Microsoft Starts Two-Year XP Retirement Countdown Clock

Microsoft reminded its 100 million Windows XP users on Monday to upgrade their PCs to Windows 7 and Office 2010, as XP begins its two-year countdown to the end of support.

"If you still have some PCs running Windows XP and Office 2003, now would be a good time to start migrating them to Windows 7 and Office 2010," said Stella Chernyak, a marketing director in Microsoft's Windows group, in a blog post. "Windows XP and Office 2003 were great software releases in their time, but the technology environment has shifted. Technology continues to evolve and so do people's needs and expectations."

Businesses that passed on Windows Vista and Windows 7 might be tempted to simply wait another year and upgrade to Microsoft's newest OS, Windows 8, which is expected sometime this fall. But Chernyak advised against that approach.

"We don't recommend waiting," she said. "Not only is it important for companies to complete deployment before support runs out, but they should also be aware that by upgrading to Windows 7 and Office 2010 today they can gain substantial results today while laying the foundation for future versions of these products."

Despite the fact that it hit the market back in 2001, Windows XP remains the most popular desktop operating system in use today. Including both consumer and business environments, XP's share of the desktop market stands at just under 47%, compared to about 37.5% for Windows 7 and 7.7% for Vista, according to the most recent data from Net Applications.

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