Windows XP Users 'Sleep Walking' into Minefield
With about a week to go until Microsoft kicks Windows XP off of extended support, one of the major OS share tracking firms says users are "sleep walking" toward the April 8 deadline and its associated security problems.
"Despite the stark warnings and publicity surrounding the end of support in six days' time, it appears that significant numbers of people are still using XP and sleep walking into a potential minefield of security and virus risks," said Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter, in a statement Wednesday.
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Source: StatCounter
According to StatCounter, Windows XP is still being used on the Internet by 18.6 percent of computers as of the end of March. That puts it second behind Windows 7 (54.7 percent) and ahead of Mac OS X (8.6 percent).
The situation is only slightly better in the United States, where Windows XP is in third place at 15 percent share, and the U.K., where it's also in third place with 8.4 percent share.
Source: NetApplications.com
Another share tracking outfit, NetApplications.com, finally showed some movement away from Windows XP throughout March. After a three-month plateau in which Windows XP lingered at around 29 percent share worldwide, the OS shed about a point-and-a-half of share to end March at 27.69 percent.
Windows 7, rather than Windows 8/8.1 or Mac OS, appeared to be the beneficiary of the Windows XP drop, according to the NetApplications.com data.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on April 02, 2014