The company claims that all users should move to Windows 8.1 instead

Mar 4, 2014 15:55 GMT  ·  By

The Windows XP transition continues and while many users are choosing Windows 7 as their next destination, a Microsoft official says that everyone should choose Windows 8.1 instead.

Speaking at the XChange Solution Provider 2014 conference in Los Angeles, Cindy Bates, vice president of Microsoft's US Small and Midsize Business (SMB) division, said in a statement that partners that are moving Windows XP users to Windows 7 instead of Windows 8.1 are actually doing them a “disservice,” according to a report by CRN Australia.

“In some ways, you're shortchanging yourselves and your customers,” she said during her keynote.

At the same time, she mentioned, some people are afraid of Windows 8 because of the Modern UI which makes the operating system a bit more appropriate for touch-capable devices. Things have changed in Windows 8.1, she said, so users can safely move to Windows 8.1 instead of Windows 7.

“We listened, and now you have the ability to default to the classic desktop with buttons,” Bates said.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, 29 percent of the desktop computers worldwide are still running Windows XP, even though support will come to an end in just 35 days, so no other security updates and patches will be delivered even though vulnerabilities are found in the operating system.