Barney's Blog

Blog archive

XP End of Life Means Trouble

Microsoft is in the process of winding down support for Windows XP SP2 and after tomorrow will apparently stop releasing patches. If Vista wasn't such a dud, I'd have no problem with this, but given the choice between Vista and XP, the wise chose is the latter. That means millions of corporate customers will remain on XP.

The news is not all bad. If you are on XP SP2, all you need to do is upgrade to SP3 and you'll have all the patches you can handle.

One problem with Microsoft's plan is that plenty of folks will stay with SP2 -- which is now more vulnerable to attack. Some estimates put SP2 at 45 percent of all current XP installs. That's a lot of targets!

Here's one indication that XP isn't going anywhere: A big chunk of new netbooks come with XP, not Windows 7 (and clearly not Vista).

How long should Microsoft support XP, and is it fair for Redmond to force an upgrade to SP3? You tell me at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on July 12, 2010


Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.

Most   Popular