The worlds biggest software manufacturer has supported the software for 12 years, even though they have released three. Microsoft has announced that as of Apsupport will no longer be available for for their popular Operating System, Windows XP. Why extend the purchasing life of Windows XP when Windows Vista and WIndows 7 are available Because of businesses thats.
Windows xp end of life upgrade#
Microsoft is sending the appropriate signal by dropping support for XP in the next version of its web browser, IE9, even though this may well lead it to lose more market share to Mozilla Firefox and the fast-growing Google Chrome. Microsoft Windows XP End of Life - Upgrade Your IT with Solutions from CAI Managed IT. It’s expensive to support multiple versions of Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) with multiple service packs, and both hardware vendors and software developers will drop support for XP as soon as they can. We have enjoyed an astonishing period of stability thanks to XP’s decade-long reign, but it would now benefit the whole IT industry to minimise the switchover period and move rapidly to Windows 7. The End Of Support deadline for Windows XP quickly approaching, and many users do not have a very good understanding of what exactly this means. Whether they’ll be willing to spend the money in recessionary times is another question. Some companies may therefore decide it’s cheaper to move to Windows 7 now (in terms of usability benefits, security advances and reduced support costs) than to keep putting it off. XP users will have to upgrade eventually, because support will end in April 2014. (This approach was, of course, widely recommended as the best option until Microsoft made it compulsory.) Moving to Windows 7 also costs more, because SP3 is free. This requires much more effort, because there is no in-place upgrade from XP: you have to do a clean installation. The obvious alternative is to upgrade to Windows 7, which has grown quickly to a 13% market share, according to Net Applications. This covers the shipping cost from the USA. Continuing to run an unsupported operating system is an indefensible position and may result in legal liability, as well as denial of insurance coverage. XP users who for some reason cannot download the SP3 upgrade can get it on disc from Microsoft for £5.98. An end-of-life operating system like Windows XP is an open invitation to launch an attack which may result in a costly data breach. However, the fact that Microsoft is trying to publicise this issue (while virtually ignoring Vista’s similar End of Life on April 13) suggests that plenty of PCs are still running SP2.
Windows xp end of life install#
The quickest and simplest answer is to install Service Pack 3, and anyone using Windows XP with automatic updates turned on should already have this installed.
Windows xp end of life drivers#
Malware writers are not going to stop targeting it, but Microsoft is going to stop updating drivers and patching holes, leaving users vulnerable. The venerable SP2 (Service Pack 2) version reaches the end of its life on July 13, after which there will be no more updates. If you are still running Microsoft Windows XP SP2, you have less than a month to upgrade.