Can Software Keep Windows XP Safe?

I received a question this week regarding ads on TV that promise to keep Windows XP safe.  The customer specifically asked if this product would allow someone to continue to use Windows XP even though Microsoft is no longer supporting it.

I responded by stating that not only would this product not be able to keep Windows XP completely safe, but also that I would not trust a security product that promises that they can keep Windows XP completely safe.

Yes, this program may be able to keep Windows XP safer than if you did not have it, but that would be true for any security product.  However, there is much more to keeping Windows safe than what this program can do.  There are holes in any version of Windows that can be exploited, and only modifications to the source code can fix these holes.  Since Microsoft does not release the source code for Windows, this program would be unable to find the exact hole and patch it.  It might be able to provide a workaround that renders the hole useless, but the hole will remain unless Microsoft release a patch (which it says it will not do).

Yes, I realize that many people do not want to upgrade to anything newer than Windows XP.  However, XP is now 13 years old, and that is well beyond the lifetime for a technology product.  When XP was released, the first Blackberry device was two years away from its release, and the iPhone would not come along for another six years.  Hard drives were measured in tens of gigabytes instead of terabytes, and 256 MB of RAM was considered adequate (most systems now use at least eight to sixteen times that amount).  If you have a Windows XP computer, the simple fact is that it is time to upgrade.

Software may be able to help keep Windows XP safer, but nothing will be able to keep XP completely safe.  Without patches from Microsoft, Windows XP is a risk, especially when it is online.  If you want to keep your XP computer around as a device for your kids to play games on or for you to type a few documents while offline, that is fine.  But if your primary internet computer is running XP, then you need to upgrade!