Windowx XP...What To Do After April 8th?

[Eric]

Note that XP will not stop working at that time. What WILL stop is support from microsoft - security and other patches, as well as other updates.

Short answer, you WILL become more vulnerable. Internet Explorer will not be updated (though it isn't now - you can't run anything past 9, IIRC, on XP.) Practical matters, it will be harder to get most hardware and software to run on XP, if it'll run at all - you may buy a new printer and find it's not supported.

Short term, get a good antivirus and firewall, as well as other malware programs such as Malwarebytes, and keep them updated.

Long term, save your money and get a new system. Depending on what you do, you may be able to get away with a fairly low cost system.