatched vulnerabilities.

from a poser perspective you should upgrade, getting to a modern operating system with 64-bit support gives you a wealth of performance benefits to poser, stick 16-32gb into your machine and Poser flies giving you a much better experience.

Windows 7 and 8/8.1 are fine operating systems and offer a solid and practical benefit in performance and stability over XP and you shouldn't be hanging aorund on XP beyond April next year.

If you do, for god sake backup regularly to ensure you don't end up suffering a loss of data for XP nostalgia.

I would at least think of upgrading to Windows 7. Microsoft should be supporting it for a nice long while (businesses like it) and it really IS a good OS (much better than Vista and 8 has it's "issues").

I really didn't want to upgrade from XP for awhile...until I did and realized  how good Windows 7 is ;). I just needed to make the jump ;)

Laurie

I upgraded to Win7 on my other comp and very rarely use it..I always upgraded started back with win95-win98-ME..skipped Vista heard too many horror stories..Then Win32. Have minor problems Win 7 comp. Some facebook games lag...Not on Win32...Mouse feels different...Can't explain it. Using same model on both comps..Comp start up seems alot slower then Win XP.... Can't say anything really good about it except the 64 bit

Well, I think the point is that it won't always run perfect. LOL. No support means no security patches which will spell bad news down the road. Jarm's right ;).

Besides, I practically have my Windows 7 knocked back to XP anyway - no Aero or other flashy stuff, which ya can turn off ;).

Laurie

All my machines, but one, run Windows 7 , even the ones that were built after Windows 8 was available.  The one machine running XP does so because I have a rather expensive HP scanner unit and there are no Windows 7 drivers and try as I might I could not get it to scan at all on Win 7.   Guess I will stay with XP even after April and just not connect to the Internet, at least until the scanner packs up and needs to be replaced.  I have spare Win 7 licences I can use as I have no intention of moving anything to Win 8.

Scanner/printer...Had trouble also....I use Guruaid for comp problems. What they did was to network the printer..WinXP and Win7 do not like each other..But they did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Even Epson was unable.....True you do have to pay for wellworth it

     I have two home networks, with an assortment of 32WinXp, 32Vista, 64Vista, 32Win7, and 64Win7.  They network render together in both  Vue and in Poser.

     Perhaps your scanner/printer issue is a matter of the driver;  i.e., an old printer may have an XP driver but no Win7 driver available.