Microsoft Corp. will officially end support for the Windows XP operating system on April 8th, 2014, and the vendor has released the infographic below with its top eight reasons for upgrading to Windows 8.
The vendor is launching a major push between now and then to encourage customers still hanging onto XP to upgrade, and to help partners make that happen. It was a key topic at Microsoft’s recent Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, where the vendor told partners the existing XP install base is a potential “gold mine” for the channel.
According to Microsoft, about 48 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses globally are still on XP. In Canada, the figure is a little lower, at about 30 per cent of the overall install base. The push to upgrade isn’t just financial – security updates and patches will no longer be coming from Microsoft after end of support, leaving holdouts more vulnerable to security exploits.
While the push is to go to Windows 8, channel partners say many clients are deciding to exercise their downgrade rights and go with Windows 7, a more familiar OS that should be supported for many years to come.
