09/04/2014
After 13 years Windows XP is now discontinued. Microsoft is issued the latest security updates for this OS. What does it mean for millions of people and businesses still using it?
On October 25, 2001 Microsoft launched its newest operating system solution: Windows XP. In just three days, Microsoft sold over 300,000 boxed XPs: the new OS featured a number of tasty features, including a revamped GUI, integrated CD burning software, ClearType font smoothing to work with LCD displays, Picture and fax viewer, fast user switching and a number of other advantages. Meanwhile, the revolutionary changes were done under the hood of the new OS: the core of XP was based on the more stable and safe enterprise-grade NT architecture rather than Windows 95/98. This mixture of stable core and improved feature-packed UI was to become Microsoft’s most popular OS for a decade to come. Microsoft had prolonged the support of XP to 12 years instead of the typical 10 years and launched three major Service Packs to significantly improve and update the OS. But all good things must come to an end, and for XP, it is today, April 8, 2014.
