Last week Microsoft ended their support for Windows XP.
That means an end to all of the automatic monthly (or more frequent) updates that Microsoft issues to fix the holes that hackers find in this 12 year old operating system.
Web browsing using ie8 risks
It also means that bug fixes to vulnerabilities found in Internet Explorer 8, the XP Microsoft Web browsing software, will also not be issued, as Microsoft says “you might be exposing your PC to additional threats”, if you still surf the Internet using it.
It’s generally thought that creators of Malware – the nefarious software that is designed to attack and take control of your computer – will target Windows XP machines as they’ll be seen as easy targets.
This week’s end of support was officially announced by Microsoft five years ago.
Isle of Wight council
OnTheWight got in touch with Isle of Wight council to find out how their upgrade of computers away from Windows XP was going.
Of the 1,655 computers the council has, there are still 900 of them that are running Windows XP.
When asked what plans the council had in place to upgrade, they replied,
There is an on-going plan to do this, which has been running for some time. At the end of the plan all users will be migrated to Windows 7 / Office 2010.
The council told OnTheWight they hope to have the conversion across the council, away from XP, completed by 1st August 2014.
Are you also running XP?
This site – Am I Running XP – will tell you if you are running Windows XP.
If you are still on XP, it’s a very good idea to change the Web browsing software you are using to some that will continue to be updated such as Firefox or Google’s Chrome.
Microsoft plan to stop support for all of their operating systems at one time or another. Details of when they plan to stop support for their other operating systems can be found here.
