Purchasing xp vs newer os, (for repair purposes)

[mi_keys]

Hello all,

I'm looking to purchase a few OS install discs from eBay to build up my "arsenal" for my startup pc repair business. My question is, should I put time and money into purchasing install discs for the different windows xp versions since it will no longer be "supported" by microsoft? Or should I focus on acquiring newer OS installs first?

Any recommendations are welcome! and if I posted this in the wrong area, please redirect me. Thank you!

 

[Markverhyden]

Given that it's market share is still close to 30% that would probably be a good idea if you want to capture all the customers you can.

 

[Xander]

I wouldn't. Why would you want to encourage people to stick with an abandoned OS? That's like duct taping a leak in a boat made of cardboard.

In a perfect world, it's market share will be much, much lower by April 8th.

 

[mraikes]

I wouldn't. Why would you want to encourage people to stick with an abandoned OS? That's like duct taping a leak in a boat made of cardboard.

In a perfect world, it's market share will be much, much lower by April 8th.

Of course you're right about the lower market share, but they'll still be out there in large numbers and we'll still be seeing them (even in decreasing numbers) for a long time to come. Providing support to a still common OS isn't the same as actually encouraging people to stick with it.

I've been warning/advising XP users to "move on" to something newer for months now, but I'll support XP as long as it continues to be supportable. Just because MS is dropping it doesn't mean devices won't still work with it, software will still work, the OS itself will still be usable, repairable and even buyable for quite a while yet.

So yeah, OP, I think you should have the tools to support XP as well as newer OS'.

 

[NYJimbo]

My question is, should I put time and money into purchasing install discs for the different windows xp versions since it will no longer be "supported" by microsoft?

YES. You should at least have XP/XPPro with SP3 discs, its the most common discs you will need for XP boxes that are still coming in. If you can find other versions cheap why not buy them? If a customer calls you with an XP machine and it sounds like you might need the XP disc for something, do you really want to turn them away ?

Not everyone is going to switch to another O/S after April. You will lose a lot of business and people will think you are the wrong person to call if you cant at least help keep alive their XP box because you don't have a $20 disc.

I'm not saying you should try to keep supporting XP forever, but until we see how long it takes for XP to drop off, spending $100 on a few discs is probably going to help you and will pay for themselves quite quickly.

 

[Porthos]

I would bookmark this for the newer disks. Download the main ones and keep them backuped just in case they dissapear again.

http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft

 

[peachypc]

I still see maybe 4 or 5 '98 machines in the course of a year. People have their reasons for using them. Usually boils down to proprietary software not supported by newer OS's, and many of the companies are not even in existence anymore.
I actually got a PS/1 with Win 3.1 in, in January.
When a small tire business is looking at $30k-$50k for new software they will put it off forever if they can.
The more tools the better.
These systems however are not connected to the internet, and used in closed business environments.
The more systems you know, the more business you will get.

 

[buzzcut]

These systems however are not connected to the internet, and used in closed business environments.

As long as they don't connect and have a backup/image these guys will still be able to use their legacy software.

 

[mi_keys]

Thanks everyone for your help. I'm going to try and find the best deals on xp then since it will be limited, but can still bring business in the next year or so.

NYJimbo mentioned getting them with sp3, would that be sufficient or should I try to gather all the xp "variables" that are out there?

Porthos, thank you for the link I'll definitely bookmark that!

Xander, you make a valid point but rest assured I pressure people to jump to a newer OS. Seems like people are trying to pinch pennies these days and are willing to wait through the storm.

 

[Xander]

Don't waste your time with non-SP3 varieties. You'd be wanting to slipstream them to SP3 anyway so might as well get it as updated as you can.

Once you've got them, rip them to ISO format and save that. Lock up all your originals and only work from burnt ISOs. After the final updates come out, look into slipstreaming and make yourself one final "XP SP3 FULLY UPDATED" disk. If you're going to install XP, you might as well skip the 15 update/reboot cycles after the install, right?

(Same general advice to make yourself fully-updated Vista/7 disks, too, btw).
I'm bad about slipstreaming (seem to have little success) but I do keep a WSUSOffline directory on my NAS for updating every machine that hits my workbench. They still usually seem to need a manual update after that but it's a lot more painless this way.

 

[mi_keys]

xander, awesome advice thanks. I've been reading up on the slipstreaming and I will definitely be trying that out hopefully with success. wsusoffline looks pretty interesting as well. Is there risk with an infected machine reaching the NAS?

 

[Xander]

In theory, but I don't put machines on the network until I'm relatively confident they're clean.

 

[redmon]

xander, awesome advice thanks. I've been reading up on the slipstreaming and I will definitely be trying that out hopefully with success. wsusoffline looks pretty interesting as well. Is there risk with an infected machine reaching the NAS?

Cryptolocker will encrypt anything(like your nas, depending how you set it up) mapped to the pc it gets on. That is different than spreading a virus.

We put infected machines on our network as standard practice, not saying you should copy our lax procedure. In the 7 years we have been in business, we are not ever aware of a virus spread over our network.

I am more concerned with a virus, like Cryptolocker, getting on one of our work stations and encrypting our backup files. That is a real risk. We do use cryptoprevent to minimize issues. That is not foolproof.

 

[brandonkick]

Do yourself a favor and have a SP3 home and professional version of XP. There really is no reason not to have one, as far as the associated costs are concerned... even one job can make up for the "investment" of the disks.


WSUSOffline can be put onto a thumb drive, and you can have different thumb drives with different WSUSOffline "updates" for different products. My suggestion is just to get a 32GB thumb drive and load it up with WSUS updates for everything including all versions of windows from XP and on, all versions of office and so on.

You can even go one step further and create an image of a machine that has been fully set up with XP PRO and then one set up with XP HOME so that when you get one of these jobs all you need to do is restore the image with clonezilla. Will save a lot of time as most machines running XP are slower then dirt.

Not supporting XP is IMO a bad business practice. Should you advise customers against it? I probably would, especially in the sense that any money "invested" into an older machine running XP would probably be better spent towards a newer machine. But as long as they understand the risks, and are willing to pay then take their money.