Final days for Windows XP

Microsoft Windows XP has reached end-of-sale. However, according to Windows business group lead Colin Erasmus, the product has not reached end-of-life.

"As of 30 June, we are no longer selling the product through the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and through the volume licence process. We will still provide critical support until the end of April 2014."

He says the mainstream support will end around two months before that.

However, users still wanting to use Windows XP will have the opportunity to downgrade existing Windows Vista licences. "Customers who have bought licences for Windows Vista Ultimate, Enterprise and Business can override with XP legally."

The life expectancy of XP has been extended for what Microsoft calls nettop and netbook devices. These are low-cost PCs and notebooks, which Erasmus says will be available with XP until 2010. "These machines will need to have very specific specifications."

Since its release in January 2007, Windows Vista has been met with reluctance and compatibility complaints. However, Erasmus says XP was greeted similarly at its launch. "Most of the problems users experienced with Vista have been tackled in service pack one (SP1)."

He says customers' complaints focused on driver and device compatibility, which Microsoft has improved in SP1. "Vista is now compatible with 77 000 devices, which is more than XP supported," he adds.

The company says there are still application compatibility issues, and several OEMs are selling Vista on hardware that is not compatible.

Microsoft is adamant that shipments of Windows Vista increased after the release of SP1. "We can't give you localised figures, since all our information is global. However, 80% to 90% of all machines being sold to OEMs now are being shipped with Vista," notes Erasmus.

Microsoft traditionally releases a new operating system three years after the last release. According to Erasmus, the company's next release, Windows 7, is still on track to meet the release date of 2010.

He says Windows 7 will not be largely different to Vista. "We are building the operating system on the Vista kernel."

The operating system is in the feature discovery stage and is using an opt-in function in Vista to assess which features users are most comfortable with.

"One feature that has been confirmed is that Windows 7 will support the multi-touch environment," he notes. Multi-touch is the technology used for the company's Surface device.

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