Microsoft Windows XP was indeed a revolution when it was released over a decade ago and it truly served purpose. Although some people still find it hard to migrate to newer OS, Microsoft has announced that support for this operating system ends by April 2014. Also, Microsoft Office 2003 too would be put in Microsoft’s archive as support ends for it too by April.
What does this mean?
Does this mean you can no longer use these products? No, you still can use them but whatever issues you have can’t be solved by Microsoft and there will be no more updates and security patches. According to Microsoft, “Unsupported and unpatched environments are vulnerable to security risks.”
Also, Microsoft is putting an end to free and paid assisted support options or online technical content updates. More or less, Microsoft is making it clear that you’re on your own if you continue using this products.
You should also note that quite a lot of software manufacturers will no longer support Windows XP. There are bound to be compatibility issues with new software programs in the market. Most software developers have the tendency to support newer operating systems.
The Issue of Windows XP Security
Microsoft has maintained that it would still be providing updates to Windows XP’s anti-malware signatures and engine till July 14, 2015. This means that there’s some security but you can’t really rely on this as you OS can become unstable due to unpatched bugs.
What’s the way out?
The only sensible thing to do is to upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 if you haven’t. If you’re skeptical about Windows 8, Windows 7 may be a good place to start as it sort of bridges the gap between Windows XP and Windows 8. Windows XP was fun to use while it lasted. Maybe it’s time to throw it out of the window and move on.
