Keepin’ the ol’ Windows runnin’

(Via News.com. Original story here.)

If you’re stuck running Windows, you may be like a lot of people, refusing to upgrade to the latest, greatest, most bug-laden version. Between the cost of hardware upgrades and the new OS (or if you’re smart, the cost of a new computer with the OS pre-installed), it’s expensive–and why spend that money if your old computer is still doing what you need it to do?

However, Microsoft does not support older versions of the OS, such as NT and 98. This is guaranteed to cause you security problems, as holes in these operating systems continue to come to light. These problems could lead to such fun consequences as some deviant in Bulgaria draining your bank accounts after he obtains the login information for you online banking portal.

There is hope. ZERT, the Zeroday Emergency Response Team, is a group of security professionals who are volunteering their time to patch these old, unsupported operating systems. There is also no guarantee that their patches won’t trash your system, but they do provide the source code if you care to peruse it.

Worthy of a look if you’re still running one of these old OSes. Or of course, you can try Ubuntu. 🙂