14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft continues its campaign to push users from Windows XP to a newer platform, but new statistics released by Net Applications for the month of November show that it remains the second top operating system in the world.
While Windows 7 continues to be the undisputed leader in the OS industry with 46.64 percent, Windows XP is the runner-up with 31.22 percent, way ahead of Windows 8 with 6.66 percent.
But what’s more surprising is that despite Microsoft’s efforts to put the emphasis on security risks caused by staying on Windows XP beyond its retirement date, only 0.02 percent of the users have actually decided to go for a newer operating system.
Windows XP had a market share of 31.42 percent in September 2013, before eventually dropping to 31.24 percent in October.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Microsoft will actually stop here with its efforts to convince users to move away from Windows XP and fully embrace Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.
At the same time, Redmond reminds users of the security risks with every single occasion, saying that hackers will most likely wait for the April 8, 2014 retirement date to exploit unpatched vulnerabilities in the operating system.
The company has recently confirmed that it’s investigating reports of a zero-day flaw that would allow attackers to run malicious code via kernel mode.
“Our investigation of this vulnerability has verified that it does not affect customers who are using operating systems newer than Windows XP and Windows Server 2003,” Redmond explained.
“The vulnerability is an elevation of privilege vulnerability. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full administrative rights.”
Microsoft is still working on a fix at the time of writing this article, so expect it to be released later this month as part of the Patch Tuesday rollout.