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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


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