As a professional in this field, would like to say that if anyone does use XP anymore, it should be only on computers that are OFFLINE.

We do have a few nodes running XP but they are all stand-alone. It's not advised to even connect them to the LAN if possible. We use them only for testing purposes.

My advice regarding the updates :
Its generally a bad idea to use updates meant for one version of the OS (Embedded here in this case) for a Desktop PC.

The Embedded Version fundamentally is a HIGHLY stripped down version of the full OS and hence would obviously be lacking a number of features that would be available in the full OS.

SO obviously, there would be far fewer patches needed/released for the embedded versions compared to the full versions and once should not rest with a false re-assurance that he has "patched" his OS :D

Thank you to @CyberCoder for the tip :)

Yet what Kerlingen says is right. Using the patches meant for Embedded on a desktop version of the OS would not be sufficient.

Agree.. it make no sense.

XP created, 1999. No reason anyone using (pls not say SoftIce..)

Microsoft decided to provide a patch for Widnows XP

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/06/13/june-2017-security-update-release/

You know it's serious when Microsoft Patches non supported software :P
This ransomware is really beginning to become an issue. Just goes to show that there is something to be said about a good online backup, or changing permissions on shares after you are done!

If you are running Windows (even XP) after any modern router with NAT - it will help you to mitigate cryptor, since router will not accept connections to 139 and 445 ports, even if Windows (without any firewall) will.

If you have a very old ISP contract or are using a mobile modem (SIM card) to access the internet you might be running in an IPv4-only environment behind a NAT. But in pretty much every other situation you have IPv6 without NAT and all your network PCs are accessible directly from the internet.

For many of the home users and even office PCs, NAT is switched on by default in the router through which they access the internet, so this should not be a problem.

At least, for many of the routers in the US, I see that the NAT is already enabled...

NAT is no security feature. You can't just turn it on or off as you like, you either require it or can't use it at all depending on your setup.

NAT for IPv6 doesn't exist, so no, not a single IPv6 router in the US (or elsewhere) has NAT enabled (or an option to turn it on).

If you find some NAT settings in your router configuration these are IPv4 settings.

If your ISP supports IPv6, then all your local network computers are accessible directly by IPv6, no matter what settings you choose for IPv4 connections.

so turning it off would be a good option till you can control settings.. ;) Some registry settings will do it... :)
You can run any os you like and be secure if you configure it right ;)

Its not a security feature I agree, but you can turn it on or off at various levels (the OS level, commercial Cisco Routers level, Hardware Firewall level etc).

I'm sure you know this bro Kerlingen, but for the sake of some of the others who are following this discussion, would like to highlight an important fact :

Many use VPNs etc and stay smug thinking that they are now more or less anonymous on the internet. All the while keeping their IPv6 Address enabled :)

When my team is called for an investigation to identify some [cyber] miscreant(s) and we find that the perpetrator used a VPN but kept the IPv6 address enabled, my team guys go out for a beer :D

Because our job is more or less done and we would have uniquely identified the guy (of course assuming that he didn't spoof it).

SO the take-home lesson from this post :
You cannot assume that you are anonymous online if your IPv6 address is kept enabled !

Cheers :)