XP Support Ending in April! How will this impact current XP users? What can you do now?

Microsoft will stop providing security patches, etc on April 8.  This can put you at increased risk for malware attacks.  I should hasten to add that, from a risk point of view, how you set up your browsing security and what your passwords look like are the highest risk areas and should always be your primary concern regardless of operating system.  See the previous post.

But what about all the other software, such as your antivirus/antimalware, flash player, Adobe Reader, etc.?

For example, a statement from a Microsoft website regarding Microsoft Security Essentials:
Microsoft has announced the Windows XP end of support date of April 8, 2014. After this date, Windows XP will no longer be a supported operating system*. To help organizations complete their migrations, Microsoft will continue to provide updates to our antimalware signatures and engine for Windows XP users through July 14, 2015.

With respect to these other programs, you have to expect their support to be ending sometime in the near future, probably in the same timeframe.  The time has come to do something. 

If your computer is still performing OK, then options include:

• take that computer off the internet.  Use it as a local computer.
• purchase and install Windows 7... (issues could include performance)  That might cost over $100 and, if you can't do it yourself, an installation cost of perhaps $90.  
• install another free operating system that will continue to be supported and that is secure; first among these is Ubuntu  (I taught a class on converting from XP to Ubuntu with very detailed notes.  This class is in the form of a blog, found here.)  

All options, except the last one, cost a significant fraction of the cost of a new computer.  If you are just using your computer for email, browsing, consider a new tablet.   If you need to create an occasional document or spreadsheet, or run a home finance program, then one of the computers currently on sale for less than $500 should work for you.  One option is to get a small laptop and hook it up to a keyboard and monitor when you want to do serious typing.  

Windows 8.1 is the current version.  Though it has some things you have to get used to, which might take a couple of hours of personal instruction from me, it is not as bad as some rumors suggest.  There are compatibility problems with some very old programs.   Usually those can be forced to run, but it might require a professional service and some additional software.