Windows XP dies 1 year from today

[Omniyoji]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2417534,00.asp

Microsoft Windows XP Support Ends in 365 Days

Stephanie Mlot By Stephanie Mlot
April 8, 2013 02:06pm EST

Microsoft wants its Windows XP users to get with the program, and is giving them 365 days to do so.

One year from today, Microsoft will shut down extended support for its 12-year-old operating system, in favor of newer platforms like Windows 7 and 8.

In 2002, Microsoft launched its Support Lifecycle policy, allowing 10 years of combined mainstream and extended support for Microsoft Business and Developer products, including Windows OSes. To that end, Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 will lose that support on April 8, 2014.

"If your organization has not started the migration to a modern desktop, you are late," Stephen Rose, senior product manager for Windows Commercial, wrote in a blog post. He revealed that it takes an average company 18 to 32 months to reach full deployment, and urged businesses to begin planning and application testing "immediately," to avoid issues later.

But don't think that a simple upgrade from XP to Windows 7 or 8 — a "modern operating system," according to Rose — will do the trick.

"You will need to do a clean install," Rose said, meaning user data must be migrated and applications reinstalled on the new OS. More details on testing hardware and apps can be found on the Windows blog.

Microsoft already pulled mainstream support for Windows XP in April 2009, but come this time next year, it will drop extended support, meaning no more security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates.

Rose warned that running XP SP3 and Office 2003 after support ends can expose companies to potential security risks. Even anti-virus software support won't be enough, and vulnerabilities discovered in the operating system or applications running on it will remain unpatched and open to malware.

"Using XP after April 2014 is an 'at your own risk' situation for any customers choosing not to migrate," Rose wrote.

Windows XP launched in 2001, and has been named Microsoft's most popular OS of its time. Redmond has given users plenty of time to make the move; the software giant announced the news last April, two years before the shutdown, before the Windows 8 launch.

According to March data from Net Applications, approximately 38.73 percent of PC users are still using Windows XP; the most popular OS is Windows 7 with 44.73 percent. About 4.99 percent are on Vista, while only 3.17 percent have upgraded to Microsoft's latest, Windows 8.

For more, see PCMag's reviews of Windows 7 and Windows 8, as well as a look back at our overview of Windows XP from 2001.

38% still on WinXP. Just the other day I accompanied a friend of mine to her credit union and they were running XP. Most of the windows clients I deal with still run XP. I know BG has some in the IT environment. Still running XP? Making the change soon? or just finished the migration recently?

Anyone migrating to Vista for the lulz

[Gulkeeva]

Upgrade... to windows ME! O_o

[fantasticdan]

The laptop I was using up until last week was still running xp, only had 3gb of ram so I never saw a reason to 'upgrade'. First thing I did in windows 7 was disable aero and hover previews, so it's not really any different than xp to me lol.

[djzombie]

people go to microsoft for support?

[Deadgye]

A lot of the computers in the engineering building/labs are still running xp since it still works. They were planning to upgrade to win7 within the next year anyway iirc.

[GoggleHead]

I has a sad. XP was an excellent OS.

I don't think we have any XP machines left in the office, but there's certainly plenty of servers still running 2003.

[Kaisha]

Old toaster here, so still runnin XP for gaming since 7/8 add a bit of a processor overhead on my single-core CPU. I really need to get off my ass and build a new PC already, been procastinating nearly a full year now.

I has a sad. XP was an excellent OS.

When SP2 hit it was.

[hey]

First thing I did in windows 7 was disable aero and hover previews, so it's not really any different than xp to me lol.

lol

[Gulkeeva]

Old toaster here, so still runnin XP for gaming since 7/8 add a bit of a processor overhead on my single-core CPU. I really need to get off my ass and build a new PC already, been procastinating nearly a full year now.


When SP2 hit it was.

Be a good time to do so in about a month, considering haswell is coming out soonish, it'll drive current CPU's little lower... little... >.>

Also, with current generation cpu's.. the thought of the OS giving CPU overhead.. is... nonexistent >.>

[Kaisha]

Be a good time to do so in about a month, considering haswell is coming out soonish, it'll drive current CPU's little lower... little... >.>

I'm more worried about building a PC that's "good enough" to run current games at 1080p now, but then starts to crumble in a year or two once multi-plat games designed to milk the next-gen console's hardware come out.

Also, with current generation cpu's.. the thought of the OS giving CPU overhead.. is... nonexistent >.>

It's mostly because my CPU is single-core. Always fun playing a game and seeing my CPU maxed out even on simple looking shit, just because it was written with multi-threading in mind.

[Ksandra]

A lot of the computers in the engineering building/labs are still running xp since it still works. They were planning to upgrade to win7 within the next year anyway iirc.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but this reminded me. I use teamviewer with my parents' computers all the time since they live in CT and are terribad at getting viruses n' shit. They got a new laptop recently and it has Windows8....holy shit balls I now understand why people complain about it. I was all "wtf why are they turning comps into phones?"

Anyway, there's no way in hell my parents are going to be able to get the hang of the way Win8 runs, so I'm wondering just how hard would it be to give her a "legit" copy of win7 instead? I am visiting them in July so I could do it then. I don't think they sell them anymore do they?

[edit] I guess they do, but I'm guessing you can't "upgrade" from win 8 to 7...right?

[Abandon]

work pcs use XP. this could get funny

[Sho]

Hahaha. In my department they still have me building 1.5GB Ram laptops and installing Windows XP SP3 onto them Meanwhile, myself, my co-worker and my boss all use Windows 7. I triple boot with Ubuntu and Win 8 though, FTW. Call center PCs however, so I don't think the boss minds just yet.

[Ratatapa]

New pcs are W7 old are on XP for us

[Mjd]

Me and my boss are the only two pcs left running XP. We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We're going to live on, we're going to survive.

[Tajin]

I thought support for xp ended a while ago anyway.

[D44kpunk]

what will i use for vmware if no more windows xp sad day

[Sho]

It did. Its on extended support now, hotfixes and security patches only.

[Soa]

I guess this explains why my company just announced that we are migrating from XP/2003 to 7/2010 starting next month.

[Toxictaru]

I dunno, XP was good, I was a bigger fan of Win2000. I used XP until Vista started coming out, and yes, I used Vista for a while despite the fact that it frustrated the ever living fuck out of me. However, when Windows 7 launched and I started using that, I fell in love with it pretty fast. Windows 7 feels like the true successor to Windows XP, and while it does have some higher requirements for processing, I won't be giving it up any time soon. Windows 7 is better than XP, and I am glad that XP support is finally being dropped. It is time to come in to the new decade, seriously.