Windows XP support ends in 999 days

Mike Halsey MVP
Jul 13, 2011
Updated • Aug 30, 2011
Microsoft, Windows XP
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21

The day is finally within sight when Windows XP and the dreaded Internet Explorer 6 will finally be out of support.  This means that there will be no further patches or updates for the operating system at all past April 8th 2014.  On their website Microsoft are keen to point out that "Without Microsoft support, you will no longer receive security updates that can help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal your personal information."

This is good news for security experts worldwide, good news for end users (at least when it comes to security) and good news for Microsoft's bottom line as many people will be forced to upgrade to Windows 7 (it should be noted that while support may end the products will still work after this date).  It's very bad news though for malware writers and criminals, and bad news for businesses who have been delaying recoding older programs and web portals to work with newer operating systems and browsers.

The copy of Windows XP Professional contained within this Windows 7 add-on is unlikely to be maintained beyond this date, though Microsoft have said nothing to calm the nerves of individuals and businesses who may be concerned that they'll end up with a horribly insecure component sitting at the heart of their otherwise very secure new Windows installation.

The company could use this as leverage to get businesses and individuals to move to Windows 8 by the time its first service pack comes out, which would probably be at the end of 2013, only a few months before XP support officially ends.  It's not good news for Windows 7 users though and, more concernedly, while there's been talk of a Windows 7 mode in Windows 8, there's no information yet on what might happen to XP Mode itself and if there will be any native XP app support in the company's next generation desktop OS.

All we know is that the clock is ticking and 40% of all PCs worldwide are still running Windows XP.  This of course means that Microsoft will need to spend a considerable amount of money and effort in the next year informing people who may be completely oblivious to the impending date, of the end of XP support.  Many of these people will live in the developing world and will not have the money to upgrade to a newer version of Windows, even if they're ageing computers will run it.

Microsoft will need to offer cash incentives to all XP users if they are to wean people away in the form of discounts on Windows 7.  This could prove counter-productive however if it means so many people move to Windows 7 that sales of Windows 8 will be sluggish.  Will the company then delay any marketing until Windows 8 is out or approaching release, or will they simply not alert people at all?

Whichever way this goes it's not good news for Microsoft.  They've supported XP long beyond its intended shelf-life, it will be thirteen years when support finally ends compared to Apple who only support operating systems for five years, and this extended period of support could come back to bite the company in a big way.

If you are currently still using Windows XP there are some cheap ways to get Windows 7.  The Family pack (where available) offers excellent value and students with a .ac email address can get significant discounts too.  Some subscription models like TechNet and the Microsoft Action Pack offer excellent value for small businesses.  If you can afford it though, by far the cheapest way to obtain a copy of Windows 7 is with a new PC.

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Comments

  1. Some Dude said on March 19, 2023 at 11:42 am
    Reply

    Are these articles AI generated?

    Now the duplicates are more obvious.

    1. boris said on March 19, 2023 at 11:48 pm
      Reply

      This is below AI generated crap. It is copy of Microsoft Help website article without any relevant supporting text. Anyway you can find this information on many pages.

  2. Paul(us) said on March 20, 2023 at 1:32 am
    Reply

    Yes, but why post the exact same article under a different title twice on the same day (19 march 2023), by two different writers?
    1.) Excel Keyboard Shortcuts by Trevor Monteiro.
    2.) 70+ Excel Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows by Priyanka Monteiro

    Why oh why?

    1. Clairvaux said on September 6, 2023 at 11:30 am
      Reply

      Yeah. Tell me more about “Priyanka Monteiro”. I’m dying to know. Indian-Portuguese bot ?

  3. John G. said on August 18, 2023 at 4:36 pm
    Reply

    Probably they will announce that the taskbar will be placed at top, right or left, at your will.

    Special event by they is a special crap for us.

  4. yanta said on August 18, 2023 at 11:59 pm
    Reply

    If it’s Microsoft, don’t buy it.
    Better brands at better prices elsewhere.

  5. John G. said on August 20, 2023 at 4:22 am
    Reply

    All new articles have zero count comments. :S

  6. Anonymous said on September 5, 2023 at 7:48 am
    Reply

    WTF? So, If I add one photo to 5 albums, will it count 5x on my storage?
    It does not make any sense… on google photos, we can add photo to multiple albums, and it does not generate any additional space usage

    I have O365 until end of this year, mostly for onedrive and probably will jump into google one

  7. St Albans Digital Printing Inc said on September 5, 2023 at 11:53 am
    Reply

    Photo storage must be kept free because customers chose gadgets just for photos and photos only.

  8. Anonymous said on September 5, 2023 at 12:47 pm
    Reply

    What a nonsense. Does it mean that albums are de facto folders with copies of our pictures?

    1. GG said on September 6, 2023 at 8:24 am
      Reply

      Sounds exactly like the poor coding Microsoft is known for in non-critical areas i.e. non Windows Core/Office Core.

      I imagine a manager gave an employee the task to create the album feature with hardly any time so they just copied the folder feature with some cosmetic changes.

      And now that they discovered what poor management results in do they go back and do the album feature properly?

      Nope, just charge the customer twice.

      Sounds like a go-getter that needs to be promoted for increasing sales and managing underlings “efficiently”, said the next layer of middle management.

  9. d3x said on September 5, 2023 at 7:33 pm
    Reply

    When will those comments get fixed? Was every editor here replaced by AI and no one even works on this site?

  10. Scroogled said on September 5, 2023 at 10:47 pm
    Reply

    Instead of a software company, Microsoft is now a fraud company.

  11. ard said on September 7, 2023 at 4:59 pm
    Reply

    For me this is proof that Microsoft has a back-door option into all accounts in their cloud.
    quote “…… as the MSA key allowed the hacker group access to virtually any cloud account at Microsoft…..”
    unquote

    so this MSA key which is available to MS officers can give access to all accounts in MS cloud.This is the backdoor that MS has into the cloud accounts. Lucky I never got any relevant files of mine in their (MS) cloud.

  12. Andy Prough said on September 7, 2023 at 6:52 pm
    Reply

    >”Now You: what is your theory?”

    That someone handed an employee a briefcase full of cash and the employee allowed them access to all their accounts and systems.

    Anything that requires 5-10 different coincidences to happen is highly unlikely. Occam’s razor.

  13. TelV said on September 8, 2023 at 12:04 pm
    Reply

    Good reason to never login to your precious machine with a Microsoft a/c a.k.a. as the cloud.

  14. Anonymous said on September 18, 2023 at 1:23 pm
    Reply

    The GAFAM are always very careless about our software automatically sending to them telemetry and crash dumps in our backs. It’s a reminder not to send them anything when it’s possible to opt out, and not to opt in, considering what they may contain. And there is irony in this carelessness biting them back, even if in that case they show that they are much more cautious when it’s their own data that is at stake.

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