Windows XP: Impact of fear mongering on Final Fantasy XI?

[Lithera]

The answer, of course, is "onions".

And here I thought the answer was always was Nuts.

Sorry couldn't help my self.

Yeah like others have pointed out til your computer implodes don't worry about XI not running on XP.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Micro$oft (not a typo)

Protip: if you need to point out your own cleverness, you're probably not being all that clever. It's up there with "explaining the joke."

They are going hot & heavy on the fear mongering. And, to be quite honest I've found my self unable to dismiss a small quantity of it. I have no personal information on the E1705

Even if that's true that doesn't keep your machine from being hijacked and being used in a botnet.

As I stated above, it's being used exclusively for FFXI, I know not to use the IE6 that on it, I've installed Google Chrome

If you're browsing the web on it, you're not using it exclusively for FFXI.

And even if you really were, you are logging into FFXI with the same username and password used to access your FFXI billing and payment information.

it's been upgraded to Service Pack #3 and I'm using the free edition of Avast

Not every threat is a "virus" or "spyware" (even if a given application would actually stop all of those).

Ask yourself this question: if using Chrome and Avast were enough, why did you upgrade to SP3 to begin with?

Since I'm not going to upgrade it to Win7, then I'm out of ideas & don't know what else to do.

Find an old copy of Vista, start learning the configuration intricacies of WINE, or pick up an Xbox 360.

Thank you very much for your time, effort and consideration in this matter.

I didn't really see a question in all that.

[Malithar]

Bill, your initial post seems to assume that we know exactly what "fear mongering" has been directed at you, when in reality we have no clue. It's almost like you forgot to post the back story. Anyway, what others have said, until FFXI no longer works, why be worried?

Assuming he read this post. I wouldn't quite call it fear mongering, as it's all realistic if not a bit of a stretch, but it's from a corporate/business perspective.

[Trangnai]

Security holes will rise over time. Without Microsoft supporting it sadly thats how proprietary software works. I'm unaware of any huge security risk to the average user currently. But the risks exist. In the end it is his choice. I don't see why he should be asking us if its a good idea to use an outdated system or not.

Using the existing system he has is the cheepest option. But he needs to accept the risks of doing such. There is no reason for an argument.

You can even run FFXI on Linux and Mac OSX using WINE. Which would easily solve the security issue for the cheepest cost (if using Linux) but requires technical understanding. However like the XP option, not supported by SE. But its not like you need to modify the game or anything to get it to run. Just have a native DLL from a Windows Install.

The simplest and safest option would be to get a Windows 7 Liecense and/or Rig and run it that way. 8 will work fine as well. But I don't recommend it because its 8.