Microsoft will end support for its 11-year-old Windows XP in 2014

Dec 17, 2012 22:01 GMT  ·  By

With Windows 8 already on the market, Microsoft will officially stop providing patches and fixes for Windows XP in April, 2014, so the company is now struggling to convince users to switch to a newer OS version.

Windows XP’s end will mark the D-Day of the modern IT era, Sam Kingston, a former CIO and now UK head at service provider T-Systems, told ComputerWeekly.com.

“This D-day of the modern IT era has always felt far enough away, to some, to be brushed aside. When supporting vendors start to announce end dates for their XP based products, the realisation that the date is fast approaching will hit these companies, and a wave of migration projects will be kicked off in a bid to at least move the underlying OS forwards onto the next supported platform,” he said.

What’s more, he believes that most users will actually choose Windows 7, as Windows 8 is still a new operating system, while Windows Vista is clearly the last option for everybody in the industry.