What happens if you connect Windows XP to the Internet in 2024?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uSVVCmOH5w

Have you ever wondered if it’s true you can instantly get malware? In this video we discover how dangerous XP really is.

Disclaimer: The content in this video is for education and entertainment purposes to showcase the dangers of malware & malicious software. I do not encourage any form of illegal hacking, nor do I encourage the usage of game cheats, cracks or hacks.

Cracks are sometimes shown to highlight the dangers of software piracy, my content is not intended to teach anybody how to pirate, or maliciously hack.

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jburk07, NaNoNyMouse, Cybertooth

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As (I think) the speaker in the video noted, XP was released in the days before firewalls and gateway routers became widespread, at a time when PCs connected to the Internet directly via modems. If an XP system were put into service today, it would enjoy the same protections offered by the router that current versions of Windows enjoy. There would also be software firewalls available to install on it to enhance the router’s built-in protections.

That said, the video WAS an interesting demonstration of what Steve Gibson calls “Internet background radiation”. There’s a lot of bad stuff floating around out there, scanning for vulnerable computers, and a firewall + router to block scanners and to hide the PC’s presence (“stealth mode” ports, as Gibson calls it) go a long way to stop it.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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jburk07, Mothy, Alex5723, NaNoNyMouse

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Statcounter:

Windows 10 – 68.34% (-1.69 point)
Windows 11 – 27.76% (+1.33 point)
Windows 7 – 2.86% (+0.05 point)
Windows 8.1 – 0.43%
Windows XP – 0.37%

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Cybertooth

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Good point. Not long ago I had set up and used Windows XP as a virtual machine in VirtualBox on my Linux Mint host to test the OS and an old version of Firefox and never had an issue. But even if it were installed on bare metal hardware, it along with everything else on my network is protected behind a hardware firewall router (Steve Gibson’s ShieldsUp test always says “Stealth”).

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Cybertooth

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It’d be an interesting comparison if the guy who made this video did the same thing with a Windows 10 or 11 system, disabling all firewalls and AV and then connecting it to the Internet.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Mothy, wavy

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