What happens after Windows XP support ends?

Hi Cathy,  As an experiment, I just uploaded an Excel file to see it I could edit it from DropBox via my web browser.  Unfortunately, no...  I thought perhaps it would open with Excel on my computer, but no.  I could however, view it.  Since you can play Videos and Mp3s directly in DropBox, I suppose they must have a built-in player (one which includes the video codec I use which is pretty cool). The only workaround I can see for dealing with work files is to download the files as required, make the necessary changes and upload them back.  Then you still don't need to store them all on your home PC, but then you have the download and upload time.  Fortunately, most Excel or Word Files are fairly small.  But hey, that's still better than 35 years ago when almost all documents were created on typewriters.  I remember doing work drawings with pen and ink.  Cut/Copy Paste was literally Cut/Copy Paste, with transparent tape... and typos were fixed with "Correct-Type".   One consolation:  Microsoft says Windows 10 will be the last version and the only changes will be via updates.  I personally find that hard to believe...  If PCs go to 128 bits, I don't see how that could possibly work, but maybe the Windows 10 architecture is flexible enough to allow for that kind of hardware change.  I've never looked into that.  Final thought:  If they fully expect you to work at home, they might want to consider providing you the tools to do so (or a pay increase to cover it).  

I bought an annual subscription a few months ago and now that you are drupping support for Win XP, which  I like and use as my primary desktop PC, I would like to cancel but would also like a refund prorated on the remainder of my subscription.  When I subscribed to Dropbox I planned to use it for the whole year on my XP computer.  Now I cannot do this and I was bit warned you were going to drop support for my operating system.  I will use my refund to purchase one of your compteitors products which will continue to run on XP

@Mark Mc

> They already know. Its been discussed at length today between us. In fact they also knew about the ones in April as well.

Are they aware that they failed to inform their users by not sending out emails that actually reached them in time? Many people got their first notification email on Aug 1.

I think it's time that we have just one discussion going on regarding this. I'm closing this topic. You can continue the discussion in the following thread.

• https://www.dropboxforum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/207632163-Delay-dropping-Win-XP-support

William, surely your problem is with Corel, who abandoned the product you want to use?  If they hadn't abandoned it, it would have been updated to work on Windows 10...

The reality of life is that XP is about 15 years old...  If it were an automobile it would probably be in a junkyard by now.  Chrome has been complaining about not supporting XP for months now, but as long as I can still use it to browse, upload and download with it, where's the problem?  Due to this horrible economy, I'm also stuck with XP for the time being, and probably for at least a few years into the future.  Complain about that instead...  to your congressmen!  

Accessing, uploading and downloading files from a browser rather than from the DropBox App is really not a big problem at all.   I have no problem with doing it through Chrome and am simply grateful that I have free storage online with DropBox for files that I wish to share with friends which are too large to e-mail.  Don't look a gift horse in the mouth...  Just appreciate the gift!  

Although I understand that the cost factor it doesn't make me feel any less disappointed.  I for one cannot afford to upgrade my home computer which I use for work as well.  I also have no problem using the web to pc download/upload option and will be directed that way come the end of the month. I have to find a positive in this situation and being that our company uses the Dropbox for Business Enterprise I will no longer need to have space on my personal hard drive allocated to work.

Cathy S. Not everyone can or wants to migrate from XP to 7 or even 10.  Especially finding out that it's not upgrading but wiping and installing.  Too many years of collected data and programs stored doesn't make it worth the effort.

This 200%!!!

IF, and that's a big gotcha if, Microsoft had provided a proper upgrade path from XP to 7, I'm sure many more users who weren't locked into XP by an app would have updated.. but since they didn't, those users are pretty much stuck on XP until their PCs die.

@Carl: You can open Microsoft Office files online using the Office Online integration. If you choose not to do that, you would need to download the file, make any necessary changes, save it locally, then re-upload the changed file back to Dropbox.

@Robert: You can downgrade your account at any time so it will not auto-renew at the end of your term. In doing so, you'll keep your Pro status until the subscription runs out. As per the Dropbox Terms, Dropbox does not issue refunds unless legally required to do so.

@K.M. R.: Dropbox will not be reversing their decision on this. It's happening. As has been described in many, MANY posts over the past several months that this has been discussed, they cannot continue to support Dropbox on XP. It is not just a matter of allowing the older clients to continue connecting. As the servers are upgraded and improved upon, older operating systems will be UNABLE to connect. The newer development tools and libraries that are used to maintain Dropbox simply do not have support for older operating systems. In order for Dropbox to continue supporting XP (and Mac OS X 10.4, .5, etc., which were killed off for the same reasons), they would need to maintain two completely separately environments. They would need to develop two completely separate server infrastructures. They would need to have multiple groups to support each environment. It's just not feasible to do that.

XP is dead, and any service or software that still supports it (of which the numbers are dwindling) likely won't do so for much longer.

And before anyone jumps on me for being anti-XP, I still maintain about a dozen XP systems that handle various tasks, some of which cannot be upgraded due to the hardware that they're connected to (inspection machines, etc.). So I feel your pain, but there's nothing that can be done about it.