I run Windows XP and Office 2003 on a PC, and Windows XP and Office 2007 plus IRIS on a laptop. All in one printer connected to both.
Many years ago I developed an Excel 2003 cashbook that 80% of my clients use and email it to me once a year.
With XP expiring in April 2014 what are my most hassle free options, please?
Replies (27)
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Windows 7
Do you know if the cashbook will work on later copies of Office ?
Microsoft say that office 2003 isn't supported by Windows 8, but it is by windows 7 so if you still need to use excel 2003 personally I would go to windows 7.
Or you could upgrade to windows 8 and then run a virtual copy of Windows xp with office 2k3 installed just for the cashbook to run.
XP Support
On 8 Apr 2014 tech support from Microsoft will end (which you probably don't care about), but Windows updates will also end (which you should care about). The virtual copy of XP would have the same issue.
Try your cashbook in Office 365. If it works you can upgrade to whatever Windows you want. Otherwise go to Win 7 and keep Office 2003 (for now at least).
sandbox
If you sandbox a virtual copy of xp (i.e. No Internet access, no access to the local drive etc) then no updates won't cause any issues.
As said above
Excel 2003 will run very happily on Windows 7 which is a good and stable OS. I haven't used Windows 8 so can't comment on that. There is almost certainly no reason why your XL2003 model will not run equally happily in later versions of Excel and it can be run as an .xls file (compatibility mode) so you can still liaise seamlessly with your clients' copies.
Depending on your other uses of Excel, the later versions (certainly from 2010) have significant extra useful features.
XP is also a sound OS and is still supported; although there hasn't been a service pack for many years, security patches, etc are still released regularly. This will cease early next year so it will become more vulnerable if the baddies can be bothered with an old system.
shared folder
Yes, so for security you create a folder called c:\client docs, and then save their files to there.
In the virtual copy of XP you only allow access to that folder.
You could even save a default state version of the XP machine made after install which is restored after every use.
Then as the XP machine would have no access to anything other than your client docs folder, no chance of any cross infection and even If it does get infected next time you shut it down and restart it's put back to a 'clean' state.
legacy
Yes, so for security you create a folder called c:\client docs, and then save their files to there. In the virtual copy of XP you only allow access to that folder. You could even save a default state version of the XP machine made after install which is restored after every use. Then as the XP machine would have no access to anything other than your client docs folder, no chance of any cross infection and even If it does get infected next time you shut it down and restart it's put back to a 'clean' state.The reality is you will never get this to work reliably. Why continue to put off the inevitable?
Have set this solution up loads of time for legacy apps which won't work on win 7/8, but guess it depends on how IT literate you are.
xp and excel
have a look at libra office current version/ its free ?.....opens anything microsoft-
A breathing space?
PC Pro magazine, January 2014 edition, has an article on the XP problem of support finishing on 8 April 2014 (yes it IS a problem)(*).
One breathing space option that is referred to is "Users can switch to Windows Server 2003, which won't be terminated until 14 July 2015"
Users of Internet Explorer (IE) are recommended to switch to Google Chrome in April 2014 if they continue to use XP, this is because Google Chrome have announced support for XP until April 2015.
(*) The problem is not that XP and software run under XP will suddenly stop functioning (a highly unlikely scenario!), but rather the real issue is that MS will cease to issue patches and updates to deal with malicious attacks that could hack into XP. I suggest that any computer that exceptionally does NOT have access to the internet will be at little risk, unless malicious files from other XP computers are copied / loaded onto it. Existing software should continue to operate perfectly well on an XP computer provided that support is available from the software developer (eg. Google Chrome).
server 2k3
Moving to server 2003 isn't really a fix as there is no upgrade available from XP, so you would have to wipe your XP machine and then install 2k3. Also the cost for server is a lot more than for a desktop OS such as windows 7/8. There can also be issues getting drivers for hardware designed for desktop and not server use.
What's wrong with upgrading?
Why not get Windows 8.1 and Excel 2013? I like the features.
It just strikes me
that the virtual machine approach is a complicated solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Maybe I'm missing the point. I have to say I have always found virtual machines a pain so I'm biased. :-)
The OP wanted the most hassle free option which is probably new OS (suggest Windows 7 as more like XP than Windows 8) and put Excel 2003 on. Best solution would probably be to put Excel 2013 on but you do need to get used to the new interface compared with XL 2003.
custom excel
I've never had an issue using virtual machines, provided they are given enough resources to run and personally I prefer vmware over Microsoft offering.
