Windows XP SP2 users face end of support

June 15, 2010 -- Although Microsoft has announced that support is ending for Windows XP SP2 users on July 13, what does this mean?

Windows XP was originally released in October 2001. Subsequently there have been three major Service Pack updates released. Windows XP SP1 was released in September 2002, followed by SP2 in 2004, and finally SP3 in April 2008. During this time, Internet Explorer has moved from version 6 through 7 and 8. On a regular monthly basis, Microsoft has continued to release minor patches and security fixes for Windows XP and Internet Explorer.

While Microsoft released Windows Vista in November 2006 to busineses and to consumers in January 2007, the uptake to this new Windows version was unremarkable. It has only been with the latest offering of Windows 7 last October, that there has been a dramatic increase in installations of Windows 7 and some decline in Windows XP. Some of this can naturally be explained as older systems running XP are replaced with new systems which come pre-installed with Windows 7. For many businesses, and consumers with no pressing needs, the effort and cost to upgrade has been a barrier to instant widespread adoption of Windows 7.

So back to the issue of ending support for Windows XP SP2 ...

If you are still using one or more computers with only Windows XP Service Pack 2 installed, you should be immediately planning to install Service Pack 3 (SP3). If you fail to do this, you will no longer receive regular security updates for Windows XP, but equally as serious, you will no longer receive security updates for Internet Explorer. Users running Windows XP SP2 will receive no IE6, IE7, or IE8 patches after July 13. Whether you are a home or business computer user, this is not a wise situation to be in, considering the number of security issues uncovered on a regular basis.

The easy way to check if you have SP3 installed, is to right-click on My Computer, and select Properties. In the General tab, near the top it will show Microsoft Windows XP, followed by Service Pack 3. If this is the case, then you need to do nothing else.

Installing SP3 is usually something that you can do yourself through running Windows Updates. However there are situations in which Windows Updates may not be working for you, or SP3 will not install. Some viruses will block, or may have damaged your installation of XP, and you will need to get outside technical assistance for this.

You can also download SP3 directly from Microsoft. As this update is 316MBs, it may take some time to download depending on your internet connection speed, and installation can take 60-90 minutes if all goes well. The stand-alone version of the update can be used to update muliple computers. After installing SP3, you should run Windows Update again to pick up additional updates.

If by chance you are still running Internet Explorer 6 or 7, I recommend also upgrading to Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). This latest version was released in March 2009 and provides security benefits over earlier versions. IE8 is also the version installed with Windows 7 but also runs on Windows Vista.

Microsoft's current plan is to continue support for Windows XP SP3 until April 2014. In general you won't be able to purchase a new computer with Windows XP pre-installed after this coming October. The satisfaction level with Windows 7 has been very high. Businesses should be planning to migrate from Windows XP and Vista to the new Windows 7. Consumers can expect their next computer purchase to come pre-installed with Windows 7.

--MLJ