The XP user base (30% of the Windows market) will just be too rich a market for malicious hackers. Security Essentials will continue to be updated to recognize new viruses, but MS will no longer fix OS vulnerabilities.
This seems to me to be an unprecedented opportunity for data thieves. I'd plan for the worse.
BTW, LinuxMint is very pleasant to use. You can install it dual-boot so you can still get access to Windows if you need it, without an internet connection if you want to stay safe.
From a ZDNET article:
"I'm not a believer that you're not going to see anything else," said James Lyne, global head of security research at Sophos. "There's been a healthy supply of [vulnerabilities] for many years now. It would be a turn-up for the books if all of a sudden that ceased to be a problem and the operating system magically became secure," added Lyne.
In fact, criminals may have been stashing away exploits to use once Microsoft has departed the scene, leaving the OS open to unpublished lines of attack, according to Gartner Research vice-president and research director Michael Silver.
"There's certainly a possibility of some vulnerabilities that were already known that haven't been exploited yet. From 8 April or 9 April you could see a number of attacks that people have been holding back," he said.
AV definition updates will continue for Security Essentials on XP through 2015.
Also, if you want/have to continue to use XP after next month, DO NOT USE IT AS AN ADMINISTRATOR! Run your account as a limited user. That will mitigate almost all of the possible problems that will happen when support stops.
