Microsoft closes the taps for Windows XP support

Microsoft has announced that the famous version of Windows from year 2001 has reached End of Life. Microsoft stopped production of Windows XP on June 30, 2008 and as of 9th April 2013 they have since announced the gradual end of support. This will be a phase of 1 year and by the end of this period they will no-longer offer support or security fixes for users. Microsoft says that this period will be to give users time to migrate to the two of their later Operating Systems, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

“The Windows team will now embark on communicating the benefits of Windows 8 as well as the risks associated with maintaining a Windows XP environment after April 8th next year. Windows XP will not receive any new security updates and patches or online technical support a year from now,” said Kevin Connolly, Windows Business Group Manager, Microsoft West, East, Central Africa and Indian Ocean Islands.

Microsoft will make the major announcement a time like this next year, on the 8th of April when there will no-longer be support of any kind. According to Microsoft, consumers who wish to continue use of Windows XP Operating System will have to seek alternative sources of support like from private vendors.

“Windows XP was a good and stable operating system, but computers have changed so much in the past dozen years since XP was created. I think anyone switchingfrom XP to Windows 7 or Windows 8 will be amazed by the differences. The current version of Windows is so much faster than XP, it’s much more secure than XP ever was, and you can simply do much more now than you could with XP. Your battery will even last a lot longer. With Windows 8, your experience is the same across multiple devices like laptops and smart phones and tablets, and these new devices with touch-screens open up a whole new world of fun and productivity. I’d tell anyone still running Windows XP that now is the time to move to Windows 8 and enjoy a simpler, faster, more secure, and enjoyable experience,” said Robert Kunga, an ICT blogger

Microsoft ended retail sales for Windows XP on June of 2008 but OEMs still sold it pre-installed till the 31st of January 2009. Also facing the axe of support is Office 2003 which will also reach end of support at the same time next year. Microsoft currently recommends that users migrate to Windows 7 which is at the moment the best selling OS and Windows 8 which who’s architecture is built to work with an array of devices beyond the traditional PC. These are tablets and smartphones. To make the switch to the later OSes you will need to head to the end of support page  and follow a fee steps. Users who did this before end of January had a lowered cost of entry.