14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP will be retired in only 21 days, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that users are ready to abandon the operating system and move to a newer release.
Figures provided by market researcher StatCounter for the first 15 days of March 2014 show that Windows XP continues to be the second most used operating system worldwide, just after Windows 7, which obviously continues to lead the market.
While nothing has changed in the charts, this new round of statistics confirms that only a few users are actually dropping Windows XP in the favor of a newer product, such as Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.
At this point, StatCounter figures show that Windows XP is powering 18.8 percent of computers worldwide, which is only a slight drop from the market share posted in February 2014.
Windows 7 continues to be in front of all the other operating systems with 54.8 percent, while Mac OS X is third 8.42 percent. Windows 8, Microsoft’s first modern operating system launched on October 2012, has a market share of 7.87 percent, while Windows 8.1 is next with 4.3 percent.
As you can see, it’s pretty obvious that Windows XP won’t be completely retired by April and many of the users running it right now will stick to their existing configuration after end of support officially arrives.
The problem for Microsoft and its users is that cybercriminals could indeed try to take advantage of any found vulnerability, which clearly increases the risk of getting hacked while browsing the web.
While many users are planning to rely on third-party anti-virus protection to stay away from viruses and any potential hacks, the software giant itself warns that such a measure might not be enough to keep users on the safe side and many sure that no one gets into their computers.
“If you already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, you will continue to receive AntiMalware signature updates for a limited time, but this does not mean that your PC will be secure because Microsoft will no longer be providing security updates to help protect your PC,” the company said.
The good news is that most security vendors on the market have already announced extended support for Windows XP, so if you’re not planning to deploy another OS version before April 8, you might want to have a look on this list to at least try to remain secure.