For all I know, all Microsoft patches for later Microsoft operating systems are only for bugs in those operating systems and not for bugs in the XP version I am running.

I have no even reasonable information that there are any security bugs in the XP installation I have.

I have no reason to believe that Windows 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 is more secure than XP; as far as I know, XP is more secure than those operating systems.

And similarly for Windows Server.

How the heck Flash could give malware to my XP system is beyond me, and I've seen no explanation.

XP should be able to run any user mode software at all safely. I have heard no claims that it can. It it cannot, then I very much want to know why not. For decades several time sharing systems apparently could run any software at all, including operating systems, safely.

These systems are essentially all multiple virtual memory systems built on the Intel x86 architecture with hierarchical file systems with capabilities and access control lists. If there are security holes, I sure as heck want to know why; but apparently there have been security holes, and I never got even reasonably good information on why.

A few years ago, I saw that Microsoft had patched a security hole caused by a buffer overflow bug. Outrageous that Microsoft should still have buffer overflow bugs.

I intend to bring up an instance of a recent version of Windows Server, but I have no solid information or even an idea, none, not even zip, zilch, or zero, what the situation is on bugs or security.

I would have no idea at all on how to run a secure Windows system attached to the Internet.

Looking around at my XP system, I was just outraged to the point of screaming to discover that Microsoft had started some message service that was later seen to be a security risk. I didn't ask for that message service. I wasn't informed that it was running. I wasn't using that message service. I had no intention of using that message service. What the heck other obscure, hidden, secret software is Microsoft starting, not telling me about, and that could infect my system? I'm torqued. But there isn't much I can do about it.

To me, that moving to Windows 10, that apparently keeps phoning home, would solve security problems instead of causing them is a really bad joke. Windows 10 apparently has a lot of new software that likely has bugs. That new Microsoft software, I want nothing to do with it.

Also I have long been totally torqued off, even screaming, as I clicked and clicked and clicked and said over and over and over, for years, to NOT, under any circumstances at all, NEVER but NEVER, ever, read any removable media unless and until so instructed. Don't look at it. Don't check it. Don't permit even a single bit to be read at all. Of course, if you automatically read and execute software from removable media, you should be dragged by two horses in opposite directions. But such screaming didn't work.

Yup, USB thumb drives are a special case.

Instead, of course, I want IP port by port, program by program, each DLL one at a time, and anything and everything else, what the heck is running on my system, why, and what the heck the risks are. But I have no reasonable way to get such information.

For my startup and its Web server, for now it will store nothing or next to nothing on users -- no cookies, user IDs, user passwords, etc. My site makes no use of cookies. Users don't login or give passwords. Users don't give e-mail addresses. Yes, the Web site log file likely has the user's IP address, but actually that does not much identify a user.

Maybe at a high end site, are supposed to put outside of a computer running Windows some special boxes. All IP, maybe even all Ethernet, traffic flows through these boxes, and they check, track, and analyze the heck out of every packet, every bit, that flows through. That data plus some more such tracking on Windows may be enough. But I have no idea what such boxes or associated Windows programs might be.

Of course, the server should make no use of wireless. That a server could get malware from a USB drive is outrageous.

For a while, I tried a wireless mouse, but it seemed to eat through a lot of batteries and otherwise didn't work very well. I returned to a wired mouse connected via USB.

My laser printer? Connects via USB. My old daisy wheel printer (great for envelopes) connects via async serial.

I just don't have any wireless. So, that's a lot of system management, monitoring, maintenance, security, etc. surface I don't have to worry about.

Apparently a lot of the interest in wireless is having computing devices growing around the home or office like weeds for a lot of toys. I have no interest in such things and am concentrating on my startup.

Gee, a lot of HNers got really, really, really totally off the top of the charts PISSED OFF at me. Strange.

WPA stands for what, the old Great Depression Works Progress Administration? I know; I know; in computer land supposed to use TLAs (three letter acronyms) as much as possible.