Reminder: Microsoft support for Windows XP will soon stop!

A friendly reminder to all those using Windows XP is that official support for the ageing operating system will stop after April 8^th 2014.

The warning comes after an update from Microsoft telling its users that despite software support ceasing on this date, it will now continue to provide support for the inbuilt XP security antivirus tools until July 2015, despite the deadline date for that originally being this April as well.

The decision purportedly comes in light of a substantial amount of desktop computers still running Windows XP.

But it is important that XP users realise that despite this extended antivirus support, they are still at risk from a variety of scams that will try and take advantage of the operating system.

 

 

Windows XP Support will stop in April 2014

 

Amongst the support that will stop in April is security patches. Security patches are released to "stitch up" security vulnerabilities or exploits found in the software itself – in this case the operating system XP itself. Without such patches being released, XP users are still at risk from these potential vulnerabilities, and the antivirus software may not be sufficient to protect the user.

So whilst the XP security software will be updated to allow it to detect recent malware threats all the way into 2015, for many users it may not be enough, especially considering that security patches released to cover exploits for Windows Vista, 7 & 8 could be reversed engineering by scammers who could use that exploit against the unprotected XP, providing the exploit is present in XP too.

One of the fundamental ways of keeping protected from threats like exploits and malware is to keep all the software you use up-to-date. Since this will soon be impossible to do with Windows XP, the only advice is to upgrade your operating system and give XP the boot!

For most people this will mean going to the computer shop and purchasing a new computer which will likely come shipped with the latest version of Windows, but you can also buy upgrade CDs for Windows that will upgrade your operating system on your existing computer.

Helpful Tip: If your hardware can’t support more recent versions of Windows, remember there are plenty of operating systems out there that are lightweight that require lower hardware specifications, such as various adaptations of Linux!