14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has confirmed in a post that Security Essentials will still work on Windows XP until July 2015, but it turn out that the company is still trying to make sure that users will slowly jump ship and move to another operating system.
As ZDNet spotted on the Windows XP end of support page, Microsoft makes a pretty interesting mention which reveals that no new Security Essentials installations are allowed after Windows XP officially goes dark.
“Now the time has come for us, along with our hardware and software partners, to invest our resources toward supporting more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences. As a result, after April 8, 2014, technical assistance for Windows XP will no longer be available, including automatic updates that help protect your PC. Microsoft will also stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP on this date,” the message reads.
This means that while you’ll continue to get virus definition updates for Security Essentials on Windows XP, you won’t be allowed to install it on new computers unless you have the setup file that still supports this particular OS version.