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April 19, 2013, 7:26 am

Q&A: Extending (And Ending) Support for Windows XP

Q.

What is “extended support” for Microsoft Windows XP and do I need to worry when it’s supposed to stop next year?

A.

Microsoft has a defined period of time for things like help-line calls, warranty claims and security updates for the hardware and software it sells. This period of time is called the Support Lifecycle Policy and is supposed to give customers a firm idea of how long they can expect Microsoft to provide services for a product before the company considers it obsolete.

Microsoft’s current policy states that its Windows operating systems will each receive a total of 10 years of support. The first five of those years are “mainstream,” in which that version of Windows still has all the telephone support options available (including some free help by phone along with paid technical-support calls), security updates and some development work for requested features and design improvements.

After the first five years, the system moves into the “extended” support phase where security updates are still free, but any technical help by phone costs money; online troubleshooting articles from Microsoft’s Web site are still free and available for at least a year after a product’s extended support phase ends.

A significant amount of PC’s out there are still running Windows XP — about 38 percent as of March 2013, according to the research form Net Applications, which uses information from computers connected to the Internet. Still, Microsoft has been very open about the fact that it will be retiring Windows XP on April 8, 2014. The Support Lifecycle page for Windows XP even tells visitors to “Buy Windows 8 now!”

A post on one of its official Windows blogs basically states that while PC’s running XP will still continue to work after April 8, 2014, they could become targets for malicious software looking to take over newly discovered vulnerabilities in Windows XP. This situation could put users at risk since no Microsoft security patches will be available to plug the holes. The same post also says that antivirus-software companies that still support Windows XP will not be able to fully protect computers running the system. For those inclined to heed the company’s persistent warnings, information about upgrading from Windows XP can be found here.

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/

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Replies to This Discussion

I notice a lot of the doctor's offices here in town (which I've been in a *lot* lately) are all still running Win XP on their computers.  Which I understand:  I still miss WinXP, it seemed like a good, stable OS; I foolishly upgraded to Vista which was a POS; then went to Win7 which is better than Vista but not by much in my opinion.  So I can understand why they stuck with XP; hasn't been anything that good since.

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