14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s biggest challenge for the next six months is to convince Windows XP users to move to a newer platform, as the company is planning to discontinue the 12-year-old OS on April 8, 2014.
According to Redmond’s very own statistics, approximately 377,000 computers in New Zealand are now running Windows XP, which makes the company a little bit concerned about the number of those who might stick to the old OS after the retirement date.
“We estimate that up to 377,000 PCs in New Zealand running Windows XP could be vulnerable to malware attacks after 8 April 2014 and we want to make sure that Kiwis upgrade before Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP,” Dean Edwards, Windows business group manager at Microsoft NZ, was quoted as saying by Scoop.
Microsoft claims that 18.8 percent of all personal PCs are still running Windows XP, while the percentage is even higher when it comes to business computers. 25.3 percent of the businesses are still on XP, the company said.
“For businesses, upgrading an operating system takes time. Depending on complexity, small businesses could take three to six months to upgrade, and larger businesses can take six months or more. We are really worried that some New Zealand companies are cutting it too close to the end of support date,” Edwards explained.
Of course, Microsoft hopes to move as many users as possible from XP to Windows 7 or 8 beyond the retirement date, especially because the security risks of staying with this particular OS are rising.
“We’re well and truly at the stage where businesses and personal computer users need to upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8 – both to protect against risk, and to get the benefits of running a modern operating system,” Edwards concluded, emphasizing that everyone needs to jump ship before April 8.