The battle against Windows XP

From this Tuesday, PCs running the decade-old Windows XP operating system will no longer receive security patches and other updates from Microsoft.

As with all operating systems that have been retired, users who continue to rely on Windows XP will be open to malware and hackers.

That’s because every new security loophole found and patched in Windows 7 and Windows 8 can potentially be reverse-engineered for Windows XP, which means hackers can wait until they have an opportunity to strike.

The problem is more serious that some may think. According to Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report, Windows XP with Service Pack 3 is 5.68 times more vulnerable than Windows 8, with 82.4 percent higher malware infection rate.

Microsoft typically supports each version of the Windows OS for less than ten years before moving its resources to newer products.

Windows XP, however, has been on the lifeline for more than 12 years, the longest of any version of Windows. Support was scheduled to be terminated in 2009, but was subsequently extended to 2014 due to popular demand.

Since then, Microsoft has been trying to convince users to migrate from Windows XP. In Singapore, the effort concentrated mainly on enterprise users, as tech-savvy consumers tend to use the latest platforms available.

As a result of these efforts, Windows XP share in Singapore has seen a 4.76 per cent decline from 12.12 percent a year ago to just 7.36 per cent as of February 2014, based on figures from StatCounter.

But Singapore is the least of Microsoft’s worries. Windows XP in emerging countries in the region still command market share well into the double digits. In Vietnam, for instance, 46 per cent of PCs are still running on Windows XP.

Clearly, Microsoft’s battle won’t end so soon. Even after the support switch to Windows XP is flipped, the company will still face an uphill fight to keep converting users to newer versions of Windows, or risk leaving millions of users stranded and vulnerable.

To make it easier for users to switch to newer systems, Microsoft has partnered with Laplink to provide an application called PCmover Express, which copies files and settings over from a Windows XP PC to a newer Windows version, for free.

Business users can find out more about the risks they may face, and how they can migrate their operations to newer platforms on the Retiring Windows XP site.

While your Windows XP machine will not stop working, the security threats facing Windows XP are real.

Tim Rains, Microsoft’s director of trustworthy computing, noted in a blog post that since security updates will never become available for Windows XP to address the same loopholes that plague Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines, Windows XP will essentially have a “zero day” vulnerability forever.

If you’re reading this on a Windows XP PC, we’d like to hear why, so sound off in the comments below!