END OF AN ERA

Microsoft to Kill Windows XP

Will not extend support beyond April 2014.

Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said that the company will end support for Windows XP, the operating system used by a vast majority of American offices, in April 2014. Microsoft usually ends support for operating systems after 10 years; Windows XP debuted in 2001, but the company decided to extend support through 2014, because many of its business customers had not upgraded to newer operating systems. Turner said, “We are end-of-lifing XP and Office 2003 and everything prior, in April 2014. So for all those companies that have the old products that haven’t quite started the refresh, guess what? This has been a great product, XP has been a wonderful product; great TCO has been given. It’s now time for it to go.”