Microsoft will pull the plug on support for both Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2000 on the 13th of July, with businesses urged to upgrade to avoid potential support problems after this date.
Microsoft Windows XP, which launched October 25, 2001 still runs on 56.1 percent of computers as of April this year. Microsoft is however retiring support for the Windows XP Service Pack 2 as of the 13th of July and will only continue to support those who have upgraded to Service Pack 3 (SP3), which is available as a free download from the Microsoft Update website. Windows XP SP3 users will continue to receive support through to April 2014.
In addition to retiring support for Windows XP SP2, Microsoftwill discontinue the extended support being given to Windows Server 2000 on July 13, 2010. Windows Server 2000 (and the entire Windows 2000 family) will no longer be publicly supported after this date, however Self-Help Online Support will be available for a minimum of 12 months for Windows 2000 after the Extended Support phase ends.
Microsoft’s blog post on the retirement of support for Windows XP SP2 also suggests users should consider upgrading to Windows 7. While Windows 7 is a significant improvement in many areas, Windows XP SP3 will continue to receive support for some time, and business users still have some time to evaluate their migration paths before SP3 support ends in 2014.