Microsoft Ends Support for Windows XP: What This Means for Your Surveillance DVR

By Raymond Shadman President, Custom Video Security Support for the 12 year-old operating system Microsoft Windows XP has officially been discontinued by Microsoft, as of Tuesday April 8, 2014. This means users can no longer download critical security updates, which will leave systems that are connected to the Internet and running Windows XP vulnerable to infectious worms and security attacks. There are hundreds of millions of systems that still operate on XP, including an estimated 95% of bank ATMs, POS machines, hospitals, and surveillance DVRs. So what to do now? The obvious solution would be to upgrade the operating system to Windows 7 or Windows 8. Although this is the easiest solution, it may not be viable for a number of reasons: Older systems with Windows XP are using older hardware, which likely is not compatible with Windows 7 or Windows 8. The older hardware (Pentium 4, Celeron, etc.) in XP systems most likely cannot power the more CPU and memory-intensive Windows 7 and Windows 8 as effectively as XP, which will result in a high CPU load and processing delays. The older hardware in XP systems has a much higher chance of failure, as it likely several years old […]

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