The End of Windows XP Grows Near

It may be cool to hang on to "classic" things but not in the tech world.  Microsoft has finally realized that and has given a date to end support for Windows XP officially by 2014.Windows XP has been a computing work horse. This is especially true if you are old enough to remember the crash-friendly DOS-based Windows 95, 98, ME Operating Systems. Windows XP was also given a new lease on life with the release of Windows Vista. Because many computer users stuck with XP, even after Vista was released it forced Microsoft to support XP much longer then the wanted to, as well as many third party developers.

All of this is about to change on April 8, 2014.  Windows XP is on Microsoft’s "end of life" cycle list. Don't panic because this does not mean that Windows XP will just stop working. It does however mean that Microsoft will no longer support it with security patches and updates. Microsoft has said this many times before, but this time I believe that they really mean it.

With all due respect and love for Windows XP, here’s why you should just finally retire. You are old, 13 years too old, a dinosaur in this technology age. You are missing key security features introduced way back in Windows Vista. You can’t take advantage of the latest, safest, and most compatible versions of Internet Explorer. You cannot take advantage of the new hardware advances, case in point, multi-core processors and UI scaling/text don’t work that well on Widescreen LCD’s. It takes a lot of time and resources to build and maintain you for Microsoft and third party developers. Windows 8 and 7 are more self-aware, which means that they can actually troubleshoot simple issues on their own. Yes, you were real our first truly user-friendly operating system but that was 13 years ago.

So - if you are still using a Windows XP computer you should really start thinking about upgrading. Computers and laptops are cheaper and more efficient then ever before and besides Microsoft really - really wants you too!