Monday, February 10, 2014

The Windows Support For XP Reaches Its Deadline

There are hardly two months left to the last date of Windows support for XP. It seems that the XP users are more or less ready now to face the challenges and security issues on their XP computers after Microsoft ends the support. According to statistics, about 30 percent of the current XP users do not make use of the Windows update facility and other security updates for XP on a regular basis. The reason is simple. They don’t have access to an active internet connection. For them, the update does not make any sense.

Consequences of the end of XP support

The lack of security updates might not create any trouble for those users, who do not access internet. However, it might create some security issues for those users who use internet extensively for different purposes. According to some statistics, Windows XP remains the most vulnerable operating system in this regard. This is because of the very fact that XP was the most popular Windows operating system once and still remains popular with more than 20 percent of the total Windows market share making it a good target.

XP shares a common architecture with the latest operating systems such as Vista and 7. Once Microsoft ends the XP support, hackers might attack it any time.

Is Microsoft concerned about the risk?

Many tend to believe that Microsoft just wants to abandon its old XP users in peril. However, this not the case. The tech giant has made its policy very clear. In fact, its decision to end the different services for XP is based on its policy. As per its support policy, the company would offer mainstream support for an operating system for a period of five years. Once the mainstream support ends, another five years of extended support is rendered. XP would stop receiving the technical support and security updates once it crosses this extended support period.

Over the last one year, Microsoft has been notifying the XP users about the imminent termination of Windows support for XP. The company has also been trying to persuade the XP users to migrate to the latest operating systems such as Windows 7 and Windows 8. Moreover, the company has warned the XP users that the operating system is not recommended for important business operations over the internet due to these potential security threats.

Well, if you are using XP online, it is highly recommended to migrate to a latest Windows Operating system or other operating systems such as Linux or Mac.

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