XP Support ends
Support for Windows XP officially ended on the 8th April 2014. While still holding a 20-30% market share (Around 400,000,000 users) raises the question, what does this mean for you as an XP owner or someone who has to support it?
Office 2007, 2003 and Exchange 2003: Not only has support for XP ended, support for Office 2003 and Exchange 2003 has also come to an end, so no more updates for these pieces of software either. Office 2007 may not receive anymore updates either if running on an XP system.
Outlook Express: Unfortunately this will no longer be supported, so exploits are bound to appear, its recommended you move on to webmail or a 3rd party programs that offers updates.
Windows 7 Support and Upgrading: As you maybe looking an upgrade then its important you know when support ends for Windows 7. With out service pack 1 installed you will be surprised to know this has already ended, and that happened on April 9th 2013. Mainstream support for 7 with service pack 1 will end Jan 13th 2015 and extended support will ends Jan 14th 2020. XP cannot be upgraded to Windows 7.
Click here for 7 Minimal Specifications and other facts for upgrading.
Click here for guide to upgrading to Windows 7.
Windows 8 Support and upgrading: Mainstream support for 8 will end January 9th 2018 and extended support will end Jan 10th 2023. Windows XP cannot be upgraded to 8.
Windows 8 upgrade information can be found here.
Windows 9: So when is Windows 9 expected to be released, well at the moment we don't know, but at a rough guess I would say April 2015.
Security Essentials: Downloads for Microsoft Security Essentials has ceased as of April 8th, but if you already have it installed you will continue to get downloads until July 14th 2014.
Security Software: Many 3rd party companies will continue supporting XP well into 2015, check individual companies for more information.
XP Mode for Windows 7: Support for XP mode has also ended.
Small business Support: Microsoft have created a webpage dedicated to supporting the businesses with limited IT support. It is located here:
http://smallbusiness.support.microsoft.com/en-US/gp/windows-xp-upgrade ATM security: Many ATM's run XP, but this is a very limited version that doesn't require constant updating, they are protected from the daily grinds us the users put them through and usually if any extra code is run on the operating system this will cause the machine to shutdown.
Internet Browsing: Internet Explorer in Windows XP will no longer be updated, to avoid security issues it is advisable to move on to Chrome or Firefox, both owners of these browsers have said they will continue to support XP well into 2015.
The End: The end has come for XP, there will be no initial problems, but ones will eventually appear as it becomes more and more dated. How long do you have left? Its hard to say but as exploits start appearing as technology advances you may find it harder and harder to keep your system running in a secure and protected manor. Change is upon us all.
| Tags: end of XP, XP retirement, XP support end, upgrading from xp | ||
