Microsoft Ending Support 8Th April

[porkchop]

I have Microsoft Home XP Home Edition, Version 5.1
Will i be able to upgrade to Windows 8.1 on my computer and if i can how much roughly would it cost. If i continue to use my computer without upgrading what are the risks. My computer does not hold any vital world secrets so i do not give a toss if i get hacked as the hacker would be wasting his time. My computer is just used for personal messages and researching information and maybe paying the odd bill. Any views would be welcome. Thank you

[ivor4781]

if you have a good free anti virus and a free malware prog on your comp and run reg ,you are ok, if thats all your using bit for
there has been earlier discussions on this

[ivor4781]

here
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Technology/Computers/Question1319994.html

[Buenchico]

Upgrading from XP to 8.1 requires a 'clean installation'. That means that you have to wipe your computer's hard drive and start afresh. So you'd need to do a lot of backups of files and then try to reinstall your software. However much of that software might not run under Windows 8.1 and, to make matters worse, Windows 8.1 might not have drivers which are compatible with your PC's components or with external devices (such as your printer or scanner). So it's certainly not a simple task! See here for further information:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/upgrade-from-windows-vista-xp-tutorial

'Microsoft support' largely consists of bulky downloads for parts of Windows that most people never use (particularly if they don't use Internet Explorer as their browser). There are several people around here (including myself) who turned off that so-called 'support' several years ago and who've suffered absolutely no problems because of it.

[HansUrbancka]

It will cost about £85/90 to upgrade( if that's what it's called) to Windows 8.1 and is somewhat expensive for what is Not an excellent Operating System.

The second part of your question was possibly answered here :-

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Technology/Computers/Question1318277.html

Further comments of mine are in the following link:-

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Technology/Computers/Question1323103.html

Hans.

[Lie-in King]

Hi porkchop - I'm by no means an expert on this topic but as far as I can tell, you first need to upgrade to Windows 8 (approx $120 [Google search], assuming your system has the needed specification), after which you can upgrade to 8.1 with no charge.

Does the following link provide any assistance?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/upgrade-from-windows-vista-xp-tutorial

Windows 8 (8.1) was designed primarily for "touch-screen" devices & is - IMO - useless for a dedicated desktop/laptop user that doesn't want to be wiping away greasy fingerprints 6 times a day...

I'm sure that one of AB's experts will be able to offer better assistance than this...

I hope you get everything sorted out :-)

[Lie-in King]

...And that's what I get for taking a phone call & not refreshing the screen before posting - doh!

[ivor4781]

methyl
what do you mean your anti virus must be years out odf date ??
any free anti virus prog will update itself such as avg and comodo. and your wrong about xp being unsafe foir this particular guy who asked the question .read what he uses his comp for,

[ivor4781]

well on my old xp machine (a spare comp)without sp3 comodo works fine

[linbig]

I just wish the world would get the message that there is an operating system out there called LINUX !
It is free, most of bigger distros are easy to use (such as Linux Mint, Ubuntu ,Debian etc).
If your pc will run XP then it will probably run Linux.Unless it is really old and even then there are specialist distros!
If I can do it anybody can!
I and the missus both use it and neither of us are IT specialists in any way shape or form
There is very little chance of getting infected with viruses malware etc.
We have 4 pcs here and none of them have any sort of antibug software on them at all.
I have found that my W7 pc at work to be slower than any of my home pcs , even my little old laptop from circa 2000!
Yeh I know the world revolves around M$.
Enough rant ,bye.
But if you want more info I'm about most evenings.