Reminder: Support for Win 2K, XP SP2 Ends July
Now is a good time to ditch the old-school OS for a spiffier Windows 7.
Consumers and businesses still using Windows 2000 (desktop and server) and Windows XP SP2 will see the end of Microsoft's official tech support on July 13, 2010. This means both parties will no longer receive security updates, support assistance, or help from paid support. But all is not lost: users of both operating systems will still have access to self-help online support for at least another year.
Microsoft originally gave notice of the termination back in April 2008 when it released Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. "This announcement is in line with the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy for Windows service packs.," the company said. "This policy states that when a new service pack is released, Microsoft will provide 24 months of support for the previous service pack for products that belong to the Windows product family."
Microsoft also stated that Windows XP transitioned from the Mainstream Support phase to the Extended Support phase back on April 14, 2009 after the release of SP3. During this phase, Microsoft will continue to provide paid support and security updates at no additional charge. However, the company plans to terminate (aka "retire") Windows XP on April 8, 2014. Currently memorial services for the popular, die-hard OS have not been confirmed.
For those still using Windows XP with SP2 installed, the best way to extend the life of the OS is to (gasp) update to SP3. This can be done via Internet Explorer's Windows Update utility. Then again, this would be a good time to ditch Windows XP altogether and grab a copy of Windows 7--an upgrade that is well worth it.
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Is this a big deal? Will lack of security updates become a security problem? I don't think it would be a problem for the near future. In our office we have 5 machines running WinXP and 4 running Win7. At home I have 2 on Vista and 2 on Win7.
The only thing I don't like about Windows 7 is all the back doors MS put in there for the CIA and NSA.
Is this a big deal? Will lack of security updates become a security problem? I don't think it would be a problem for the near future. In our office we have 5 machines running WinXP and 4 running Win7. At home I have 2 on Vista and 2 on Win7.
I can see it being a problem. Hackers know that XP is still very popular. And once security support ends, they also know that XP SP2 is vulnerable. Popularity + vulnerability = potential security disaster.
The only thing I don't like about Windows 7 is all the back doors MS put in there for the CIA and NSA.
Could you explain? I hadn't heard of that, and jumped on the Win7 bandwagon soon after it was released.
The only thing I don't like about Windows 7 is all the back doors MS put in there for the CIA and NSA.
Well don't do anything the CIA and NSA disapprove and you wont have any problems from them.
Really the tin foil hat isn't cool anymore, no one likes being spied on, but to expect that the everyday normal joe is being spied on is just being paranoid.
Stay on topic fellas!
hmmm, i wonder what i will be doing for my summer job with the school district. updating every computer with windows XP SP3.
I have one machine I keep winxp SP3 on for some weird compatibility issues. Not many. the rest, vista and Win 7.
For Poisoner: use True Crypt.
If Microsoft would end support for IE6 on that day too, maybe we could finally move on to actual web standards.
Microsoft is quickly moving to a place where they are no longer a monopoly. Why would they want to force people out of their product? Once you force them out of Win XP, you take the change that they will move to Windows 7, OS X or Ubuntu Linux. At my school, they already have triple-boot machines, and one of them is Windows XP. The Linux side can surf the web, open PDF, edit files, and print to the lab's printer. OSX I would not know because I am not a mac fun, but Office can be used on OSX.
I thought pushing people out of WinXP was a good strategy 4 years ago when Microsoft looked stronger and there was no alternative. But today, I think they could be accelerating the inevitable.
Its as if Sony decided to make the PS2 obsolete in hopes that the user-base will move to the PS3... it could work, but it could also backfire.
RIP
This is good news. There is no reason to be using Windows XP today.
The more people using a modern, secure OS, the better our world will be.
They still have time to extend the extension.
I have one machine I keep winxp SP3 on for some weird compatibility issues. Not many. the rest, vista and Win 7.For Poisoner: use True Crypt.
I don't do anything illegal. In fact I run Win7 on this laptop. Its the tower that keeps Windows XP.
wow...bunch of random comments?
hope this adds to them
If is not broken don't fixit and my XP SP2 is working fine thanks!, but anyway it reminds me that I was planning to go for for W7. But its being long with it and I feel a bit nervous to move, I have a lot of work right now and I know I want a clean install. MS wait for me body...
Lol
Time to go to a new slow Bloatware OS. and you have to upgrade your computer hardware so it can run this new bloatware at a slower speed.
Yea time to Downgrade to windows 7
XP SP2 and Windows 2000 - who cares, there old and dead
XP with Service Pack 3 - still supported? aka DO WINDOWS UPDATES and you wont have any issues for now? durrr
my boss still uses win 2000 on his pc. not that he wants it, but his pc is 4 years old and the company won't upgrade it.
