Is it safe to use a school computer running Windows XP after April 8, 2014?

Question

My school is still running Windows XP at their computer lab, and this concerns me, because I frequently use the school computers to do classwork.

Microsoft states that Windows XP support will end on April 8, 2014, and there will be no more security updates for the operating system after that date, leaving it wide open to malware attacks. The problem is, in order to complete some of my assignments, I have to go on the Internet and log in to certain Websites that require a username and password. Worse, my classes occasionally come to the computer lab, and I'd have no choice but to use the computers there. Thankfully, my school keeps Firefox and Chrome up to date, but I'm not sure if that's enough to keep my account and passwords secure on a computer with Windows XP.

Or maybe I'm just paranoid. Perhaps the end of Windows XP support isn't such a big deal after all. That's why I ask here if I'm going to be fine when using the school computers. If not, what can I do to keep myself safe? Is private browsing a good idea, since it won't store my cookies? Will I have to bring my own laptop to school?

Thanks for your answers.

Answer 1

While it is true that support is ending April 8th and Malware infections are supposedly going to be bombarding XP after this date, your school probably has good security. I know my schools computers were set up to go back to default settings and programs once the computer was restarted, doing this eliminated malware threats.



@demon... It is being rumored that hackers are saving up their own vulnerabilities to use when support ends. You must not have heard any news of XP support ending.

Answer 2

I don't think the world is going to end for xp machines on the 8th. Also, just because theyre stopping support doesn't mean if someone wrote some killer destroyer virus built around an xp vulnerability on April 9th, they couldn't still decide to write a hotfix for it. Bringing your own laptop sounds like a safe bet all around though.

Answer 3

you are just paranoid

1. the computers at your school are protected by multi level security

2. people generally only make malware for the most common OS in use today, which is windows 7

3. internet security ( server to client) connections are independent of the security on the OS.

4. also just a word of caution NEVER SAVE YOUR PASSWORDS to a computer that is publicly accessible

Answer 4

their support has been pretty non-existent for years now anyway XP is still the best O/S for all but the latest and fastest systems, all microsoft O/S are based on windows NT which evolved out of UNIX like linux since the instruction for a processor to move a zero or a one from a to b has been the same for 30 years behind the scenes not much has changed the x86 instruction set is the same for all of that class of cpu