The longest-lived Microsoft operating system – Windows XP – has quite surprisingly received some fresh air with Microsoft announcing it will keep on providing updates to Microsoft security products intended to run under Windows XP. Previously the US software giant planned to end all Windows XP support on April 8, 2014.
Do not get too excited though – the updates will be just for Microsoft Security Essentials and for enterprise customers the same goes for System Center Endpoint Protection, Forefront Client Security, Forefront Endpoint Protection and Windows Intune running on Windows XP. Support for these products and hence for Windows XP will last until July 14, 2015. The still widely used OS will no longer get updates starting on April 8, 2014.
The partial Windows XP support will give some security to people still using this operating system and especially the apps listed above but will by no means provide overall security as security holes and hacker exploits discovered after April 8 will not be patched. This is the reason why Microsoft urges Windows XP users to upgrade to a newer OS. Given all the new software that comes out all the time you may have to – sooner than you may think.
Good bye, Windows XP!
Source: Microsoft