IT finally updated our operating systems

"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo)
06/30/2014 at 09:14 • Filed to: Mini Rant

Because Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft (I guess) we all now have Windows 7! WEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Good thing the IT guys didn't read that I need specific software requiring admin authority to download, cuz, you know, if they did read that then I wouldn't be here typing up how I need admin authority to DOWNLOAD ALL THE THINGS!

arghhhhh

DISCUSSION (13)

ReallyColorful > cazzyodo
06/30/2014 at 09:19

PIRATE ALL THE EVERYTHINGS!

Hermann > cazzyodo
06/30/2014 at 09:24

Whoa... That's kinda ridiculous. Was the whole company still on XP? I'm a sysadmin, and we still have to run a single XP machine because one of our corporate softwares doesn't support 7. The company that supports that software claims to have an update, but they're making up excuses to give us the patch.

Also, 2006 my mom was working on a company that still used Win 98. She quit that year, but I heard it still took them years to upgrade to 7.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > Hermann
06/30/2014 at 09:33

if a company has a big enough account they can pay an insane amount of money to get extended coverage of xp from Microsoft. This is fairly common with government agencies and contractors.

Nibbles > Hermann
06/30/2014 at 09:39

I'm a sysadmin too! The last place I worked, one of our clients had an outward-facing web server running 2000 Server SP2. In 2012. To my knowledge, that thing is still running and they have someone dedicated to keeping it clean.

Hermann > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
06/30/2014 at 09:50

Yeah, I've heard this coming mostly from banks. Because ATMs, even new ones being deployed now are still using XP.

There's some sort of "hack", where you turn a key on regedit and XP turns into "embedded XP", and it still gets updates.

Hermann > Nibbles
06/30/2014 at 09:59

Yay for ssh rats!

Was that client a part of the an international organisation?

We are part of an international organisation and we have to keep a server here that belongs to the mother organisation. We only have a user account on it for regular maintenance, they have the admin. Problem is that 90 of our users depend on that thing, which also runs Server 2000 SP2 and they refuse to update it.

One of the power supplies has gone bust in 2010 and Dell doesn't make replacements for it since 2008.

Soloburrito > Hermann
06/30/2014 at 09:59

Our fancy espresso machine at work runs embedded xp.

An intern somehow managed to quit to desktop on that thing to the brief amusement of the office. That amusement quickly turned into annoyance when we couldn't get our coffee.

Nibbles > Hermann
06/30/2014 at 10:04

International company, yes, though it is the parent company. The worst part about their setup was, before we stepped in to manage their infrastructure, they were handing out admin accounts to anyone who "needed to post a quick file to the site" or whatever. The first time I logged into the thing, I found at least 30 orphaned SIDs

cazzyodo > Hermann
06/30/2014 at 11:02

Pretty sure the whole company is swapping over as part of an effort to basically get with the times...which I read as "Microsoft dropped support so we better get our shit together."

The laptops they give us had Windows 7 preloaded (little stickers say so) so when my company got them they INSTALLED XP. They went out of their way to use an outdated operating system. -_-

Hermann > cazzyodo
06/30/2014 at 11:32

Ahahah. And what's worse is that they probably had to either strip the laptop or go through a lot of pain to get everything to work with XP.

cazzyodo > Hermann
06/30/2014 at 11:40

Fun times for everyone!

Roberto G. > Hermann
06/30/2014 at 15:43

Not according to Microsoft: " We recently became aware of a hack that purportedly aims to provide security updates to Windows XP customers. The security updates that could be installed are intended for Windows Embedded and Windows Server 2003 customers and do not fully protect Windows XP customers. Windows XP customers also run a significant risk of functionality issues with their machines if they install these updates, as they are not tested against Windows XP ".

Hermann > Roberto G.
06/30/2014 at 15:51

Hah. Who thought they'd give free updates out that easy?