Regardless of your position on XP vs Vista (giggles) vs 7, everyone can agree that XP is and always will be one of (if not the) best OS MS will ever produce. Someone should burn a boxed copy of XP on that day and scatter the ashes over the ocean to give it a proper sendoff.
If you still have XP without SP3, I do not think security issues are a worry to you. Generally my systems get one OS from the day they are built to the day they die. I have no issues with my Vista/XP(SP3)/or 7 systems.
Funny since there are new devices still being sold with XP on board because 7 will not fit properly. Linux can because it is modular as is UNIX it was based from.
You could run Win95 if you wanted.Hell, you could even go back to DOS.Anything over 8 megabytes of RAM is for rich assholes.With a new OS, higher requirements are expected, so deal with it. The fact that Win7 runs smoother and yet is more functional than Vista is because Microsoft is awesome. I only gave my fathers laptop Win7 over the copy of Vista is because the OEM package is cheap.
You must be drunk on MS koolaid you MS troll.
Windows XP SP3 now requires hardware that Windows 7 can run on in order to be viable. Our programs these days take up more RAM than they did 10 years ago, and after the OS updates, it requires more itself. My mom got an old laptop from my brother, which has 256 MB of RAM in it. I did a clean install of the OEM XP SP2 disk. That was all well and good. Than I ran Windows Update, got SP3, and installed all the drivers for it. The thing is paging like crazy! I plan on upgrading the RAM to the maximum (2 GB) soon.
I did this with my mom's desktop computer (from 2004) as well. She used to be running 256 MB of RAM on that too, but the same thing occurred. Now it's humming along just fine at 1 GB. I could probably put Windows 7 on it but I won't because it's not worth it to her, and she doesn't want to have to relearn. But that's ok because she'll probably get a new computer to replace it soon enough, anyway.
Microsoft is quickly moving to a place where they are no longer a monopoly. Why would they want to force people out of their product? Once you force them out of Win XP, you take the change that they will move to Windows 7, OS X or Ubuntu Linux. At my school, they already have triple-boot machines, and one of them is Windows XP. The Linux side can surf the web, open PDF, edit files, and print to the lab's printer. OSX I would not know because I am not a mac fun, but Office can be used on OSX. I thought pushing people out of WinXP was a good strategy 4 years ago when Microsoft looked stronger and there was no alternative. But today, I think they could be accelerating the inevitable. Its as if Sony decided to make the PS2 obsolete in hopes that the user-base will move to the PS3... it could work, but it could also backfire.
I don't think I've ever seen anyone berate a company for normal practices regarding their product life cycles. XP was bound to be discontinued. It happened to all other Windows versions before it. To continue to hold on to it just proves that you are being a curmudgeon and don't want to move on to that new fangled fancy wiz-bang technology, no?
These kind of responses baffle me. By the time Windows 98 lost support, I was well on my way to embrace Windows XP. Now that XP is losing support, I'm all the way a Windows 7 user. It's head and heels over XP, which, while I still have it installed at home, I only use because there's something wrong with Windows 7's pass through of line in audio. But that need is going to be going away within a couple months, anyway. I hate having to use Windows XP, really. I'm going to be asking for Windows 7 at work at some point (they've got an image and have been deploying it on new computers for a while now, yay).
ow is a good time to ditch the old-school OS for a spiffier UBUNTU 10.04.
It's not like everyone have the option to upgrade.
I have a Wibrain B1H and there are drivers for Ubuntu 7.10/8.04 and Windows XP.
It just can't run any Windows OS but XP.
There's no hope for new drivers either, because Wibrain went down last year in the economic crisis.
It's an amazing device despite it's specs and I'll use it till it breaks, XP or not it's your choice MS.
WinXP SP2 support may be dropped...
http://support.microsoft.com/lifec [...] 12&C2=1173
Process of elimination leaves SP3 supported until 2014.
If you have old hardware I see NO reason to upgrade. Leave your XP install, make sure everything is up to date and just look forward to Win7 on your NEXT computer.
Well don't do anything the CIA and NSA disapprove and you wont have any problems from them. Really the tin foil hat isn't cool anymore, no one likes being spied on, but to expect that the everyday normal joe is being spied on is just being paranoid.
Ignorance is bliss!! World history is replete with lessons learned (too late) by citizenry who trusted their governments implisitly as you suggest we should. Do a little reading.
Just upgrade to SP3 already and stop complaining. Wasn't SP3 the one that forces you to validate your OS? Maybe everyone complaining is just using pirated versions.