Many ham radio operators still run XP, which will run both 8 and 16-bit software, DOS software with TSRs, programs that talk directly to hardware, and a lot of older but still useful software.
There are two schools of thought re. using XP on the Net. One is that it's bad and dangerous, period. Another is that if you have a good virus scanner program, exercise due diligence and don't click on (especially) pictures of nekkid women, or any other links or attachments unless you are explicitly expecting them, you'll probably be OK. The no-attachments rule was reinforced for me recently when an organization I belong to was hacked, and a series of authentic-looking messages with attachments seemed to come from the organization's HQ. They contained Ransomware. I was on to it immediately, but others may have been fooled. Even I once was almost fooled, despite 30 years doing computer and network admin and support. Some of these schemes are very sophisticated. It isn't just kids in their parent's basements anymore. It's organized crime and state-sponsored actors from countries you often hear about in the news.
One good way to protect yourself besides being vigilant and running a virus scanner is to not run MS Office, and disable all macros from running without your explicit consent on any software you use. Since I left the corporate world I ditched MS-Office for LibreOffice, which reads current MS-Word files, is free and perfectly adequate for my needs. The aforementioned Ransomware was a .docm file, an MS-Word template with active macros.
Brian: I use Trend OfficeScan, which I believe still supports XP. Worth the subscription for peace of mind. I suspect many of us will have to think about this if we stick with Win7. I am for the foreseeable future. Microsoft's actions re. pushing Win10 with Malware-like behavior and social engineering tricks crossed a line that no company should ever cross.
