Blog by Jamie Dabrowiecki
You may or may not know, but Windows is cutting off support for its popular operating system ‘Windows XP’ in less than a year.
Released in the latter part of 2001, XP has been a hit with both home and work PC users – it holds over a third of the market share in operating systems, which shows it is still used around the globe. It has more usage than OS X (Apple), Windows 8, Windows Vista and Linux combined - twice.
Why is Microsoft stopping support for XP?
In 2002 Microsoft introduced its Support Lifecycle policy based on customer feedback to have more transparency and predictability of support for Microsoft products. With this, Microsoft Business and Developer products (including Windows and Office products), receive a minimum of 10 years of support (5 years Mainstream Support and 5 years Extended Support), at the supported service pack level. Thus,Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 will go out of support on April 8th, 2014.
I have XP on my system; what does this mean?
After April 8th, 2014, there will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates.
Running Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 in your environment after their end of support date may increases the possibility of security risks on your computer which is something you really want to avoid.
What should I do now?
Microsoft is suggesting you upgrade your operating system to either Windows 7 or Windows 8. You can purchase these from the Windows website or any good retailer.
However, your computer may not be able to run these operating systems. To check if you can upgrade to Windows 8, click this link. If you cannot upgrade, it may be time for a new computer!