Windows XP Support Ends in a Year, So What Are You Gonna Do About It?

I thought the only companies still running Windows XP on PCs were small law firms and dental and optometry offices. But you’d be surprised how many businesses of all sizes are still running the 12-year-old operating system.

According to market share tracker, Net Applications, Windows XP still owns 39 percent of operating system market share. And a recent survey of 250 CIOs, CTOs, IT directors and IT managers in the UK revealed that only 42 percent of companies have started the migrating off Windows XP to Windows 7 or Windows 8 or both. At the same time, 82 percent of these survey respondents said they are aware of Microsoft’s plans to shut down support for Windows XP a year from today on April 8, 2014.

After 12 years Windows XP is way more prevalent than Microsoft wants it to be, and with many companies still dragging their feet, the company is issuing frequent reminders to upgrade ASAP.

To mark the “one year left” countdown, Microsoft published a blog post today with warnings about the end of XP support and advice on how to migrate.

The warnings and advice are probably nothing you haven’t heard before – XP was not build for today’s devices and security threats, Windows 7 and Windows 8 are faster and more secure – but it serves as an important reminder that migrating off Windows XP takes longer than many IT pros think and staying on XP can put a business at risk.

Read the Windows for your Business blog post for more details on migrating from XP to WIndows 7 or Windows 8.

To provide even more incentive, Microsoft also announced an offer for small and medium-sized businesses currently running Windows XP Professional to get a 15 percent discount when they buy Windows 8 Pro and Office Standard 2013 together.

Eligible customers must be running XP Professional. Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 Standard licenses must be purchased as a package through Microsoft’s Open License program, and 100 licenses are the limit for each customer. The deal is available now through June 30.