Windows XP Life Span

Because so many people have no desire to upgrade to the Windows Vista operating system, it begs the question...how long can you keep Windows XP before it stops being supported? Others who bought Vista-equipped computers, but don't like it, want to know if they can down step to XP. There is a lot of misinformation about the expected life of XP, so let's see if I can help give you the straight dope so you can figure out your game plan for your operating system.

First of all, most computer techies agree on one thing, if your current computer has Windows XP installed, do not upgrade to Vista. A great majority of problems with Vista comes when people try to upgrade to it from older machines. Even newer machines running XP should not try to upgrade. The only way to go to Vista is to buy a brand new computer equipped with it. As for buying a new machine equipped with XP, Microsoft is going to stop selling XP after June 30, so you will have no choice after that date when buying a new computer. If you have Vista and want to downgrade to XP, that June 30 date applies to you also. Software dealers will no longer be able to purchase copies of XP after June 30, although I suspect many will have XP on hand long after that date.

As for support and upgrades for current XP users, Microsoft plans to offer free patches for vulnerabilities it classifies as security critical for Windows XP at least until 2014. Their is one caveat...this only applies where the latest Service Pack is installed. This, of course, is the brand new SP3, which is almost certainly the last Service Pack that Microsoft will offer for XP.

According to the original schedule, Microsoft was to have continued supporting SP2 for a further 12 months following the release of SP3, meaning May of 2009. However due to large volumes of enquiries from customers and some problems with SP3, Microsoft has now extended this period to 24 months. So, if you need support from Microsoft for your XP SP2 computer, you have until May 2010. The change means that XP users have gained an extra year to update to SP3. For the most part, SP3 does not offer any real benefits...it is mostly a compilation of all the security patches they have been issuing since the release of SP2....and if you have your computer set to automatic updates, you already have all these. SP3 does not offer any fundamentally new functionality, but you should install it eventually just so you can have support until 2014. As reported previously, there are many reports of problems with SP3 such as infinite restart loops. The causes of these problems are not yet known, but Microsoft is working on a fix right now. So, you may want to hold off any SP3 update until these problems are solved. You have plenty of time.

As for Vista, Microsoft has not yet revised its planned support end dates for it. Now here is something bizarre...Vista Ultimate continues to be classed as a product for home use, so that it will not be eligible for extended support. The result is that, as things stand, Microsoft will provide patches for Windows XP Home for longer than for Vista Ultimate. Go figure.

My personal game plan, unless the computer gods intervene, is not to buy another computer until the release of the new Windows 7, which may go into beta testing next year. Vista will be a short-lived product, which might be Microsoft's way of admitting that Vista is a bit of a failure. I am also thinking of a dual booting system running both Windows and a Linux system, such a Ubuntu and try and do as much computing as possible with Linux. It is definitely far more secure than Windows, or even the MAC system.

The bottom line for us XP users is that our operating system should be good for some time to come. The only other monkey wrench that might cause XP to become obsolete would be if software makers started producing software that only runs on Vista. But, with the huge installed base of XP computers, I don't see that happening.