The Demise of Windows XP

Your best bet is to put a virtual Windows XP machine that will have your registered copy of Autocad on it inside a machine running a reliable OS platform that will not abandon users for profit. Linux is a good place to start.

I've only started to dabble with this approach since I can see the fools crew in Redmond think extorting money from their customers is normal business.

You could do that.

Or, you can download a free AutoCad® clone like DraftSight® by Dassault Systèmes.

I had trouble with my work PC virtual XP (got hi-jacked by cryptolocker) and downloaded DS into Win 7. It works just as well and I can import .DWG files with no problems. The commands and screens are almost identical.

I downloaded it at home where I have Vista and it works fine here too.

I have no incentive for this endorsement.

Hear hear!

What what?

But unless the virus is destructible it will not do much more harm on the machine since it is offline.

Most harmful software relys on the machine to be online. It needs to download more components and upload data. None of this will happen.

I think being offline is a very viable option for most of us!

I have an old 486 Compaq running XP that I use with my weather station -- as "stand-alone" machine; ie: no internet connection whatsoever -- and it works just fine and never gets any viruses or malwares (wink,wink).

Hi ronseto:

Use your computer away from Internet as Kill OS programs may enter your computer as trusting Microsoft even US Government doesn't risk.

OS are Alien's world so what is that they will do to it is Aliens only know. Once you are connected, they know and have access to your arteries and veins of your computer to inject enough poison.

You can get a different PC for the internet, but you may forget about your Windows machine. Mine collects dust and hasn't been turned on for years, except during tax time. For the last several years I drag it out, and hook it up, so I can pay my government to protect me from monopolies.

There is a huge amount of support for open source operating systems. They are easier to install, and user friendly......until.......you want to do something like install proprietary video drivers. For something like that, you may find yourself in a terminal, typing commands. I personally, found it refreshing, to actually learn something about computers, after using Windows for so many years.

Yes it is! As per the slogan Never touch a running system and as long as you can transfer data one way or the other I would even recommend to have one machine not in the internet at all which will limit the exposure to threads to the way you transfer data.

I would consider writing to CD/DVD as viable option which will have almost no exposure to threads at all.

I too was fearful of losing everything with the demise of XP but, moving to Win7 for work, as the big companies IT is to use MS, and also all the work software we use is only Windows based, I have was not that bad.

I do have a couple of applications that are XP only so I have gone with using XP mode. Works not too bad, and I also use Virtual PC, VMWare and VirtualBox all with some success. There are some issues around resources, and our IT dept in their wisdom don't have a 64 bit image, memory is limited.

Also at work I do have several industrial workstation that I am refusing to follow requests to upgrade to Win7, concerns about driver compatibility and the like. My argument here is, we have up to date virus protection, we are on a restricted VLAN, USB ports are locked, and I don't use IE on them, so where is my risk...MS support is the comeback, haven't used it in the past for these application, and expect I wont in the future.

At home I use Win8.1, it came with the PC. Here I do enjoy running a variety of VM's in both VMPlayer and VirtualBox, it got plenty of grunt to run multiples. I even try out those 'sus' programs in a VM, which is blocked from the host, to test things. It is great.

Don't fret about the XP now unsupported, use a good browser like Mozilla that is still supported, have a current AV program and be vigil with backups and keep away from the bad places...

Cheers,

Trevor.

I don't understand why anyone would want to remove all internet/network connections. Leave your Autocad/XP machine on your home network behind a good firewall working with your router.

Don't casually browse the web or use email on the Autocad machine and practice safe internet browsing and email protocols on your web machine and you shouldn't have any problems.

There's no use in crippling your network capabilities unnecessarily. If you're that paranoid about the internet just leave the network cable of that particular machine unplugged until you need to transfer files/data.

Hooker <-- who only runs Windows Defender and anti-adware protection

If you are going to get another PC for the internet why loose all the the benefits of the up grade. Most CAD applications can consume a lot ram space depend on the complexity of the drawing. Set the new computer up to run a virtual drive with XP and your AutoCAD on the virtual drive. Better yet would to have the computer run XP and create the virtual drive to browse the internet. The virtual drive gets a bug you can get rid of you just dump it and install an image you make at the time of creation.

If you're happy with that, go for it. If you have to "make do" then a slight adjustment/learning curve may be worth it.

I still have NT2000 embedded on a large format scanner. Works fine, lasts a long time. I put an $800 refresh kit into it two years ago likely saving a chunk of money.