Microsoft ends support of Windows XP, Office 2003 in 2014

YEREVAN, April 11. /ARKA/.  By April 8 next year, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, hot-fixes and free or paid support for its well-loved operating system Windows XP and productivity suite Office 2003.

“If your organization has not started to migrate to a modern desktop, you are late,” wrote Stephen Rose, senior product manager for Windows Commercial in a blog post, as quoted by ITWorldCanada. “Based on historical deployment data, the average enterprise deployment can take 18 to 32 months from business case through full deployment,”

By modern desktop, Rose means operating systems such as Windows 7 and Windows 8, later versions of Office such as 2010 and 2013 and browsers such as Internet Explorer 8, 9, and 10
He said in order to ensure organizations continue to operate supported versions of Windows and Office, companies should begin planning and application testing immediately.

A simple upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8 is not enough either, according to Rose. He said administrators or users need to make a clean install.

“This means you will need to migrate the users’ data and reinstall or repackage all their applications for the new OS,” Rose said. “This will take some time to test all of the hardware, peripherals and applications to ensure they will work with Windows 7 or Windows 8.”

Because end of support means that there will be no new security updates, no non-security hotfixes and free or paid support for Windows XP, organizations that insist on using the OS after April 8 next year are exposed to security and compliance risk, said Rose. –0--