[dayglored]

WinXP is more vulnerable than any of the later versions. Microsoft didn't know squat about how to harden an operating system in the WinXP days. XP-SP2 was their first attempt to catch up to where real operating systems like Unix had been for two decades prior. And surprise, SP2 broke everything in Windows-Land. I remember, it was hell.

XP-SP3 was pretty good, and when I have to run XP, that's what I run. With all available patches, of course.

But no, just because it's old doesn't mean the later viruses won't run on it. Most viruses know about it and still take advantage of it. Security-by-obscurity won't help there.

An up-to-date-patched copy of Win7 is damn secure, certainly better than WinXP, whose security patches stopped in, what, 2014 or so?

[Tellurian]

Thanks for the education. XP-SP3 is what I’ve got now, luckily. Moving (a different laptop) from Win8 to Win7, if I can pull it off, will also be educational - and entertaining.