14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP will be officially discontinued on April 8, 2014, but 28 percent of desktop computers worldwide are still running it, so it’s obvious that the migration won’t be completed in time.
And still, an analyst believes that Microsoft really needs to make sure that Windows XP won’t get completely vulnerable after April 8, so the company’s recent decision to maintain Security Essentials support until July 2015 is the right choice.
“Microsoft has a stake in ensuring Windows XP doesn't get hammered after support ends,” said Michael Silver, an analyst at Gartner Inc. according to TechTarget. “The danger is [extended anti-malware support] could lull folks into a false sense of security.”
At the same time, several other security vendors have already announced that they would continue to support Windows XP for one or two years, which means that without major vulnerabilities, XP users should be secure despite retirement.