If you are on Windows XP and can´t afford the latest Windows or don´t want it, get Linux.
XP still runs faster than Ubuntu on my old laptop. I haven't tried other Linux versions though. I found some nice Firefox versions that work nice too. You can even fool the addons page by modifying your useragent so it will install addons. I tried a Chinese Chrome build, uninstalled pretty quickly. Hate Chrome.
I setup OpenVPN on a router so it never actually sees my home ISP connection.
Had to setup Win10 for someone I might write about all I did for that. Awesome program called Win10Privacy. Fucker still tried to bypass my custom hosts file.
But XP doesn´t get security updates, Linux does. If you want a light Linux version, try sLitaz, https://www.slitaz.org/en/
(post is archived)