14 DAY TRIAL // If you thought that Microsoft has finally completed its mission of killing Windows XP now that there are only 40 days left till end of support, you were wrong.
The software giant today issued a new warning, again to tell users that Windows XP support is coming to an end, which means that everyone needs to upgrade as soon as possible or else remain unprotected.
The company, however, turned to a pretty interesting analogy to explain that Windows XP has been supported for more than 10 years.
“Windows XP was released in October 2001, and its development began in the late 1990s. Office 2003 has had a similar history. Most Microsoft software is supported for 10 years; retiring a product is a normal part of any product lifecycle. Windows XP and Office 2003, however, have been supported for more than a decade, or since Baywatch went off the air,” Microsoft said in a statement.
While it’s hard to determine which one is more popular, Baywatch of Windows XP, we do know that 29 percent of computers worldwide are still running the latter, despite the fact that the operating system will no longer receive updates and security patches as of April 8, 2014.
This, according to Microsoft, means that cybercriminals out there would attempt to exploit computers still running Windows XP, pretty much because the found flaws will no longer be fixed, which means that it would be extremely easy to get your data compromised.
“It’s been a great run for these popular products, but a decade later, times and technology have evolved,” explained Jay Paulus, director, Windows marketing, Microsoft.
“Windows XP and Office 2003 weren’t designed for the world we live in today, where technology is increasingly mobile and we have services like OneDrive, which give us access to our files wherever we are, not to mention the new generation of devices and the always-on Microsoft Office 365.”
Of course, Microsoft wants all Windows XP users to move to Windows 8.1 as soon as possible, not only because it’s the safest Windows version so far, but also because it’s the latest one that reached the market, so the company needs to boost its sales as much as possible.
Windows 8.1, on the other hand, is yet to excite, with Microsoft’s modern platforms currently holding a 10 percent market share since the debut of Windows 8 in October 2012. Statistics show that Windows XP remains the second top OS worldwide, after the undisputed leader Windows 7 which still has a 45 percent market share.