Still Rocking Windows XP? Start Planning an Upgrade
Educating end users to help prevent most problems.
ll things eventually come to an end, and for Windows XP and its legion of holdouts, the end is nigh. It’s a dead OS walking and the governors at Microsoft aren’t going to pick up the phone at the last moment and give it yet another stay of execution. Microsoft general manager for Windows Commercial marketing, Rich Reynolds, confirmed as much in an interview with InformationWeek.
He said flat out “there’s absolutely no chance” of Microsoft extending support for Windows XP beyond its end-of-life date in April, 2014. That still seems a long ways off, especially for an OS that officially turned 10 years old today, but if businesses don’t get on the ball soon, Reynolds fears they’ll find themselves scrambling around at the last minute.
“What we’re concerned about is organizations that haven’t started yet,” Reynolds said. “It takes anywhere from 12 to 14 months to do the planning and application remediation.”
According to Reynolds, only about a quarter of enterprise systems are locked and loaded with Windows 7, however the vast majority have a plan to upgrade.
Are you still using Windows XP?