Microsoft’s successful and still popular Windows XP is now well over a decade old. While about 40% of Windows users worldwide still rely on XP, an operating system as aged as XP can’t be supported forever, and thus, its discontinuation date emerges. As of April 8th, 2014 there will be no new security updates and patches.
This effectively means that XP will be left to slowly become unsecured, unreliable and incompatible with new hardware, but you don’t have to abandon ship immediately.
The end-of-support announcement has put some users into a panic, as it sounds threatening if you don’t investigate into the details. We’ve encountered users who think that XP will simply stop working, users think thought they’ll be “forced” to upgrade, and users who believe troubleshooting XP will be virtually impossible after April 8. That is not true. Your machine will run same as before but you shouldn’t plan to stick with Windows XP forever though. Eventually, you’ll need to upgrade or replace hardware with newer equipment which doesn’t support XP, or you’ll fall victim to a security flaw Microsoft never patched. But you don’t have to jump to Windows 8 immediately. With some planning and perseverance, you can likely squeeze another year or two out of your existing setup. If you like the layout of Windows XP and you are not too fond of the Windows 8, then switch now to windows 7 while it is still available. Soon you will have no other option but to go with Windows 8 which is quite different from XP and requires a bit of learning and getting used to the new touch design.