The solution for the OP really depends on if what they have written will work in later versions of excel, which was the first question asked.
If it does then great, ditch xp and office 2k3, but if not they may find it hard getting a new machine with windows 7 as most come with win8 which doesn't have downgrade rights.
MS Office and Windows 8
Although the software doesn't include lots of new features it does provide better ways of working. MS seem to have concentrated on ease of use. This is different to Sage who trumpet a new feature but when you investigate it's usually so badly designed it doesn't work as well as you would expect.
I have yet to read any good review on excel 2013. The phrase used to describe is "It sucks". I am sticking with 2010.
I've just searched for "excel 2013 review"
I have yet to read any good review on excel 2013. The phrase used to describe is "It sucks". I am sticking with 2010.
and I got the following two reviews at the top:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2417132,00.asp
What did you search for?
2013
I have yet to read any good review on excel 2013. The phrase used to describe is "It sucks". I am sticking with 2010.
I've been using 2013 for about 6 months now and I really like it, a lot of the bugs in 2010 like messing up the formatting when saving to PDF have been resolved.
That said I'm not a power user by any means but for what I use it for it's very good.
Look further
I have yet to read any good review on excel 2013. The phrase used to describe is "It sucks". I am sticking with 2010.
I can see several good ones on this very page :)
Upgrade
Win XP will become a security risk. You really must consider upgrading.
With Win 8 you do have downgrade rights to Win 7 (which I would recommend), but you would be stuck with Office 2013.
If you perceiver with Office 2013 it becomes bearable (other free options are available including openoffice.org). Office 2013 will still open Office 2003 documents so your cashbook will be safe.
Richard
Only pro
With Win 8 you do have downgrade rights to Win 7 (which I would recommend), but you would be stuck with Office 2013.
Just to note only the professional version of Win 8 comes with downgrade rights.
What did you search for?
What did you search for? Excel forums are the best gauge. One of them is called excel forum. You may need to open an account to access the forum. Excel f Ex
Excel 2013
is fine apart from two issues: it doesn't look very nice and the different versions, and their respective capabilities, are a bit confusing. A lot of useful new features and an evolution from Excel 2010 rather than a revolution.
What about your hardware?
The dangers of continuing to use software that won't get security holes patched have been well covered by other contributors. I would only add that XP is already much more vulnerable to malware and hacking than Windows 7 or 8, so you are taking a risk by continuing to use it now. You should bear in mind that it is not only your own security you risk, but anyone with whom you share files.
But you also need to face the fact that one day your aging computer hardware is going to go pop to an extent that makes it uneconomic/impractical/impossible to repair. Rather than face that day as a disaster, wouldn't it be better to cope with a transition under control, with time for research, experiment and learning?
You already have Office 2007, so you can find out if your cashbook works on that. If you had to modify it, that would be a good interim stage to getting it working on Office 2013.
Windows 7 is good (no, win7 haters, don't start, I know it isn't perfect) - as a PC techie I find it is generally well-behaved and stable, provided it is set up properly and not abused. I would guess you don't have any need for Windows 8, but it's ok if set up with a few free extras, and provided that the significant changes in system backup and recovery are understood.
To summarise: you have the time to make a planned, controlled change. That has to be better than being forced to change by a disaster.
Win 7 vs Win 8
For those who will take the step of changing to a more upto date Windows OS, something to consider.
WINDOWS MEDIA CENTRE
Check if this is included in your Win8 installation / upgrade, if Windows Media Centre is important to you, since brand new computers with Win 8 lack Windows Media Centre (now sold as an optional extra at further cost). This was a retrograde step from Windows 7 where WMC was included (not an extra cost option).
Iris and Windows XP
You mentioned that you are using Iris on Windows XP. I use Iris as well and as far as I am aware they have ceased supporting Windows XP. This means, I think, that if you have any problems with Iris and they turn out to be because you are using Windows XP, Iris will not support you in solving the problem.
We have now upgraded all our computers to Windows 7 and are reasonably content with it. We also have Office2010 which works fine with old 2003 spreadsheets.
IRIS and Win XP
IRIS do still support XP at the moment but that support is due to end in March 2014 to coincide with Microsoft End of Life:
http://www.iris.co.uk/support/microsoft-windows-xp-support/
Personally though as much as I used to love Win XP it is now a bit of a dinosaur and the newer Win 7 / Win 8 are, in my opinion, an absolute must.
Richard