Should you move on from Windows XP?

On 8^th April 2014, Microsoft announced on its website – After April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or technical support for Windows XP.

Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001 and this became one of the most widely used operating systems in the world.

It garnered positive reviews and was favoured for its ease of use,  its advanced graphical interface and longevity.

Being more than 15 years old, Windows XP has served both the consumer and businesses long enough and Microsoft announced that it was no longer going to provide support and updates for XP.

Microsoft has started to recommend its customers the Windows 7, 8 and the new Windows 10 in order to stay protected and up-to-date with the new technology.

However, despite the culmination of Windows XP support, it is estimated that at least 27% of the world’s population still use it. As support has ended for XP, this poses many different problems for XP users and it is now becoming vital that users move to a more current operating system.

Here are a five reasons why you should move on from XP.

1. It carries a massive security risk. Possibly one of the most detrimental reasons, XP no longer has any updates, making hackers more susceptible to exploiting bugs and accessing your computer so they can steal your valuable information.
2. You won’t be able to buy Windows XP anymore. If you buy a new PC, it will have Windows 7, 8 or 10 installed. As well as having an issue in consistency in hardware, any problem you encounter on XP will be very difficult to solve because there will not be any information about it. However, on Windows 7, 8 or 10, it will be easier to solve problems as there is an excessive amount of information available.
3. New features and programs are no longer compatible with XP. Internet Explorer 8 is the only compatible browser version for XP and to load the latest websites using HTML5, you have to go through the expense of installing a third-party software to view them. As technology becomes more advanced, you will have trouble using new programs because most developers don’t cater for XP anymore.
4. Windows XP is not energy efficient. Existing PCs that run XP are really old and so are very vulnerable to breaking down because of overheating. They are also more likely to incur slow boot times and blue screen of deaths than most current PCs because they cannot run many programs at once. Most recent PCs come with Windows 7, 8 or 10 installed and you cannot downgrade to XP.

5. Windows XP limits your business. By using XP, you are using an operating system that is more than a decade old, has a vendor that doesn’t support it anymore, performs extremely poorly in comparison to other operating systems and has an interface that is completely outdated. With more problems occurring in XP, your business will spend more time and money fixing those issues than upgrading to a much more reliable, recent and cost-efficient operating system.

This expert piece was provided by Comms Byte, Stockport